SanDisk Sansa Clip+ gets torn down, presumably built back up again

No need to twist our arm to get a confession: we absolutely enjoy seeing ultra-complex hardware getting dissected bit by bit. But sometimes -- particularly on cold and unwelcoming mornings with no coffee in the cupboard -- we prefer to keep things simple by just cracking open a shockingly rudimentary MP3 player. The spartan Sansa Clip+, which you may know as the Sansa Clip plus a microSD slot, turned out to be a doddle to undress, and its insides were about as uncomplicated as they come. Two SanDisk chips dominate the miniature motherboard, and the fabled marathon-running battery also makes an appearance. If you're not 1) disgusted or 2) confounded by the details we just discussed, you owe it to yourself to check out all the bare naked circuitry in the read link.

[Thanks, Yuki]

[dcnoren Posted Sep 3rd 2009 10:37AM]

I'll read it later when I want to go to bed. Surely its simplicity will put me to sleep.

[Willen Posted Sep 3rd 2009 10:42AM]

Don't. You'll have nightmares of poor defenseless MP3 players getting eviscerated.

It's bad enough seeing iPod Shuffles disemboweled, but they don't have screens. This...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 3rd 2009 11:48AM]

Would somebody PLEASE think of the children?

[One Love Posted Sep 3rd 2009 11:04AM]

No coffee in the cupboard? You barbarian!

[Marbles Posted Sep 3rd 2009 12:53PM]

Probably still more computing power than what was used for the moon landing.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 3rd 2009 1:28PM]

Nowadays paperclips have more computing power....

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 3rd 2009 1:31PM]

i would have bought 4 of these by now if the little tikes supported AAC.

[Mikerman Posted Sep 3rd 2009 2:25PM]

"The spartan Sansa Clip+ ..."

Can Engadget even TRY not to be snarky over non-Apple digital audio players? There's nothing "spartan" about this player. High quality sound, both ID3 tag and folder navigation, fm radio, recorder, near gapless play ...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:05AM]

Don't you know??? If it doesn't support Itunes then it's Spartan!

I personally really liked the 1st generation clip - 4gb I paid $35 for at Bestbuy site.

This version corrects everything I could think was wrong with the old one! I wanted an expandable memory slot (even though I never filled the 4gb one) I only put the exercise music on it so there really isn't that much needed. I only listen to it for 20-45 minutes at a time.

Also the Clip part now connected looks much better. and lastly the build quality. The old one was decent but this looks very very nice and polished!

[MarkAnderson Posted Sep 3rd 2009 3:16PM]

Shockingly rudimentary? But it has buttons!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 4th 2009 5:53AM]

If the Sandisk Sansa Clip+ is "shockingly rudimentary", then what is any iPod? I'd like to see an iPod with expandable storage.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 5th 2009 3:43AM]

Sure, a screen-less, button-less, slot-less, double-over-priced iPod is better...... NOT.