Sandisk Sansa Fuze review

A Nano competitor at a Shuffle price – you can find this discounted all over the web – the Fuze is a great little MP3 player. It looks smart, is very compact, accepts microSD cards in addition to its onboard memory and plays video. The screen is a mammoth 1.5 inches across – just imagine how good The Dark Knight or Lawrence of Arabia must look on it!! We do apologise; sarcasm is a very low form of wit.


Pros
You can drag and drop music on to this, or use WMA to sync, make playlists and what have you. Sound quality is easily the best we’ve heard at this price, as long as you don’t mind, as usual, hurling the supplied buds into a bin and providing your own. The menu system is straightforward and intelligently laid out, even though the clickwheel feels a little less than rock-solid. Also along for the ride are a (not very good) radio and a (pretty nifty) voice recorder, too.

Cons
Although audio is excellent, you can’t push the volume very high. We know it’s for the good of our hearing, but it’s still irksome. Video has to be converted to a proprietary format, using a buggy and annoying bit of software that has to be located in the hidden recesses of Sansa’s website and downloaded. Video’s probably not worth bothering with on a device this titchy, anyway.

In summary then…
For PC users, this is a top-notch, great-sounding, easy-to-use device for its piffling cost. Mac fans may well like the sound quality, but they won’t like its incompatibility with AAC files, the relative lack of slickness of its interface compared to an iPod, and the lack of a video conversion programme for their machine. On the other hand, given what a pain in the ass said video conversion is, maybe that last one’s not such a bad thing.

Main formats supported
MP3, WMA (including protected WMA)

Sound quality

Style

Build

Features

Overall

Like the sound of this MP3 player? Get chatting about the Sandisk Sansa Fuze on the PriceRunner forums.

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