SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
by SanDisk
|
List Price: Our Price: $62.95 You Save: $17.04 (21%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $32.95 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: My favorite MP3 player!
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband bought the Sansa View 4 GB MP3 player for me a few years ago. I was excited to get it, and I still love it! It's been perfect for me - great sound, great picture quality, it's never had any problems, and it's easy to use. The thing that cinched it for me, in determining what I wanted, was the fact that the Sansa has limitless expandability. When I ran out of internal memory, all I needed was an inexpensive microSD/SDHC card and I was good to go! I can also dedicate certain cards for certain things. For example, I do a lot of meditation and visual imagery - so I have a dedicated micro SD card for much of that.
When we looked at the MP3 players we realized we could buy a 4 GB Sansa View for around $55, and buy add'l microSD/SDHC cards as we needed them - which isn't often. The Sansa has excellent video and sound quality, quality workmanship, and limitless expandibility. For around $75 you can buy an 8 GB Sansa, and have 2 GB more internal memory, with the same expandibility as the 4 GB Sansa.
Before I had the Sansa I had a Creative Zen - which I loved. Unfortunately it stopped working just after the warranty expired, and in my opinion it was too expensive to have it repaired. I was determined to fix it myself, but since my birthday was here again, my husband bought me the Sansa.
Our family owns several MP3 players - 4 GB Sansa View, 16 GB Creative Zen Vision M, 2 GB Creative Zen Mosaic, 8 GB Zune, and a 2nd generation iPod Touch with 32 GB of memory - which my husband won. The only one with expandibilty is the Sansa. And, although I love the idea of apps, the difference in price doesn't justify it, esp. considering the lack of expandibility.
We can only add to the Zune by using our own CDs or subscribing to the Zune network - which is $14.95 per month. If the subscription to the Zune network is cancelled all the music is lost - which also happens with the other MP3 players when you cancel any subscription service.
Not too long ago, our 16 year old daughter asked for a Sansa View when she realized how much more it had to offer. She liked mine, and loved the idea of being able to change sd memory cards to stretch her dollar and the amount of memory this player holds. This capability is one of the things I love most about mine. There are no other MP3 players, that I'm aware of, which have this capability. We both have 4 GB players, and both have a couple of extra memory cards to expand the amount of material we can play.
Bottom line: I put this player above all others if longetivity, quality, price, and expandibility are important to you, and are what you're looking for.
Customer Review: SanDisk Sansa Fuze is a "Must Buy" Friends.....Just Love it
Summary: 5 Stars
**UPDATE:** I now own this player for about 14 months and it has just started to show some signs of distress. The dial - it sometimes get locked and I cannot move it forward or backward, but after a while it works just fine. happens every 3-4 days, maybe will get worse over time. BUT - all in all it is a GREAT player and produced great music (still does, except for the dial lock). Since it was inexpensive, I would say I got more than what I paid for (I paid about $65, 14 months ago). I love it and highly recommend it to everyone, especially because my Apple iPod Classic, worth $350, died in 6 months, read below).
I got a brand new iPod Classic as birthday gift from my husband in' 07. 8 months - after treating and caring for it like a baby one fine day my iPod died, just didn't start. I tried every tip and trick mentioned on the web to restart or fix it (as I had done thrice before)but all in vain. Finally, I took my iPod to a Apple store and they said that they would have to change its hard disk as it is dead (which would cost me $75, with no guarantee or service plan even if I wanted to, and also no disclosure about the parts used-if original or refurbished). You know how bad luck is typically like right - I have a service plan for "EVERYTHING" I have in my house , right from my TV, music stereo system, furniture, mattress, appliance, you name it - but never had to use any of it as nothing ever went wrong. This time I didn't have it and the gadget died! :-) (Just so you know - also my mattress had a spilled coffee stain and a big rip just a month after its 5 yr service plan expired).
Anyways, I finally decided to buy an inexpensive MP3 player this time round as I frankly didn't want to risk buying another expensive gadget (definitely not the Apple iPod) so I browsed around on Amazon and found this beautifil and reliable friend - the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB. Its been close to 6 months since I got it and I can blindly recommend this gadget to anyone. This did freeze a couple times (once the screen froze with the light on and once it would never start) but it was a 10 sec fix. Just a little trouble shooting is all it needs. Hold the switch button pushing up for 10 secs and its fine. Trust me its not at all a thing to be scared of. This happened a few times to my iPod Classic too (I guess happens with all out there). But overall - the voice quality - both earphones and car, extra features, ease of use and download, looks and everything else I would give it a *10*. I know the value of a single penny in this economy and would never recommend an undeserving product. Trust me friends, this is the one for you.
Customer Review: more than just an mp3 player, but solidly focused on the music
Summary: 5 Stars
The Fuze takes Sandisk's micro SD cards, and thanks to a new innovation called slotRadio, you can purchase a card from them with 1000 songs pre-loaded for a very reasonable price. The slotRadio is definitely a mp3-for-dummies kind of feature and limited only to certain Sandisk devices, but it is a great deal for such a low price-per-song. Current slotRadio selections include rock, country, hip hop/r&b, oldies, and 80s & 90s with more to come.
You will have to upgrade the Fuze firmware to make slotRadio work, but that's not too hard. You probably want to do that anyway. The firmware upgrade also adds file/folder browsing menus and the "Replay Gain" feature. I did not have any problem with the upgrade.
