SanDisk Sansa Fuze Review: A Review of the Sansa Fuze 4GB

Introduction

SanDisk has once again dipped its toes into the media player market and released the Sansa Fuze. It sports a fusion of media types (audio, video and photo)and is a flash memory based device. Looking at SanDisk’s product lineup and pricing structure, its clear to see that the Sansa Fuze's target audience would be people looking for a lower-priced media player compared to devices such as the Apple nano.

Does the Sansa Fuze step up to the plate? Read the Sansa Fuze 4GB media player review to find out.

Pros:

• Solidly constructed
• Excellent audio resolution
• Good feature set

Cons:

• Video playback is jittery

SanDisk Sansa Fuze – Before You Buy

System Requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista / Linux and Mac OS (MSC Mode)
• Windows Media Player 10 or higher
• USB 2.0 port
• CD-ROM drive (excluding US)

Price Range:

• $79.99 - $129.99

Style & Design: The Sandisk Sansa Fuze comes in a range of colors and storage capacities:

• 2GB Version (black)
• 4GB Version (red, pink, blue, and black)
• 8GB version (silver)

The unit’s design is very stylish and impressively slender at only 0.3 inches. A microSD/microSDHC card slot that is situated on the left edge of the device is a very useful feature that gives you the option to store many more songs, videos, and photos than using the built-in memory.

Package Contents:

• Sansa Fuze 4GB media player
• Earphones
• Earphone foam covers
• USB 2.0 cable
• Quick start guide
• Audible.com free offer

Sandisk Sansa Fuze – Getting Started

Photo © 2008 Mark Harris - Licensed to About.com, Inc.

Battery Charging: The Sansa Fuze has an internal rechargeable battery which negates the hassle of constantly buying batteries. The battery is charged using the supplied USB cable which is long enough to reach around the back of most computers that don’t have front USB ports or a hub. According to the published figures, you can expect to get a respectable 24 hours for audio playback and 5 hours for video from a fully charged battery.

Earphones: The earphones are comfortable to wear and come with optional foam covers. It's worth using them as they improve comfort and you get a slightly better bass sound. A gold-plated 3.5mm plug is fitted to the earphone wiring which is unshielded to serve as an aerial for the built-in FM radio.

Transferring Music: The Sansa Fuze supports MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) and MSC (Mass Storage device Class) for the transfer of media. For Windows users, MTP is the recommended setting which enables you to use software media players, playlists, and subscription services (Rhapsody and Napster for example). MSC is used for non-Windows operating systems and simply acts as a flash memory storage device. Windows Media Player was used during the review and the Sansa Fuze synchronized without any problems.

Sandisk Sansa Fuze – Device Features

Controls: Sandisk have opted for a 4-way control pad that also has a 360^o rotating wheel. This wheel can be used for volume control and cycling through the menu; a useful LED light also illuminates every time you use the controls to give you visual feedback. The menu button is located near to the control pad and gives you access to the main menu. A power/lock slider button located on the edge of the unit is used to turn the device on and off and to lock the device to stop any accidental button presses while in a pocket etc. The controls on the Sansa Fuze feel sturdy and have a positive feel when used.

Menu System: The Sansa Fuze has a great looking menu system that has excellent resolution and doesn’t suffer from lag when used. The main menu is icon-driven which you can conveniently cycle through using the rotating wheel. There are animated icons for music, video, photos, FM radio, voice, and settings. While playing a music track the screen displays battery level, album art, artist, playlist number, and track title. There is also a progress bar, track elapsed/remaining, and the time in either 12 or 24 hour format.

Pressing the select button (located in the center of the control pad) cycles through different displays such as, a larger image of the album art and what the next song is after the current one finishes. You can also view a real-time 16-band audio spectrum analyzer which sadly is only displayed for 10 seconds. This is really only a gimmick but it looks great. The menu system on the Sansa Fuze is easy and fun to use and won’t take you long to learn.

Photo © 2008 Mark Harris - Licensed to About.com, Inc.

Screen Display: The unit has a 1.9 inch TFT color screen with a resolution of 220 x 176 pixels. The screen display is excellent and displays photo images with impressive clarity.

FM Radio: It’s always great to see a built-in FM radio on a portable player that some manufacturers still don’t include (e.g. - Apple iPod). There are 40 presets for you to store your favorite radio stations and you can even record the station you are listening to for playback later.

Built-in Microphone: At first sight, you wouldn’t think there was a microphone. Only when you look at the left-edge of the unit will you see a tiny hole with the word ‘mic’. Recording your voice is sometimes useful if you need to remember something or need a dictation machine. The microphone picks up voice very well to give a good playback level.

File Formats: The Sandisk Sansa Fuze is compatible with the following formats:

• MP3
• WMA and WMADRM (WMA secure)
• WAV
• Audible
• MPEG-4

Video and Sound Quality: The quality of the sound is top-notch. The bass has a nice punch to it and the high-end frequencies are reasonably detailed. Even though video quality has good definition it does suffer from jitter which tends to be more noticeable on videos that have a lot of motion.

Conclusion

The Sandisk Sansa Fuze is a great little budget media player that has a lot going for it. Just like the Sansa Clip, the audio quality is excellent and won’t disappoint. If you’re heavily into video then you may want to look elsewhere but if you need a practical device that does it all then the Sansa Fuze is worth a serious look.