SanDisk Sansa Fuze user reviews (2GB, black)

Pros 1) User-friendly interface, with easy navigation through menus and songs.
2) The outer shell doesn't look half bad.
3) Since it's a flash-based player, you can sync music to it through any computer.
4) Exceptional battery life.

Cons 1) The menus and, well, basically every screen looks dingy and uninspired.
2) Sports a small screen that isn't any good for watching movies or viewing pictures or album art.
3) Doesn't hold near as many songs as advertised.
4) Hard to turn on.

Summary Before ever getting the Sandisk Sansa Fuze, I got the Sandisk Sansa Clip, the smallest of the Sansa family. I enjoyed its sound quality, and in general, I was satisfied with it as a whole since I was an amateur at buying and comparing MP3 players (i.e. I was impressed with whatever was cheap and shiny). When I returned the Clip due to USB port malfunctions, I purchased its big brother: the Sansa Fuze (2GB black). During the year I spent with it, I was overall satisfied with the Fuze, and I didn't have many complaints with it.
Here are the pros:
1) The scroll wheel used on the Fuze is a wonderful device that works like a charm, making navigation through menus and songs a breeze.
2) The Fuze has a slim and sexy look to it, making it feel like a quality competitor to larger competition.
3) One of the complaints I have about iPods and Zunes (the big boys in the MP3 player market) was that you had to have one specific computer to operate and sync music to the device. Not so with the Fuze. Since it is a flash player, you can easily hook it up to any computer, install the software (don't worry- no disk is required for installation), and sync music. Easy as that.
4) The Fuze sports a battery life unmatched by competitors. Of all the many MP3 players I have owned, this has to be the best of them all. I could go four to five days without a single charge. Now THAT is quality.
Even with an outstanding battery life and the compatability with multiple computers, the Fuze did fall short of perfection, as do we all. Here are the things I found distasteful in the Fuze:
1) The menus installed into the Fuze aren't that striking, and the font used in the menus isn't large and, along with that, not very legible either. The screen as a whole, to me, has somewhat of a dingy feel.
2) The screen on the Fuze is so small that is takes the fun out of viewing movies or pictures. Looking at the small pictures of the album art that corresponds with a song makes you squint to see it. Needs a bigger screen.
3) My main complaint with the Fuze is that the five hundred songs it's supposed to support is a lie. Mine didn't hold two hundred songs, and even when I deleted forty songs, a video that was pre-installed with the device, and the pre-installed pictures, I didn't get any memory back. I could delete all I wanted and I would still have the same amount of memory that I had with however many songs I deleted. That was a rip-off.
4) This is only a minor gripe, but it's worth bringing up: the on/hold switch is a hassle to operate, and sometimes I'd have to try three or more times to even turn the Fuze on. Very annoying.
Even though the Fuze isn't the most profound player on the market, it should prove to be a great flash-player for anyone who likes a cheap price and quite a few features, such as the micro-SD slot. Overall else, the Sandisk Sansa Fuze is a great little player, and I would highly recommend it to new comers looking for a simple MP3 player.

Pros Nice Device, great price

Cons It's not what I was told I was buying.

Summary I went shopping for an MP3 at Best Buy. I'm a long time Rhapsody user, so when the Sansa Fuse was presented to me and I was told it was compatible with Rhapsody to Go, I bit. But after spending most of the afternoon trying with no success to download tracks, after switching my account to Rhapsody to Go and after spending an hour with Rhapsody tech support on Sunday, I took the thing back. But just to check, I went onto Rhapsody's site to look at the list of approved devices and guess what? The Fuze isn't listed, even though the software that comes with it includes the Best Buy Music store powered by Rhapsody. So I sent an email to Rhapsody support and this is what they told me: "I regret to inform you that the device Sansa Fuze is not compatible with Rhapsody. As Rhapsody continues to grow, we hope to add this device to the compatibility list." Apparently the tech I shared an hour with didn't know that. Buyer beware, especially a Bes Buy buyer.

Pros Great sound
Good Interface
No need for I-tunes
Support for Audible Audiobooks
Support for Videos
Support for pictures
Support for Podcasts
Expandable Memory slot

Cons Synching with Podcasts
Requires converting of Videos in order to play on player

Summary I purchased this device for a couple of reasons, I didn't want another I-pod had one, it was over-priced, required the I-tunes (which I wasn't necessarily fond of) and was just not something I wanted to go back to.
The device is much smaller than almost any I-pod out there, save the shuffle. The interface is similar to the I-pod and like many others out there, has all the standard fair, Music, Videos, Pictures, Settings, it also includes a few that are not standard to all players; such as, Voice and FM Radio. In the Voice section you can record your voice notes and they appear here, or record something from the FM Radio that's built-in to the device.

First off, I don't listen to alot of music on any MP3 player, I listen primarily to podcasts, and audiobooks from Audible. This device handles both of these admirably. The one drawback to the podcasts that I have is that I haven't found anything that synchs podcasts as well as the I-Pod and I-Tunes but, the device handles podcasts just fine. Audiobooks with the Audible media manger no problem whatsoever, in fact one thing I like better about this device than my old I-pod is that when you hit the chapter ahead button in an audiobook, it actually goes to the next chapter, not the end of the book (like on the I-pod).

For my use it works great, I've been using Media Monkey, that software finds the device just fine and synchs with it (music) just fine.

All of this on top of the fact that it's ever expandable, just keep buying memory and use it and it's unlimited memory/storage space.

Love this device, and if I'm looking for a MP3 player in the future I'll definately consider another Sansa device.

Pros Rhapsody compatible, decent battery life, low price, good sound quality, voice recorder, microsd expansion slot, small, nice color screen

Cons Headphone slot on bottom of player (getting use to it), wish it had a hook to hang around my neck

Summary This player exceeded my expectations. It is a nearly perfect player in my opinion. The only thing I would improve is to increase the battery life to around 40+ hours. As far as rhapsody goes, the player loads almost instantly, even with capacity full on the player as well as the micro sd card. Also, transferring is very quick. I'd recommend this player to everyone.