SanDisk's Sansa Fuze reviewed

Those of you hoping to have your mind blown can go ahead and leave quietly out the back, but for anyone else hoping for a dirt-cheap and fairly lovable DAP, the Sansa Fuze from SanDisk might just fit the bill. PC Magazine and CNET put the player through its paces and came out with a few nice things to say about it. Starting at $80 for 2GB and ramping up to $130 for 8GB, the player is certainly a good deal, and its diminutive form factor -- a compromise between the Clip and the View -- measures a mere 0.3-inches thick, while still managing a quality feel and a microSD slot. Unfortunately, the size only leaves room for a 1.9-inch screen, which CNET calls "dingy," and SanDisk's proprietary syncing port on the player isn't winning it any fans. Audio quality doesn't quite match the Sony A810 or Samsung P2, and the codec support is fairly limited, but obviously Rhapsody integration is the real draw here. These days 24 hours of audio playback isn't earth shattering either, but it's certainly commendable, and while it doesn't appear SanDisk is going to change to face of the DAP market with this unit, we're sure they've hit the sweet spot for some.

Read - PC Mag (3.5 out of 5, "Good")
Read - CNET (7.3 out of 10, "Very good")

[Markus @ Mar 14th 2008 11:27AM]

For the love of sweet God and everything that is holy get rid of that UI already.

[applefreak @ Mar 14th 2008 11:35AM]

does it support Rhapsody, if so I'm going to go cry in a corner...

BTW, my P2 is better, I would get this for my Mom

[webon @ Mar 14th 2008 11:51AM]

no, sorry, just Bohemian Rhapsody

(starts head banging ala Wains World to queen)

[applefreak @ Mar 14th 2008 12:54PM]

what? I is con-fuz-ded

[Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 14th 2008 1:33PM]

LOL at "Wains World"...and no I'm not laughing with you.

[phanbouy @ Mar 14th 2008 6:19PM]

who knows how to spell Bohemian Rhapsody but not Wayne?

Wayne Gretzky FTW

[Grizz @ Mar 14th 2008 11:35AM]

I stopped reading at "proprietary syncing port".

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Mar 14th 2008 11:36AM]

Meh. I can put songs on my phone. Less to carry.

[Jubei @ Mar 14th 2008 11:52AM]

It's not a bad product. At most it will be successful in cannibalizing sales of Zune players.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 14th 2008 5:01PM]

Troll and a fanboy. Thats all you are.

Every single one of your posts that I have seen so far are either downplaying the Zune/Xbox/Microsoft or praising/defending Apple.

You're useless, but that's to be expected from such a fool.

[Jubei @ Mar 14th 2008 5:11PM]

@Zeus

As expected. I merely pointed out the products capability in cannibalizing Zune sales. Rather than replying with valid points, you immediately relegated yourself to typical lemming behavior. Defending a losing cause really does distorts ones reality and removes any type of civility from the person. Quite sad really.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 14th 2008 5:54PM]

Its funny, because I don't see Zune mentioned anywhere in this article, nor do I see it necessary to mention it- especially when all you're doing is trying to put down a product you have no clue about or any experience with. Whats truly sad is that someone can be such a pest, such as yourself, and make such an attempt to put down a successful company every chance you get.

This DAP doesn't compare at all to any Zune, considering that all Zunes play movies and the smaller Zunes, the 4 and 8, which are most comparable, destroy this. I'm not saying this isn't a bad device- but I am saying that there isn't a competition between the two.

What you "merely pointed out" was that you are clueless and will take every possible chance you can get to take a blow at Microsoft with no apparent reason other than an unjustified hatred.

As a matter of fact, your use of "lemming" describes you perfectly.

Go back under your bridge.

[Jubei @ Mar 14th 2008 6:06PM]

@Zeus

Poor Zeus. I suggest you visit "zunescene.com" your comrades are jumping ship left and right. I can understand your anger and your incessant behavior. Perhaps you should join that site and help promote the Zune even more. With cheap players like these coming out of the woodworks, simulating the look of the iPod lines, your much maligned Zune devices will be relegated as an afterthought with consumers. Perhaps you should apply your energy and anger to a better cause. Saving your Zune platform from obscurity.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 14th 2008 6:15PM]

The iPod is an ugly POS (other than the Touch). The Zune is superior in every way to this device and all iPods they have been made to compete with. If you want to talk about jumping ship, you would cry if you saw how many people have switched from iPods to superior devices from Archos, Creative, Microsoft (you refer to it as Satan, right?), and iRiver.

