Sansa Fuze Review

[V3ndetta]

Well I just bought my Fuze a few days ago, and I'm pretty satisfied with what I have. I haven't tried the external memory yet. First of all the sound quality is great! Better then my old iPod Video. I'm very glad that putting music into my Fuze is just click and drag. Very easy unlike the iTunes you gotta go through the trouble of dragging it into the playlist there and syncing it and etc... (waste of time)
I also gotta say the recording on it is amazing. There is no noise whatsoever but you can hear sounds really clear. Tested the recording out in my living room and it was able to record my parents conversation. (Regular voice)
I chose black because.... most of the earphones would be able to match black. I was gonna buy blue, but it comes with black earphones ... and so it wouldn't match blue.
The radio also has a great sound quality every once in a while I would listen to the radio and find some good hits.
The video on it isn't the best but it's descent if you use a good converter but in my opinon the screen is too small to watch stuff on it. Pictures are alright but again...screen too small.. but I'd still use it.
The Fuze is pretty small and very convinient. Just what I needed nothing more.

[CrowdAds]

[Goggles]

Buying a good pair of IEMs will increase sound quality exponentialy.

[V3ndetta]

lol yeah I'm planning to buy new earphones

[TimDoe]

Are there any notable cons to switching from an iPod video (aside from less storage and crappy video)? I currently have an iPod video and am thinking about getting a Fuze.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by TimDoe

Are there any notable cons to switching from an iPod video (aside from less storage and crappy video)? I currently have an iPod video and am thinking about getting a Fuze.

Look at the fuze as a player with great sq and video is like a bonus feature that's not that great.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Look at the fuze as a player with great sq and video is like a bonus feature that's not that great.

+1 - This is true. I have a 4gb fuze and the video is a bit choppy - 15fps will do this. It's really a SQ beast w/video as a bonus!!!

[TimDoe]

^ Well I don't even really care about video (haven't used it on my iPod for months) so that's not a complaint for me.

[JK98]

The annoying things on the Fuze are navigation by tags only, a proprietary connector and proprietary cable, which requires you to have the headphone plug unplugged to reach the release on the cable to remove the cable from the player. If your songs and podcasts are missing tags or have slight variations in tags, your files may not be sorted the way you expect to find them. The sound quality on the Fuze is great though. I bought the Fuze a few weeks ago. Am I happy with the Fuze? Yes and no. I do wonder if I would have been much happier with the Cowon D2, even with its much higher price.


Sony has a new model, the E436 that is under $100 with 4 gigs, but no card slot. It is said to have 45 hour battery life, however I have not seen independent testing of its battery life. If the Sony E436 really gets close to 45 hours play time for audio and browses by folders or by tags, then it might be a good choice for someone who doesn't need more than 4 gigs. There is an 8 gig E438, but it is almost $140 for that price, it is better to buy a 4 gig D2, then you can buy an SD card later if you need more space

The Fuze has its annoyances, but for the price it is a good deal. If you listen to many podcasts, or don't have your tags in good shape, a player that also navigates by folders like a Cowon D2 or i7, or many of the Sony models might be more convenient to use. The Cowon D2 seems to be much more convenient to use than the Fuze with its much longer battery life(52 hrs vs 24 for the Fuze) , navigation by folders or by tags, and full sized card slot. The D2 is much more expensive than the Fuze though.
The D2 is said to have nice video.

[SansaRulez83]

Originally Posted by JK98

The D2 is said to have nice video.

Quality-wise I would compare it to the 5G Ipod. It's not quite as crisp as the Classic but then again it doesn't suffer from aliasing and a somewhat flat color palette either.

As for the Fuze, I've seen a few at the store that I work at that people have brought in. Eh, they're ok. I was disappointed by the same old interface that Sandisk just keeps holding onto as well as the scroll wheel. For $100.98 on Amazon for an 8GB, it is pretty nice, however. If Creative didn't have a high failure rate in their products I would recommend the Zen over the Fuze. $115 for 8GB and much nicer video.

[JK98]

"If Creative didn't have a high failure rate in their products I would recommend the Zen over the Fuze. $115 for 8GB and much nicer video."

