Sansa Fuze mp3 player review

[tonyvdb]

Lately I have wanted to have a dedicated mp3 player for our mini-van as I use it to and from work and am tired of the radio. My wonderful wife just bought me a Sansa Fuse 8gb player for my Birthday (May 22) and gave it to me last night a day early (nice of her I would say).

I have an iPod 3rd generation 80gb classic as well and an old Creative nomad Jukebox that I upgraded the hard drive to a 40gb from the 6gb that I use regularly in the house. I did not want either of them to be left in the van as the iPod is just too expensive and the nomad Jukebox takes far too long to start up and is bulky.

The Sansa Fuse looks and feels just like the iPod and is built really well and is a nice weight as its made of some sort of metal not plastic. The controls ar functional and have the same feel as the iPod but seem to be more solid and less likely to ware out. The screen is bright and has good contrast. The biggest bonus to the Sansa players is all of them have an added mini SD card slot so you can add even more flash memory (up to 4gb on the Fuse).
The Sansa is simply a USB device so it works without any special software (something I despise about the iPod and my Jukebox) you just drag and drop your music files into the appropriate folder. Making playlists is also easy by just right clicking on the folder or file and selecting "make playlist". The audio quality is very good and sounds clear and dynamic. The GUI is very smart and works very smooth.

Over all the Sansa is a great media player for the money and in my opinion a far better investment than the iPod. The Sansa Fuse 8gb retails for around $100.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Great review, Tony - thanks!

Regards,
Wayne

[HionHiFi]

Tony, those Sansa's are really nice players. I own a Sansa e270 (6 GB) and it has been a great performer. The Sansa's don't get the credit they deserve IMO. They have more features for less money and as you said don't require any special software to work. Now that's convenience and value.