SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB

Posted on 9 Dec 2008 at 12:15

Manufacturer: Sandisk
http://www.sandisk.com/

Supplier: Play.com
www.play.com

Price: £77 (£90 inc VAT)

Rating: 4/6

The Fuze represents a step up, not only in capacity from the Mozaic, but also in all-round quality. This is a very nicely designed player: it's slim, solid and is finished in luxurious piano black on the front and grippy rubberised plastic on the rear.

Its user interface isn't as pretty, but in conjunction with the blue backlit scroll wheel on the front, makes the Fuze extremely easy to use. In addition, there's a healthy dose of features: an FM radio, voice-recording facilities and even expandable memory - the Fuze takes micro-SDHC cards to boost the memory should you run out of space.

Sound quality isn't, however, quite up there with the best this month. We found it powerful but a little on the harsh side, and its video playback quality isn't wonderful either. That screen isn't much bigger than the Mozaic's at 1.9in, and its resolution and maximum frame rate (220 x 176 at 20fps) don't make video much more watchable.

We also didn't like the proprietary connector - it isn't mini-USB as every other player here is - which means you can't just swap and change cables and chargers with other USB devices. That said, it's better value than the iPod nano, and if you don't want the extras of the X-Fi it's still a very good audio player.

Creative Zen Mosaic 2GB
iRiver L-Player 8GB
Creative Zen X-Fi 16GB
Apple iPod Nano 16GB
Apple iPod Touch 32GB

Back to: MP3 Players

Author: Darien Graham-Smith, Mike Jennings & Matthew Spark