14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Sansa Fuze: Another Nice Media Player from Sandisk
Date of Review: May 2, 2009
The Bottom Line: This is yet another great media player from Sandisk, emphasizing small size, usability, file support and many options.
The Sansa Fuze by Sandisk is yet another iteration of the successful Sandisk multimedia player formula: extreme usability & memory expansion capability. In addition Sansa is taking the lead with iRiver and Cowon to support the FLAC (free lossless audio codec) format which allows the player to go really high fidelity. This petite media player will play music, videos, audio books, digital pictures, FM radio, and voice recordings that you make.
Included
Sansa Fuze 8 GB player with 2" screen (measured diagonally)
Small cloth bag with drawstring
Ear buds
USB cable
Quick setup guide
Aesthetics
The 8 GB player is an attractive silver color and it's made of a durable plastic. The weight of the small player is substantial which feels good in the hand. The control wheel is just below the screen and is surrounded by a cool blue glow which is characteristic of Sandisk players.
Ports
The standard headphone jack is on the bottom of the player to the far right. Just to the left of the headphone jack is the USB port which is flat and wide and likely proprietary for Sansa. Therein lies a problem: if you lose this cable, you will have to get a replacement from Sandisk only.
Setup
Setup is incredibly easy. Just plug the USB cable into your computer and then plug the player into the other end of the cable. The player charges quickly (even the first time).
In the Settings menu go to System Settings > USB Mode and select MTP. This sets your Fuze up to act as a hard drive under Windows which allows you to simply drag-and-drop your music files on the 8 GB drive that is created. The great thing about this model is that if you add a microSD card (available up to 16 GB) you can greatly increase your storage. If you add the extra storage, it appears as a separate drive under Windows. I'm not sure why the internal memory in this player tops out at 8 GB when Sandisk is a memory manufacturer and could certainly have gotten it to at least 16 GB.
Once you have your drives in place, simply drag your music files onto the Fuze's drive(s). Transfer was a little slow for me. It took a couple of hours to get 24 GB of .flac files onto the player's drives. 24 GB of .flac files translates to roughly 800 songs or so. If one uses MP3 files, depending on the bitrate, one can store 2-3 times as many songs.
If one wishes to, the player can be loaded with music via Windows Mediaplayer. Although I did not test this option, the USB Mode would be set to MSC and likely only Windows Media files would be supported in this mode.
Then unplug the player from the USB cable, and you're ready to enjoy music, videos, radio, or even voice recordings that you can make.
I would also go to the Sansa firmware page and make sure your firmware is the latest as Sansa is very active in improving the software. You can install an application from their website that will upgrade your firmware automatically
One more thing, you may wish to visit the Settings > Music Options > Music EQ area. There you can select various sound equalizer settings or define your own custom EQ settings (bass, midrange, treble) that sound best to your ears on your headphones.
Controls
Power Control: This is a metallic slider located on the right side of the player. It moves up to either turn the player on or off. It slides down to lock in place when desired so that the player will not accidentally turn off or on when stored or when it is used while exercising.
Control Wheel: This is the main navigator for the player. Basically you spin the wheel to navigate to a particular menu selection. You can also click the left side of the wheel to "Go Back" or the right side to "Go Forward" while listening to music or navigating. Clicking the upper edge of the wheel puts the music on pause or moves up in the menu selection if you are navigating. Similarly clicking the lower part of the control moves down one selection in the navigation of menus.
Center or Selection Button: This is a large button in the center of the control wheel. When this button is clicked, it is analagous to clicking "Ok" on a computer. Whatever selection is currently chosen will be activated/started when the center button is depressed.
Home Button: This is a smaller button just to the right of the control wheel. This will bring the user to the Home menu instantly. This makes it much easier to get to the Home menu than having to navigate out of submenus or when music is playing.
Use
Turn the player on by pushing up on the power slider control located on the lower right hand side of the player. Hold it for a couple of seconds and release. The player boots in 8-10 seconds.
Like all the other Sansa players, usability is excellent. The graphical user interface is very easy to navigate with the central wheel and button. There is a Home button just to the right of the navigation wheel that when pressed puts you back into the main menu. Within the main (Home) menu simply spin the wheel to select from Voice, FM radio, Photos, Videos, Music or Settings. When you select these categories with the central button, you will get extensive submenus for each category.
For example under Music, you get the following submenus:
Play All
Recently Added
Artists
Albums
Songs
Genres
My Top Rated
Playlists
Podcasts
Audiobooks
Recordings
Folders
These submenus are populated with the songs you have loaded into your player based on the ID codes embedded in each song.
Simply navigate via these menus to what you want to listen to and click the center button to begin playback.
Display
The bright, colorful display gives you all the info you need about each tune for a few seconds after you touch the controls. It then goes black to save energy - the delay is user-configurable. The brightness of the display can be customized in the settings menu.
When the display is on it either shows your navigation options or the tune that is currently playing.
For each song that it is playing, the display shows the following:
Album art
Artist
Album
Title of track
A graphical progress bar for the track
Time remaining in seconds
Track number (out of the total number of tracks on the player)
The local time
Battery status (graphical)
File Support
The Fuze supports MP3, WAV, WMA, secure WMA, FLAC, and Audible formats. Apparently the FLAC support is new and not even mentioned in the manual.
Other Functions
I consider the player to be mainly a music player with some other functions which are useful but not essential. The screen is really a bit small to enjoy photographs or videos very well.
The player will play videos in Windows Mediaplayer format as well as Audiobooks. Also included is a voice recorder and a FM radio that is easy to tune, setup presets, and listen to.
Sound Quality
I find the sound quality very good for .flac files and MP3. However, compared to my Cowon X5 player, the sound is a bit less crisp. I would advise getting a good pair of ear buds or a headset to replace the included low-quality buds.
Battery Life
The player's battery life is very good. I used it at the gym for about 100 minutes each time for about 9 trips for a total of 15 hours.
Pros
Attractive and small
Excellent user interface
Frequent firmware upgrades
Bright, colorful screen
Good sound quality
Memory is expandable to a total of 24 GB with an optional microSD card
Good file support including Audiobook and the up-and-coming FLAC
Charges quickly via USB cable
Includes voice recorder, video player, FM radio
Cons
Battery is not user replaceable
Memory expansion adds to cost of player
Proprietary USB cable
No carrying case included, just a cloth bag
Poor quality ear buds included
Optional
I got a nice black rubbery case and an armband for exercise on Amazon.com for $5. These are not from Sandisk.
Overstock.com