Zune is gaining more and more popularity and has proven to be more reliable and better in both hardware and software than their competing iPods.

Good bye fanboy, I'm done with your dumb ass.

[phanbouy @ Mar 14th 2008 6:21PM]

fanboi warz are boring

[Jubei @ Mar 14th 2008 6:32PM]

@Zeus

Again with the broad sweeping statements with nothing to confirm your statements. Maybe you're upset because you saw for yourself the number of frustrated Zuners at that site I pointed you to. It's okay, no need to get all riled up about it. Failures do happen, its just sad that your incapable of comprehending the sate of the Zune within the marketplace. Perhaps you can be the new Zune trumpeter there and rally the old gang back to make a dent in the world. Minuscule results and all, at least you've tried right?

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 14th 2008 11:41PM]

Everyone I know who has had an iPod, including myself, have had problems with either the hardware crapping out or the software being plain shit.

Just because there are SOME people disappointed with the Zune means nothing, so again, your point is irrelevant. People "jump ship" from different products every day, but does that necessarily hurt? No- why? Because more people are buying the Zunes than there are "jumping ship" as you like to say.

The only failure here is you. You fail to make ANY relevant points and you continue to act like a child. Seriously, grow up. The Zune beats the pants off of any competing iPod, and that is a fact. Again, Zune is gaining popularity, and will continue to do so as long as Microsoft keeps up the work they've been doing with it.

I really wish Engadget and company had some more active moderators or administrators to get rid of problems like you.

[Jubei @ Mar 15th 2008 1:25AM]

@Zeus

Oh hello Zeus. So you did visit that place. Quiet sad isn't it? Did you sign up and take it upon yourself to be the white knight and hero for the Zuners? I hope so, I so look forward to seeing you post over there. Now why would cry out for Engadget to help you? Surely you have the capacity to engage in a debate. Even as one sided as it is, and with your comprehension level about the same as that prehistoric animal I mentioned earlier shouldn't be enough to cry Uncle to Engadget moderators.

I'm a bit curious as to why you even try. You stated you will no longer have any engagements with me, yet you came back and posted again. It's belittling of you to go back on your own words.

[rob @ Mar 14th 2008 11:53AM]

"Unfortunately, the size only leaves room for a 1.9-inch screen,"

Interesting how the size of the nano is just perfect while the Fuze is just wrong. Well, Electronista, a well-known Mac evangelist site, did a quick hands-on and found that nano has a serious competitor maybe for the first time.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/13/sansa.fuze.hands.on


So quit your biggotry towards anything non Apple. I'm talking to you Paul Miller.

[Cahlito @ Mar 14th 2008 11:57AM]

my iPhone is better

[bubuschoeny @ Mar 14th 2008 12:09PM]

IFoney are for mindless idiots who like pretty buttons and high credit card debt. Tell me how many times have you refinanced your house to afford all of your ICrap? ISheep bah-bah bah-bah

[Kizorblade @ Mar 14th 2008 12:18PM]

You're both idiots.

[Cahlito @ Mar 14th 2008 12:40PM]

LOL silly goose! I still live at home with mommy and daddy! I just started college and I got my iPhone along with my extensive list of phones from working! Go Figure! And if I were an iSheep I would be typing from my macbook while drinking Starbucks, which I'm not. Is it bad that i prefer apple products over what I think is a POS? apple products tend to look better and at times perform better. So I really do hope you see the ass you have made of yourself.

PS. iPhone all day everyday =P

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 12:03PM]

I bet it still needs windows to update the firmware. My dad got fed up and switched to Linux years ago. He has wanted a PMP but had a hard time finding one that didn't need windows for something.

He once bought a Sansa and got it home to find a CD and a Note the said something to the effect of "The firmware for this device has been revised please run this updater on this CD before powering-up the device." The CD had windows only software. So he wrote a note stating that he didn't support microsoft and he encouraged SanDisk to stop doing so also. He then wrote "BAD FIRMWARE" on the box with a sharpie and returned it.

