Review: Sansa Fuze mp3 player by Sandisk

The sleek, simple Sansa Fuze by Sandisk is positioned to take on the iPod Nano head-to-head, with comparable specs to the Nano but a much friendlier pricetag, at just $80, $100, or $130, depending on the model you choose.

Available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB sizes that come in black, pink, red, blue, and silver, the Fuze has a stylish, easy to use navigation menu which reminds me of the Xbox navigation scheme, where new items slide into view as you scroll. And I love the start-up and shut-down animations, which are just plain cool.

It has a scroll wheel that, instead of being touch-sensitive, simply spins on a central axis like a record. The north, south, east, and west positions are clickable, allowing you to navigate through the machine or albums. It may not be as clever as Apple’s click wheel, but it’s just as functional.

The Fuze has a nice, solid feel when you hold it in your hand, weighing 2.1 ounces. And since it uses Flash memory, it can be shaken all you want — while exercising, for example — with no damage done. I also like that it has a skid-resistant rubber back, which helps the device to stay in place wherever you place it.

The screen is nice and bright, and while it won’t provide high-def viewing at just 1.9″ in size, it’s very close to the Nano’s screen quality. The overall device measures 3.1″ x 1.9″ x .3″.

There’s a port for connecting the Fuze to your computer via an included USB cord and plug-in for your earbuds (a pair are also included), both on the bottom of the device. The right side has the on/off switch, and the left is where your MicroSDHC card is inserted. Charging the device is done through the USB cord, and takes about three hours; no wall outlet plug is needed. Battery power lasts for an impressive 24 hours of music playback, and five hours of video.

Storage is where the Sansa Fuze really excels. Rather than being stuck with a single internal drive, the Fuze sets itself apart by accepting Sandisk’s MicroSDHC cards, which can hold thousands upon thousands of songs and pictures, and hundreds of videos. (How Sandisk manages to squeeze 16GB into a teeny-tiny card the size of your thumb nail is something I’ll never comprehend.) Since you can change out the MicroSDHC cards with ease, your library has the potential to be significantly bigger than what any iPod can hold, depending on how many cards you have. I could see even organizing cards by content type — one card for music, another for photos, etc.

Like most modern multimedia players, it can handle music, video, and images. One particularly nice touch is the inclusion of a built-in FM radio, which I found to get surprisingly strong reception for such a small device with no external antenna. You can program the radio tuner with up to 40 preset stations.

There’s a voice recorder as well, if you like to make simple audio recordings, like voice notes.

The only main downside I could find to the Fuze is nothing new or unique; it’s the same issue that afflicts many portable MP3 players. It’s just not easy to export anything from iTunes to the device, which means that unless you’re comfortable with some mild tweaking, Mac users are kinda screwed. You can change your iTunes settings to import music from your CDs in MP3 format, but the Fuze won’t play your existing library of AAC files, not to mention any music you’ve downloaded from the iTunes Store. (There are several third-party AAC to MP3 encoders available out there, but none of them are free.)

Any MP3 files you do have on your Mac are easy enough to export — just drag and drop over to your device or your MicroSD card. Same goes for Windows, where you can also use Windows Media Player, or you can download Sansa’s very easy-to-use media converter program,. Unfortunately, right now the program is only available for Windows users. No Mac or Linux versions yet.

As if there wasn’t enough value for your money, the Sansa Fuze ships with a free 14-day subscription to Rhapsody, and a 30-day subscription to Audible.com, which includes one free audio book download.

With incredible ease of use, a robust feature set, and a fabulous price, the Sansa Fuze is a great iPod alternative and an easy recommendation.

Images: Sandisk Corporation.