from the perspective of an audiobook lover

While one would think that playing audiobooks on an MP3 player would be easy, that assumption would be quite erroneous!  Numerous players, including earlier MP3 players by Sansa, made the process tedious, if not impossible.  Happily, all of that has been resolved by the new Fuze. 

With 4 GB one can place numerous audiobooks, even the longest, on the MP3 player.  Because Sansa has finally included an audiobooks folder under the music setting, it is possible to easily locate files and they are automatically handled correctly.  This is a huge improvement over previous Sansa MP3 players, which required a long process of syncing via windows media player to properly handle the files.

Annoyingly, there is STILL no bookmarking.  Two functions serve in lieu of bookmarking.  First there is an automatic file resume function for your file.  So each time you open an audiobook, you are prompted to either start at the beginning or resume playback.  Secondly, the auto off, pause function automatically resumes playback where you left off. 

Happily should you lose your place, the fast forwards on the Fuze is one of the speediest that I have encountered.  To an audiobook lover, that speed is key as holding down a fast forward button for fifteen minutes is inconvenient, to say the least.  The fast forward gets progressively faster the longer you use the function so you can whip through hours of a book in mere minutes.

The player is not as intuitive as one would like, with a dial serving to move through the menu and a buttom to depress for choices.  While listening to books around the house during chores I have inavertently depressed several buttons.  The power button is thankfully located on the side and cannot be depressed easily, but the fast forward, pause etc are still located on the front and can be. 

as other reviewers have noted, the size is lovely, light and slim.  I have tucked it in the waistbands of pants without pockets and had no problem with it falling out.