The vast majority of people don't even try using video on an mp3 player with a screen under 3". Aside from the fact that watching video on a tiny screen is not so much fun, video on these players consumes battery life at a much faster rate than music. I could see occasionally viewing photos on a player with a screen under 3", but not watching videos. Having to convert the videos first before being able to watch them on a player makes using a player for video even less practical. I wish player makers would leave off the video capability on players with a sreen under 3" and give us better voice recording(with a mic jack, and mp3 recording at a user selectable bitrate), or else include AM radio, or improve the variable speed playback(make it from half to double normal speed and have good pitch correction). MP3 players are audio devices. Throwing in low capability video is not very helpful.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by JK98

The vast majority of people don't even try using video on an mp3 player with a screen under 3".

I do it, and so do many other people. Speak for yourself.

[Kpalsm]

Originally Posted by JK98

The vast majority of people don't even try using video on an mp3 player with a screen under 3".

When I first got my Sansa e250, it was the first portable player I ever owned that even had video capability. I tried it, thought it was a novel idea, but didn't bother after that as I found it was a royal pain to get videos onto it for mediocre playback anyways. I agree that players with screens this size are better suited ditching video capability alltogether, perhaps retaining photo viewing though, and improving other more important features with the resources saved such as further improving sound quality or adding features. But that's just my two cents

[shenyue]

i watch videos on a 2.4 screen with subtitles be its workable but i find it better on my zen v m due to better codec so i would only rec the smaller screens for stuff like mv and short clips

[jbc]

I use mine for MP3s only and for that its excellent. I have tracks that run the gamut from Miley Cyrus to Metallica and Judas Priest and the player does great with all of the music forms. I don't use it for video, which seems to be just as well from the comments of others. I am however, concerned iwth storage capabiltiy and since it has a micro SDHC port that is more dependent on technology of the card makers rather than on the player. I am generally satisfied with anything Sandisk does.

[joshkuo]

the fuze has good audio, but watching video is a pain with the small screen. tried to watch the simpsons movie on it, but the screen was too small, and halfway through the movie, i gave up

[jbc]

What type of earphones do you recommend to go with them. I have tried inside the ear and I have one now that actually hangs from the top of the ear.

[xikk]

how's the photo viewing on sansa fuze like? is it as crisp and beautiful as that on D2 or Zen?

[sovesky]

If I'm not mistaken the Zen has 16.4M colours and the Fuze has only 65m.
Zen's screen is also bigger than Fuze's.

[Paul79UF]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

+1 - This is true. I have a 4gb fuze and the video is a bit choppy - 15fps will do this. It's really a SQ beast w/video as a bonus!!!

Hmm...I've put a few YouTube MP4 videos on my Fuze (after VLC & SMC conversion) and they look great!

Some videos show a bit of blockiness/artifacts during fast motion but most videos look super smooth. I guess it depends on the quality of the original YouTube video.

I've also encoded some of my own home video clips from my Canon digital camera using Adobe Premiere. I output with the "Creative Zen Vision 30 FPS" 320x240 resolution preset. Then I use SMC to convert/transfer them to the Fuze and they look crystal clear.

It's definitely a lot more prep work than when I watch videos on my iPAQ PDA since the TCPMP player on that will play just about any video file.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Paul79UF

Hmm...I've put a few YouTube MP4 videos on my Fuze (after VLC & SMC conversion) and they look great!

Some videos show a bit of blockiness/artifacts during fast motion but most videos look super smooth. I guess it depends on the quality of the original YouTube video.

I've also encoded some of my own home video clips from my Canon digital camera using Adobe Premiere. I output with the "Creative Zen Vision 30 FPS" 320x240 resolution preset. Then I use SMC to convert/transfer them to the Fuze and they look crystal clear.

It's definitely a lot more prep work than when I watch videos on my iPAQ PDA since the TCPMP player on that will play just about any video file.

This is why I uninstalled SMC before the New Year. I watched some 10-15 minute video podcasts, and they looked ok, but the time involved to convert and add them with the SMC was totally not worth it. Add to that all I heard about audio and video being progressively further out of sync with longer videos , and I was almost convinced to ditch it. What cinched the deal was that photo viewing wasn't even special, given that the screen on my camera is bigger than the Fuze's.

Don't interpret this as me not liking the Fuze, however. I use mine anywhere from 2-5 hours a day...it just happens that I use it as a music player, which happens to show my album art .