SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ 8 GB MP3 Player (Purple) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

My history with mp3 players goes like this: bought iPods in the early 2000s, was very frustrated with them breaking, learned about flash drive based and liked Creative Zens a lot. My Creative Zen Mosaic of the last 5 years has finally bit the big one, so I was shopping for another one, and wasn't too impressed with their more recent offerings. I also wanted more space - but I didn't want to pay that much either. When I heard about the microSD cards that these could take I got very excited. I bought one of these players and a 32 gig Sandisk at the same time http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WGJYCY/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00 Finally, my last need was something that worked well with Linux. There are workarounds for Creative/MTM transport on Linux but in general it is a pain.This dragged and dropped. So I took the plunge! My review will be mostly comparing this to the Creative Zen since that is what I have used inside and out for years.There is a LOT of good.1) Drag and drop functionality for loading up music and pictures. I don't care about video too much. Loading up the mp3 player was easy. I tested some things to see if it would be fussy about folders and such. You can drop single tracks in the general Music folder, or you can load tracks 3-4 folders deep.2) Threw some curves the players way with some mp4 and flac files, and it read them just fine! There's a lot of misinformation on the web about this, I think it has to do with the firmware you have - if you have the most recent, it WILL play m4as!3) The way the menu is organized is really nice, with podcasts, radio, video, photos, music all as 'top level' directories. Also, if you're like me and never want to use your player for something (like video) you can set that in the settings.4) Creative always had to have its own software set the time and date. But this thing, it is all in the firmware. So I did not have to load software on a Windows computer just to set the time and date!5) Combining with a microSD card was really easy. The SD card will have a seperate entry in your "My Computer" but the actual player will load all your music in the music menu, no matter where it comes from. Plus, for about 70 bucks I got a 40 gig player. Cannot beat that financially!6) Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Some people on the internet seem confused about shuffle - in your main music settings, have shuffle ON and repeat OFF. Once you do that, you are good to go. This player has something I liked about iPods but Creative never got around to, and that is shuffle not only all songs or within an album, but within an artist - so if I am in a Zeppelin mood, I just navigate to Artists, go to the Zep and hit shuffle all. I like that.7) The settings will tell you exactly where you at battery power, exactly how much space you are using on your device and your card and what you have left, stuff like that. I have found it very useful.This is not a perfect player, however. Compared to the Zen, there's a few things i was disappoint.1) Battery power - this seems to have about ..75% the battery power of Zen. After 8 hrs of use it says 44% battery power left. Fortunately there's a really cheap 'starter Fuze+ kit' you can buy for about 11 bucks http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IN21FM/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00 that comes with chargers for all situations you need. So I just have a charger at work. It has a larger screen than the Zen so that is most likely where the juice is going.2) Touch interface. Note that I am not cool, I don't have iPads or Tablets or a SmartPhone so this is my first device which uses swiping. I will also say that the more I use it, the easier it gets, which tells me the problem is me. That all said, I still find navigation pretty frustrating at times and wish it just had buttons.3) Tagging. If you're like me and have been lugging around an mp3 collection from the Olden Days on a hard drive, not everything is tagged properly. I know there's ID3 and ID4....I honestly don't know too much. I DO KNOW that some albums I have the Creative read the tags just fine and this says UNKNOWN ARTIST-UNKNOWN ALBUM. That's what you get for that kinda conglomerate mp3 collection, I suppose. Everything that I've made tags for recently it reads fine.All in all I am very happy with my purchase, especially when you consider the money spent with the space given, and the fact that in my personal use I don't really need to navigate a lot, just find 'shuffle all' at the beginning of my workday and go from there.

I am fussy when it comes to sound quality and I rate this player high. The clip is not bad either, though I feel the Fuze+ balances the highs and lows better in comparison with the Sansa Clip. Using some high-end headsets I tested both players.It seems to play movies fine and the screen quality is ample at this small a size.Along with everyone else I agree the touch controls have a lot to be desired. It takes some getting used to but its not as bad as some make out -- firmware updates are essential. Sandisk really need to address this issue in their next model by possibly returning to real buttons!The design is better than anything else out there in my opinion and the flexibility with file formats is a big plus, unlike Apple and Sony's players.Great value, and great sound.UPDATE FEB 2012 - The Touchpad Fix:This is a follow-up to my review on the Sansa+. I have been using this player for approx 11 months. No complaints with the sound.The software is not very good especially concerning Audiobooks -- see how to handle the tags and where to place your files here: [...]ALso it would be preferable if Sansa allowed for folder views for all directories not just the Music directory. Often it is hard to see books with long titles you are trying to find because the lettering is too big and can't be adjusted.I have a big fix for the touchpad which I have implemented on my Fuze+ successfully.First off it amazes me how this model was allowed into production with such an aweful touch response navigation. Do Sansa have product quality control? Its pretty ridiculous. The only thing they have done is to update the firmware. I have found a fix for the overly sensitve touchpad -- I decided to try dulling that finger touch sensitivity -- and it worked.Do not try this fix unless you are experienced with taking electronics apart and have good hand manual dexterity. You need to open the casing -- search on YouTube for video explanations on how to do this.Be extremely careful with the wire that connects the touchpad to the Sansa circuit board. I did disconnect the wire but it was not easy to put back...You need to pry the touchpad off the top plastic casing -- its stuck down with a thin film of adhesive. Again be super careful prying it off -- take it slowing -- you don't wish to snap it by pulling it up too much at a time. Mine released quite easily... eventually. Stick a piece of paper firmly to the back of the sticky on the touchpad (I used Post It pad paper). Trim the excess off the edges so its the same size and shape as the touchpad. Place the touchpad back in its correct position (note this before removing it). It helps to stick it in place with tape or something suitable.Reassemble the player.It works great -- scrolling and selecting files is 10x better. Such a simple fix Sansa could easily pass on to the manufacturer, before they are assembled.Now I like my Fuze+ way more...

We'll I was pretty excited to get this after needing an MP3 player for quite awhile and didn't want to spend a bunch just for an Ipod. So, I went with this. The blue is very pretty kinda has a sparkle to it. I have no problems with the touch controls a few glitchy but nothing to big but I do see how it could get frustrating. It's very simple. I had no problem adding music to this player at all. Update was a breeze. The radio only picked up a few stations so wasn't that impressed with that. And I thought it was suppose to say the song playing? it only shows me the station name. But the same station will show it on the car cd player. Speaking of car cd players, I hooked up the Fuze+ to the USB cable for my cd player and it blinks "reading" I am very dissapointed it doesn't even show up for USB for my cd player. I'm so used to pushing a button to lock the screen and than it goes black, well nope. This is a tad bit different if you hold the play/pause button for a few seconds it will come up with + saying to unlock scroll up on the touch controls. I did however change the backlight to dim at 15 seconds which helps. I do like how you can change it so it only scrolls through what you use the most, I hid the podcasts-voice-pictures leaving only up music-card-radio-settings so alot nicer for that. Headphones that come with it are way to big for my ears and fall out easily. From what I could hear didn't sound to bad if they would stay.Overall, its a Mp3 player simple as that. It's not the best but it works. If on a budget I would suggest it. Pretty decent size for the price too.

I cannot rate this unit as it did not work (would not turn on). I contacted the manufacturer but they could not help with my unit. Their advise was to return the unit. Amazon however would not replace the unit (none left at that price?) but the return was easy.

I really like my mp3 player. I could never figure out how to see videos on it even when I used the converter software. I load my audiobooks under Podcast otherwise it lists the chapters backwards. Otherwise it's easy to use and good quality.