SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ Review
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ is an exceedingly nice little MP3 Player. It has wonderful audio quality and a pleasant, nice looking design. It's micro-sd card slot makes it easy to expand the memory so you can store all your favorite music. It is capable of playing multiple-types of audio files as well as video and image files. It has a 2.4 inch LCD display with a capacitive touch pad for navigation. In comes in three different storage options, with the 4GB costing only $60. But can it compete with some of Sony's Walkman MP3 players and the other MP3 players on the market? Lets see!
Hardware:
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ is is on the thin side, measuring about 11 mm thick. It is also extraordinarily light at only 2.25 oz. It is constructed out of glossy plastic and feels slightly cheap. When you squeeze the device, it creaks and flexes ever so slightly, creating a unsatisfactory feeling. Despite this, the music player still feels nice to hold. It comes in five lush colors (Electra blue, black, white, red, and purple) that add personality and style to the somewhat bland design. Lets take a quick look around the MP3 player now: on the left side is silver volume rocker and micro-sd card slot.The right-hand side is home to only the micro-usb charging port. On the device's bum is the 3.5 mm headset jack and the microphone. The top houses the silver power button. The Sansa and SanDisk logo are on the back. The screen, Sansa logo, and capacitive touch pad are on the front of the portable music player. The screen is a 2.4 inch LCD display with a resolution of 320x240 (that's a pixel density of 138 ppi). It is decently bright, but photographs and videos look quite grainy. While on the subject of photos and videos, the Sansa Fuze+ supports JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, and PNG images as well as H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, and Flip video files. As for audio file support, it supports all of the major formats. The micro-sd card slot supports cards up to 32GB and also slotRadio cards. The battery is a non-removable Li-Po battery that's rated at 24 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback. As far as navigation and buttons go, the volume rocker and power button have nice tactile feedback and are easy to press. The capacitive touch pad is a completely different story though. When you first use the device, you'll hate it. You will think that is awful and hard to use, making navigating the user interface a pain. But then, after using it for a while, you'll realize that it's not all that bad. Its a little more time consuming that regular physical buttons, but its really not that hard to use. The touch pad is also fairly accurate when it comes to registering your touch . On the durability side of things, the Fuze+ is not very strong. Lets just say I wouldn't want to drop the thing.
What's in the box:
- SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ MP3 Player
- micro-usb 2.0 charging/syncing cable
- Earphones
- Quick start guide
- Rhapsody® Software CD
Software:
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ runs a proprietary operation system. Its nice and easier to use that the Sansa Fuze's interface. When you turn the player on, you are greeted by the main menu. It consists of eight smaller menus; 1. Music: Access all the music stored on the device. 2. Video: View all of your video files. 3. Photo: View all your image files. 4. Radio: Listen to and record FM radio. 5. Books: Listen to all of your pod-casts (they should have called this menu Pod-casts). 6. Voice: Use the microphone to record voice. 7. Card: Access the music stored on your micro-sd card or slotRadio card. 8. Settings: View/change all the device settings. Each smaller menu has an heading, icon, and color when looked at from the main menu. The same background appears behind each small menu, but the color (hue) of that background changes. It is a cool looking effect. The time, play/pause status, and battery meter are at the top of the display and are present all the time. Tapping the center of the touch pad allows you to access the menus. For example, when you tap on Music, you are brought to a list of your artists. Swipe to the left and you see your albums. Keep swiping and you see your songs, genres, playlists, and folders. This is somewhat time consuming, but Its still an enjoyable experience and I like it. All of the menus are very similar to each other in the fact that they all have the swiping mechanic. All the menus are on an infinite loop, although this feature wasn't present until a software update. Speaking of software updates, you can install Sansa Updater on your Windows PC, and you'll be set. When your Fuze+ is plugged into your computer, the Updater will automatically search for updates and ask you if you want to install them. It is very easy to use. The device's audio quality is really nice. Out of the box it doesn't sound that great, but after tweaking some of the EQ settings, it starts to sound pretty good. The player also has a lock function; tap the power button and the screen will shut off and your device will be locked. This is handy is you have your Sansa in your pocket.
Conclusion:
This SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ is a decent MP3 player, a worthy upgrade to its predecessor, the Sansa Fuze. It has everything that the average media/music player needs; the ability to play multiple different formats of audio, video, and image files as well as some added features like voice recorder and FM radio. And lets not forget about the handy micro-sd card slot. So can this compete with other MP3 media players on the market (including the offerings from Sony)? I think it can, and I also think its an admirable opponent as well.
