SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB
The Sanza Fuze delivers an impressive range of features and won’t make you break the bank.
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The Verdict: Every bit as good as an iPod Nano and available at a much cheaper price. |
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SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze is quite the little stunner. For Dhs350, it packs in an MP3 player, video player, FM radio, voice recorder and picture viewer. That’s amazing value for the price.
The Sanza Fuze is about the size of an iPod Nano and is quite sleek. It comes in a variety of colors. We managed to get our hands on the black colored Fuze which has a glossy look to it on the front and a smooth matte finish at the back. Upfront, you have a small screen and a circular navigation pad below it which is encircled by a blue LED light.
It loads up quickly and once it does, you’re presented with a range of options, which can be selected with the help of a circular navigation pad, either by running your finger on it in a circular motion or pressing the pad in any particular direction. The presentation on screen is decent and if you’ve used an iPod before, you’ll be very comfortable using the Sanza Fuze.
Playing Mp3s on the Sanza could not be easier. Simply download an MP3 from a source of your choice and copy it on to the player’s music folder. With 8GB worth of space, you can pack in massive collection of MP3s on to the device.
The only problem with the MP3 player is that once you have over 300 songs, it can be quite cumbersome to find the one that you want to listen to. You’ll be left spinning your thumb around the circular pad for a long time. In all fairness though, you could organize your music into playlists if you have some amount of patience.
While the device proves to be a good MP3 player, we really can’t say the same about the video. For one thing, the video only supports the MP4 video format. You’ll have to download the software from Sanza’s website and use the converter before you can start watching your videos. A 350mb video took roughly 40 minutes to convert through Sanza’s converter. That’s a lot of time to wait. Once converted and copied on to the device, you finally get to view the video. While the screen does provide very crisp video, the size of the screen will leave you squinting to see what’s going on. We’re left longing for a bigger screen on the Sanza for our videos. On a positive note, we loved the fact that the Sanza could remember the position where we stopped watching a video. So, you have the option to stop mid video, switch to an MP3 or FM, and come back to the same spot where you last stopped the video.
Other features on the Sanza Fuze include an FM radio which works with great clarity, a handy voice recorder and a picture viewer.
The Sanza Fuze has incredibly good battery life. We managed to use it for about 2-3 hrs a day for a week without needing to recharge it. Now, that’s pretty impressive. Our only beef with the battery life is that it needs to be charged up with a proprietary cable. We’re not a big fan of proprietary cables because it means that you’ll have to carry the cable with you whenever you travel.
In all, the Sanza Fuze delivers a good range of features and won’t make you break the bank. A worthy competitor to iPod’s Nano range by all means.
We got one of these for our son and he loves it. It wasn't expensive either.
We got one of these for our son and he loves it. It wasn't expensive either.
Well, it's a good MP3, and the price is 1/3 that of an iPod Nano. It's a good starter device for little kids growing out of LeapFrog stuff. However, the Fuze doesn't compare to the Nano. No camera or game capability or a lot of other niceties – especially ease of use Apple-type features. The Fuze can be a real pain in the neck, just like most PCs. Apples and oranges.