SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB Video MP3 Player
Unless you have a really huge library of music you probably do not need 120 GB MP3 player such as the iPod Classic. The SanDisk Sansa Fuze has 8 GB which is plenty for most people’s needs. You can also increase this by adding a 4GB card tking the player up to 12 GB. This is what I have done and the player now has plenty of space for my photos and small videos such as home movies or the “Best of YouTube” daily podcast.
The Sansa Fuze was one of last year’s best reviewed mp3 players and it won Best MP3 Player of 2008 and with a list price of only $99 compared to a list price of $199.99 for the 8 GB iPod nano it is a more affordable option.
Main Features of Sansa Fuze Video MP3 Player
- Plays videos, music, and audio books
- Battery gives you up to 24 hours audio playback and 5 hours of video playback
- FM Radio.
- Audiobook feature bookmarks your place.
- Voice recording with built-in microphone
- Has a microSD/microSDHC slot. Add up to 32 GB additional space. Wow!
- Video format (MPEG-4) Music (MP3,WMA, secure WMA and audio book file formats), Photos (JPEG)
- File converter application (free) allows video conversion from other formats.
Here is a short video from Sansa that gives you a better idea of what the Sansa Fuze can do:
How Does the Sansa Fuze compare with iPod Nano?
As an owner of both the Sansa Fuze and the iPod Nano I can give you my impressions using both. I had read a lot of good reviews before buying the Fuze and the lower price was very attractive.
The Fuze apes the iPod with its wheel navigation, (although it looks more like the iPod Classic) but the Sansa wheel is mechanical not touch sensitive and as such I found it sticky and less easily manipulated.
For viewing video the screen in the Fuze is a little larger than the iPod’s but the resolution is noticeably poorer. This may not matter to you if you are not planning to watch videos on your player.
On the plus side there is an FM radio and you can record memos to yourself with the inbuilt recorder. With the iPod you have to purchase a compatible head set with 
microphone in order to use the recording function. I rather liked this function and used it occasionally. Handy if you want to note something when you unable to write, such as when driving.
Creating playlists and synchronizing your Sansa Fuze is done via Windows Media Player and this is really very easy once you know how. I may be slow but it took me a while to work it out. Eventually I downloaded a free application called Happy Fish to download podcasts. These then automatically appear in WMP for synchronization. You can use Rhapsody, the desktop application it comes with, but I found Happy Fish simpler and less resource hungry.
You can also add files and delete them using the internal file system on the Sansa Fuze but I found this did not work very well. Some deletions made in this way remained on the player and other files known to be on the player were not to be found!
These small inconveniences asid the Sansa Fuze is amazingly good value for a player that is much less expensive than the iPod Nano. It has a huge amount of potential space with the option of adding an expansion card of up to 32 GB, and the sound quality is excellent. The audiobook function allows you to listen to novels and it bookmarks them. The player held plenty of photos and home videos and the the fm radio and memo recording options are a plus.
So why did I go out and buy an iPod Nano?
The truth is I love the design of the iPod Nano, it is so beautiful both to see and to touch. I enjoy it and it will surely emerge as a design classic for this century.
Another reason I justified splashing out on a Nano is that without iTunes an mp3 Player seems to me to be much less versatile. iTunes has thousands of songs, movies and podcasts and it works seemlessly with the Nano. If this doesn’t worry you or if you are not an Apple fan then you will be perfectly happy with the Sansa Fuze.
I gave mine to my husband. It is his first mp3 player and he is very happy with it.
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