My dad is not a zealot. He'd be happy to use the software if it were wrapped in Wine like Google does Picassa. But, my dad is persistent and vengeant. He continues to buy and return every Sansa he can find looking for one with up to date firmware. I don't know if he ever found it.

[UmmmErrrrr @ Mar 14th 2008 12:57PM]

He doesn't have one friend with a windows PC that will let him update the firmware? That would save him a lot of time.

[brandon @ Mar 14th 2008 1:21PM]

Your dad can get one of the latest sansa e200's with the v2 firmware, or a v1 and put rockbox on it. For the v2, you can find the latest firmware to download and just drop it in the root directory.

[Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 14th 2008 1:38PM]

Your dad is insane. I'm sure his notes to Sansa about not supporting Microsoft will work one day. Also, why does he feel the need to buy a bunch of Sansa's, write "Bad Firmware" on them, and then return them? It sounds like he is just wasting everyones time.

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 1:58PM]

@Brandon,
That is exactly the way it should work! Now, if only they'd advertise that.

I wish Nokia would do that too.

@Ummm/Errrrr,
windows users aren't really friends. They are people who say, "oh hey, you work on computers. When I..." To which, we say, "sorry I abstain from microsoft products."

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 2:43PM]

@Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284,
Because he really wants the product to work for him. If he finds one in a usable condition, he will use it.

In order for capitalism to work, the market must be influenced by the consumers. If you are not going to provide feedback to the marketer, you shouldn't waste blog-readers time by whining about it.

[Joey Geraci @ Mar 14th 2008 3:47PM]

If you read the electronista review, you will see that the Fuse supports drag and drop on all OS's.

[Curtis the Claw: Brawl Code 1075-0441-3284 @ Mar 14th 2008 4:44PM]

Haha alright, when your dad gets them to drop support for Microsoft let us know!

[y3k.nik @ Mar 14th 2008 12:11PM]

looks like an ipod knockoff to me! :P

[Cahlito @ Mar 14th 2008 12:41PM]

add a few buttons paint it black and call it a Fuze!

[y3k.nik @ Mar 14th 2008 2:07PM]

maybe they will ship it with a copy of "paint it black" too then.

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 12:12PM]

Seriously, before putting a product like this into production, why not poll the community? You have this out-spoken resource available to you. Why not use it?

If they would post specs and a design mockup to Engadget FIRST, I bet they would sell a lot more products. One simple thing that we could have helped them with was THE PROPRIETARY SYNCING PORT!!!!

And how about providing the firmware updater on a BOOTABLE CD, or offering the download as a CD ISO!!

Why do you take stupid actions that can only limit your customer base? No one has EVER said, "I'm not buying that because it has a USB connector." Or, "I'm not buying that because the Linux community can use it."

[cDub @ Mar 14th 2008 1:13PM]

Sansa would be get nowhere polling a site with this much Ifanboyism.

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 2:30PM]

@cDub,
You think that polling the iPod consumers would be bad? You are then limiting yourself to creating consumers. I think that listening to what people like and dislike about the top product in the market would be wise.

Despite what you think of people who fail to hate Apple, no one is totally satisfied with Apple. Discontent users facing Apple's lack of flexibility produces opportunity. Emotion only has one place in business - on the receiving end of marketing. You cannot run a business on emotion. Otherwise, your tear filled eyes will fail to see opportunity while you are crying about fanboys.

[cDub @ Mar 14th 2008 11:05PM]

What I said was a little short sighted. The "Unfortunately, the size only leaves room for a 1.9-inch screen," part of this post just made me angry. More user involvement in a product is always a good thing.

[jawsogre @ Mar 14th 2008 12:20PM]

Hmm.... so the proprietary synching port is a problem... but iPod's.... isn't? What gives? I tell ya... mini-USB ftw!

[Cahlito @ Mar 14th 2008 12:44PM]

yeah... mini-usb is more convienient seeing how almost everything uses it. I could charge my PS3 controller and my Sidekick LX and my HTC phone, connect my video cam all with the same cable

[RichardBronosky @ Mar 14th 2008 2:37PM]

I partially agree, but you fail to acknowledge that 3rd party iPod cables and devices are so easy to find, that it renders much of the issue moot. I'd dare to guess that there are more options for iPod cables than mini-USB cables in any Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal-mart, Airport gift shop, etc. Until SanDisk reaches this critical mass, it is a major issue for consumers.

