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A good little MP3 Player that doesn't cost too much
Date of Review: Jan 21, 2009
The Bottom Line: Highly Recommended: SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB is incredibly lightweight and holds 2500 songs. Easy to use, bonus of video playback and photostorage. You won't find a better player below $100.
When it came to buying an MP3 players my needs were pretty simple. I wanted something that would hold a decent amount of music, would be easy to navigate and wouldn’t cost me too much money. I decided to avoid the iPod due to others frustrations at having to use the iTunes interface and set about my search on Amazon. A couple of filters later and I figured that the Sansa Fuze 4GB was perfect for my needs. However a quick trip to Circuit City found me the 8GB model for just a few dollars more ($79.99). It’s a month later now so I’m ready to report on my purchase.
The Basics
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze comes in 3 sizes; 2, 4 and 8GB. This review pertains to the 8GB model. Its main selling points are:
* 24 hour battery life (3 hours to fully charge)
* 8GB Capacity, about 2000 songs
* 1.9” Color screen capable of displaying videos and photos
* Digital FM Radio (40 presets)
* Built in microphone for voice recording
* Expandable external memory slot
Getting it out of the box
The first impressive feature is the small lightweight size. At 3.1” it’s smaller than the size of a credit card and a mere 0.3” thick making it incredibly lightweight. The screen takes up a little less than half of the face with the controls on the bottom half. It has a rubber-like backing which is useful in preventing it from sliding around, and a hard plastic scratch resistant front. I won’t put it to the test but it doesn’t seem like it would handle much weight if it got crushed beneath something.
Getting Started
I’ve used this with Windows XP and Vista and getting started is really simple. The installation software is contained on the device, so once you connect it to the USB port set up runs automatically. Folders are already set up for each of the functions. The quick guide says to copy and paste your files from Windows, but using most media players you can simply “sync” or select your tracks individually and send them to the device. It’s also compatible with Napster and Rhapsody.
Playback
This part is a little more tricky and isn’t clear from the quick start guide, but I did have the benefit of someone (my daughter) who has an iPod. My first frustration was getting through the menus as I tapped around on the up/down/left/right arrows. It was soon explained to me that I needed to spin the dial to go up and down, pretty simple once you figure it out. The menu layout is pretty straightforward otherwise; select music then scroll by artist, album, song or play all. The next frustration came from the lack of a volume control. Again I soon learned that you have to turn that same dial clockwise or counterclockwise
Putting it to the test
The 8GB capacity only allows about 7GB for your files since the rest is used for formatting and other functions. Song capacity is listed at 2000, although I managed to get 2500 on there. I don’t use it for anything else but the manufacturer lists alternate capacity as 24 hours of video (512 kbps/ MPEG 4) or 4000 photos (1.7MB each). Compatible formats are:
Audio: MP3, WMA (unprotected and protected), WAV, Audible, Overdrive
Video: MPEG4
Photo: Jpeg
The battery life is extremely good. There’s a battery indicator on the display and I’ve not pushed it to the limit but have never seen the power go below 50%. So I have every reason to believe the 24 hour life claim.
Once you figure out the menu controls, it’s pretty simple to navigate. Clicking the down arrow at any time will pull up a host of menu options, and there’s a Home button you can hit to get back to the main menu at any time. However the navigation is still not without its frustrations. If you’re navigating through the menus for example you can’t play with the volume. You have to keep your hands off the controls for 10 seconds or so to allow it to go back to song display mode, then you can play with the volume. Also scrolling through your music library can be extremely tedious. It doesn’t move very fast and takes quite a bit of spinning around on the dial to get from top to bottom. When you get to the Z’s it doesn’t even loop back to the A’s, the only way is back up again. So going from ZZ Top to Abba can be a bit of a pain. The best option is to stick to playlists or use the random shuffle. Creating a “go list” is pretty simple to figure out at least. There’s also a nice organizational feature that provides separate menus for audiobooks and podcasts, something I’ve never found the need for yet.
It has a host of built in equalizer presets and a custom equalizer, but I find this all to be a little too superfluous and just limit my controls to volume up or volume down. I have no complaints about sound quality which is pretty good. Again it goes way beyond anything I’ll ever need and the bundled earphones are more than adequate.
The power off/power on is extremely easy to use, as is the hold feature. When the display goes into power saving mode you can still bring it back up by tapping the controls even when hold is set.
The FM radio feature is somewhat temperamental. I’ve had reception at times and nothing at others. I’ve heard that the reception depends on the quality of the earphones which double as the antenna, but again this is a feature that would be nice but I won’t worry about too much. You can also record radio in WAV format.
The built in microphone does work better than I expected. It’s useful if you need to dictate notes at any time while it also picks up voices within 6 feet reasonably clearly. This could come in useful for my epinions reviews at some point.
Since video playback will only allow you about 4 or 5 hours of playback and the 1.9” screen is pretty small, this probably isn’t the best player for watching movies. The video conversion software is already included on the device but it takes time and a little figuring out. Playback was smooth enough but I think video viewing should merely be considered as a bonus feature.
Conclusion
This is a fantastic little music player. 8GB is a good amount of storage while its best feature has to be its small size that compromises nothing in manageability. At around $80 it’s great value for money too. I’m not sure that you can get an 8GB player at a lower price. Moreover, the memory card slot means that you have pretty much unlimited capacity.
The video playback is a nice little extra that I’ll probably never use and honestly if you’re looking specifically for video playback I’d probably go with another model. As I mentioned earlier, the screen is a little too small for that purpose. My only other complaints are about the navigation and controls. I wish there was an easier way to scroll through the songs and it would have been nice if they’d added separate buttons for volume control.