Sandisk also has a selection of slotMusic cards that are one album per card. The slotMusic cards are more expensive per song, but you can transfer them to your computer or other devices.
The Fuze is also compatible with Rhapsody, and, of course, you can add on your own mp3's from anyplace else. I haven't really tried Rhapsody. It seems like a pretty good deal, but as I already have so many songs I'm not sure that I need it. Also, I prefer DRM-free solutions.
BTW, the Fuze can play videos too. I loaded a movie that I downloaded off the internet. It took about one hour to convert and load it onto the Fuze using their conversion software (it was already in MP4 format when I downloaded it). The picture looks pretty good to me for such a small screen, but the Fuze is definitely more geared to music. The Sansa View has a larger screen, but I don't think it's compatible with slotRadio.
You can't play games or browse the web on the Fuze like on an iPod touch. Sandisk doesn't yet have anything to compete with the touch or iphone. However, their mp3 players do what they are supposed to do very well. The sound quality is better than ipod and that should be the main focus of any mp3 player.
The Fuze also has a built-in FM tuner and voice recording capability. If the thousands of songs I have aren't enough or I want to listen to the news and weather I can switch over to FM. The inclusion of FM fits nicely with the focus on music as opposed to games and internet browsing which you can do on your phone or other device.
The voice recording isn't a big deal to me, but as long as it's not significantly adding to the cost of the device, I don't mind it being there.
Overall, a great device for the price with some innovative features that open up new possibilities for music enjoyment.
Customer Review: Great sound value and super easy to use!
Summary: 5 Stars
After several years of owning cheap battery powered mp3 players that routinely froze and died, I finally upgraded! I did a lot of research and decided on this model after reading Amazon reviews. It's sleek, easy to load music onto, simple to use, and appears pretty durable. I wish there was a cover for the additional memory port and the opening where the charger goes b/c I can see this getting dirt& dust in it. I'm not super crazy about "wheeling" up or down for volume BUT I will say it is extremely easy to use once you get the hang of it. A negative for me is that there's no place to attach a lanyard so unless you buy other accessories, you're going to be holding this in your hand and that's not effective for workouts, which is what I bought this for. BUT I knew this going in so purchased an accesory pack that came with the travel charger, cover, arm band and belt clip - and they work great in partnership with the SanDisk Sansa Fuse 4GB player.
Positives: simplicity of use, size, you can put your own music on (no subscriptions required), it holds a ton of music and sorts the music by genre. It's super easy to build a playlist on your Windows Media Player and copy that list intact to this player .. also neat feature that I really enjoy is the ability to add any song to your "go to list." So if your go to list is of a certain genre (easy listening or fast paced) you can simply populate it without creating a playlist. However I don't see that you can create more than one go-to list.
Negatives: No lanyard to attach so you can't wear this around your neck and you must hold it or buy other stuff to clip it to your belt, arm etc. That's it - and that's not that big of a deal to me.
The sound quality is fantastic, I like the option to choose my equalizer settings (pre programmed Rock, Pop, Vocal etc OR program my own settings), FM stations come in clearly and are easily programmable and it also appears to have a decent batter life. I haven't loaded photos or videos and don't know if I ever will but again, that's not what I bought this for anyways.
This little player gets the job done and then some. If you're searching for a reasonably priced, simple to use and all around great MP3 player - this is it!! *****
UPDATED DEC 09.. I've continued to enjoy this MP3 player; I've traveled with it, worked out with it, and continue to enjoy it very much. GREAT purchase :o)
UPDATED OCT 10: hearty lil mp3 keeps on trucking. Still use it. Still love it!
Customer Review: Love the recording feature
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, this isn't a techie review.
I bought this for my 11-year-old son who wanted an MP3 player for Christmas. In my low-tech opinion, it's working out great.
I like having the option of adding a card to hold more music or whatever (though he hasn't done that yet). He's also loaded a couple photos on it.
We didn't have much trouble figuring out how to download music from Rhapsody but honestly, to me, the best feature is that he can just record it straight from the computer (or another source).
I have a playlist file set up to listen to music that I like but, since I prefer to travel light, I don't carry around my own MP3 player and don't have a reason to download music. So I was a little disgusted to find that, despite regularly paying about 15 dollars a month for a Rhapsody account, the music we paid for no longer worked after that month was up (even though the account was being paid for). Forget that--who in the grownup world has time to find and download the music all over again? And if you'll be out of town and not near a computer, do you really want your music inaccessible when you're counting on it?
So I had him just use the recording feature on his Sansa Fuze to record the music directly from the computer. He just turned up the music on my computer, set the Fuze to record, shut the door and ignored it until the music was done playing.
I suppose there may be a little sound quality difference but really, it's fine. This worked out great for a family vacation we took this spring, which included a surprise birthday luau for two family members at the villa we rented. We stealthily recorded lots of tropical party music ahead of time, then played it during the party on an Altec Lansing iM-237 Orbit speaker, plugged into the Fuze. It worked great.
Plus my son had his own stash of music--stored on a separate track/channel/whatever you call it--on his Fuze, for listening on the plane.
The price on these nearly doubled at Christmas time but I was able to find good deals on them through Dell and RadioShack, about the same as what's being offered now in July 2009.
Since you can expand the memory with a card, I'd say this remains a good deal. Just buy a nice set of earbuds and a silicone skin (plus a charger if you won't be near a computer) and you're good to go.