[jawsogre @ Mar 15th 2008 12:27AM]

if it doesn't work on at least 3 different products from 3 different brands... they can shove it up their.. umm... pods? ;)

I'll stick with a universal generic standard (so.. of course this goes to Sandisk too...)

I just wish people would stop slamming one company for something they praise another for....

[John Stracke @ Mar 14th 2008 12:55PM]

Summary: About the same price as the iPod Shuffle, but with a screen like the Nano. If only they'd put some effort into usability design for their firmware, they'd have a great device.

Unfortunately, it seems (from the review) that they haven't made any real changes from the View (which I have), which has one terrible flaw: if you select an album, the songs are listed alphabetically, not by track. The only way to get them listed by track is to change the title tags to include track numbers. This means my View is fine if I want randomness, but not if I want to listen to an album in the proper order.

[morkuma @ Mar 14th 2008 3:27PM]

if this is the same as the e200 series, it is probably only id3v2.3 and doesn't read tags properly in id3v2.4
a quick swap to 2.3 and you will not have that problem
(haunted me for a long time on the e280)

[John Stracke @ Mar 14th 2008 4:32PM]

Thanks, I'll look into it. I'm actually using AAC for most of my songs, but I can try encoding one album into MP3 and see what I get.

...oh, but wait--AAC is in an MPEG container file, too; I suppose it might also use the id3 tags like MP3 does. I'll have to read up on it.

[John Stracke @ Mar 14th 2008 5:02PM]

Okay, Wikipedia says MPEG-4 files can use ID3 tags. Experimentally, though, using "id3tag" on an MPEG-4 file trashes it—presumably because the actual container format has changed.

I noticed that my files didn't specify the # of tracks in the album, so I tried adding that to one album, but no good. I'll have to script something to add track #s to the titles.

[helloUser @ Mar 14th 2008 2:50PM]

why is it that whenever another product of relatively the same features as an ipod, gets a lower ranking or greater criticism than the ipod itself? the thing is basically an ipod nano with more features but the ones that are about the same the ipod doesnt get criticized but others do?

im sick of this 'ipod worshipping' crap.

[addabox @ Mar 14th 2008 4:56PM]

Let's see-- Nano has larger, brighter, higher resolution screen, better battery life, supports more codecs, weighs less, is thinner, has what seems to be universally consider a much better interface, and partakes of the vast iPod eco-system.

Fuze costs less, has radio and voice recording, card slot.

Which is fine, if those are the trade-offs that work for you, but it's hardly "iPod worship" to note which is the better player, all around.

If you hate Engadget's acceptance of reality, you could try Gizmodo..... wait, they agree the Nano is better.... maybe C/NET.....nope......PC mag?......

Well, you could always hang out on a SanDisk user group site. I bet they won't offend your sensibilities. Or maybe there's a "I have an irrational hatred for all things Apple" recovery site that you could check out.

[Erik @ Mar 14th 2008 6:09PM]

@ addabox:

Some of the things you pointed out as better for the nano are a moot point.

You're not really going to see that big of a difference in the screen resolutions on a ~2" screen. If there were as big of a difference as the numbers say, I should have ditched my 20" 640x480 TV because it just wasn't crisp enough.

Many people don't desire the "iPod ecosystem" and would prefer to have freedom with their devices.


All in all, it comes down to personal preference. If it were reality that the iPod is better (prices tend to affect buying decisions) there would be no market for the Fuze.

Thinner? Not much.

[perfectionist @ Mar 14th 2008 6:55PM]

The Sansa line has an average UI, but it needs to be overhauled to be faster and more aesthetically pleasing. (I have an e200 series.)

If the Fuze is no different, the microSD card slot (on the Sansa e200) is kind of pointless since it requires a database refresh every time you boot up with a card installed (regardless of whether or not the files have been changed).

The screen on the View has an overcast to it, and if what CNET says is true, the View is no different. It's not the Nano's resolution (the same as on the Fuze), it's the screen quality. (colors, brightness, etc.)