*It is always possible that some specifications or facts may be incorrect. We try our best at MobileTechnology Reviews to provide accurate information, but we occasionally make mistakes. If you notice that something is wrong or incorrect, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll fix it!
Hardware:
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ is is on the thin side, measuring about 11 mm thick. It is also extraordinarily light at only 2.25 oz. It is constructed out of glossy plastic and feels slightly cheap. When you squeeze the device, it creaks and flexes ever so slightly, creating a unsatisfactory feeling. Despite this, the music player still feels nice to hold. It comes in five lush colors (Electra blue, black, white, red, and purple) that add personality and style to the somewhat bland design. Lets take a quick look around the MP3 player now: on the left side is silver volume rocker and micro-sd card slot.The right-hand side is home to only the micro-usb charging port. On the device's bum is the 3.5 mm headset jack and the microphone. The top houses the silver power button. The Sansa and SanDisk logo are on the back. The screen, Sansa logo, and capacitive touch pad are on the front of the portable music player. The screen is a 2.4 inch LCD display with a resolution of 320x240 (that's a pixel density of 138 ppi). It is decently bright, but photographs and videos look quite grainy. While on the subject of photos and videos, the Sansa Fuze+ supports JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, and PNG images as well as H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, and Flip video files. As for audio file support, it supports all of the major formats. The micro-sd card slot supports cards up to 32GB and also slotRadio cards. The battery is a non-removable Li-Po battery that's rated at 24 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback. As far as navigation and buttons go, the volume rocker and power button have nice tactile feedback and are easy to press. The capacitive touch pad is a completely different story though. When you first use the device, you'll hate it. You will think that is awful and hard to use, making navigating the user interface a pain. But then, after using it for a while, you'll realize that it's not all that bad. Its a little more time consuming that regular physical buttons, but its really not that hard to use. The touch pad is also fairly accurate when it comes to registering your touch . On the durability side of things, the Fuze+ is not very strong. Lets just say I wouldn't want to drop the thing.
What's in the box:
- SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ MP3 Player
- micro-usb 2.0 charging/syncing cable
- Earphones
- Quick start guide
- Rhapsody® Software CD
Software:
The SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ runs a proprietary operation system. Its nice and easier to use that the Sansa Fuze's interface. When you turn the player on, you are greeted by the main menu. It consists of eight smaller menus; 1. Music: Access all the music stored on the device. 2. Video: View all of your video files. 3. Photo: View all your image files. 4. Radio: Listen to and record FM radio. 5. Books: Listen to all of your pod-casts (they should have called this menu Pod-casts). 6. Voice: Use the microphone to record voice. 7. Card: Access the music stored on your micro-sd card or slotRadio card. 8. Settings: View/change all the device settings. Each smaller menu has an heading, icon, and color when looked at from the main menu. The same background appears behind each small menu, but the color (hue) of that background changes. It is a cool looking effect. The time, play/pause status, and battery meter are at the top of the display and are present all the time. Tapping the center of the touch pad allows you to access the menus. For example, when you tap on Music, you are brought to a list of your artists. Swipe to the left and you see your albums. Keep swiping and you see your songs, genres, playlists, and folders. This is somewhat time consuming, but Its still an enjoyable experience and I like it. All of the menus are very similar to each other in the fact that they all have the swiping mechanic. All the menus are on an infinite loop, although this feature wasn't present until a software update. Speaking of software updates, you can install Sansa Updater on your Windows PC, and you'll be set. When your Fuze+ is plugged into your computer, the Updater will automatically search for updates and ask you if you want to install them. It is very easy to use. The device's audio quality is really nice. Out of the box it doesn't sound that great, but after tweaking some of the EQ settings, it starts to sound pretty good. The player also has a lock function; tap the power button and the screen will shut off and your device will be locked. This is handy is you have your Sansa in your pocket.
Conclusion:
This SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ is a decent MP3 player, a worthy upgrade to its predecessor, the Sansa Fuze. It has everything that the average media/music player needs; the ability to play multiple different formats of audio, video, and image files as well as some added features like voice recorder and FM radio. And lets not forget about the handy micro-sd card slot. So can this compete with other MP3 media players on the market (including the offerings from Sony)? I think it can, and I also think its an admirable opponent as well.
*It is always possible that some specifications or facts may be incorrect. We try our best at MobileTechnology Reviews to provide accurate information, but we occasionally make mistakes. If you notice that something is wrong or incorrect, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll fix it!