Sansa Fuze+

Just bought an 8GB Fuze+ last night, and I have to say I’m REALLY disappointed in it. I’ll refrain from using the profanity I feel it deserves and explain as calmly as possible.

  • First, it just feels cheap - the previous Fuze’s felt much more solid and “denser”.  It also showed every figerprint and quickly became smuged just from normal handling.  I liked the V1 and V2’s “felt bag” because it protected the screen from scratches and kept the unit clean.

  • The power button on top, the volume buttons on the side are slow to respond. Although the placement of the earphone jack at the center on the bottom is nice for cheap docking stations, it uses a smaller USB type plug on the side which was a pain to connect, I felt like it was a matter of time before I bent it trying to plug it in.  When it was unplugged it felt like it took twice as long for it to finishing with the new “loading…” transitional screen.

  • The “swipe” navigation is just plain awful - once you reach the end (far right), there’s no option to “wrap around” like the spinning wheel does on the Fuze V1 and V2.  I felt the GUI was a step backwards.  No clear “home” button made it difficult to go from playing music, to the settings menu and change time, date, or other options.

  • I was unable to delete a folder I’d just created via Windows explorer…I was told the device was no longer responding or connected, and got that awful piano “thud” sound from Windows.  I tried copying two folders, with content, to the Fuze+ - and somehow the content got swapped!?  So I tried deleting each folder to re-create the folders on the device and it wouldn’t release one of the folders (and it wasn’t playing that content).

Bottom line - try before you buy.  I’m returning mine today, and going with the Fuze V2 instead.

Big Question for you CoindoorDave. If you bought it last night then how do you already have it. Even if you got the 2day shipping it wouldn’t be there till tomorrow. I think you decided to get on here an give the Fuze+ a bad name by giving a false review. NO WAY COULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN IT IF YOU ORDERED IT LAST NIGHT!!! NO :robotmad: WAY   

Note!  This is a family forum.  Please refrain from thinly veiled @$#%!! words, as most folks can easily figure it out.  Let’s keep the forums “friendly”. 

Thank you** ,**

µsansa

@demobetatester wrote:

Big Question for you CoindoorDave. If you bought it last night then how do you already have it. Even if you got the 2day shipping it wouldn’t be there till tomorrow. I think you decided to get on here an give the Fuze+ a bad name by giving a false review. NO WAY COULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN IT IF YOU ORDERED IT LAST NIGHT!!! NO :robotsurprised: WAY   

Easy, killer…maybe he is near a store that has one in stock.

I live a couple miles from the Best Buy in Davenport, Iowa.  They had have several in stock (black & white for sure, maybe red and blue…dunno, but there were only 3 V2 Fuze’s on the pegboard still). 

FWIW: The receipt sez:

1116326 SDMX20R-008

  SANSA FUZE+ 8GB  BLACK    89.99

Date/Time stamp: 09/11/10   18:41

Give 'em a call: 563-386-5777

Did you update the firmware? Someone else mentioned that with the included firmware the navigation seemed sluggish, but after he updated the firmware(to 1.07.02 the player seemed much more responsive.

Yea, first thing I did was plug it in and download the new updater (first time thru it showed the V1/V2 fuze on the left) then the firmware.  I want to say it had 1.25.something out of the box, so I updated it, then copied music I had backed up from my V1 (before it up and died). 

The side-to-side “swiping” was aggravating, but not near as bad as the up/down and “back arrow”.  I’d try as gently & slow as possible to scroll up one song or artist, and it would jump 2 or 3, so I had to go back and forth a lot.  With the V1/V2 wheel I feel I have a lot more precision and accuracy as to where I go and when I stop. 

I also like that the V1/V2 wheel menu “wraps around” instead of hitting the end and just bouncing back like a rubber wall.  Maybe there was a feature to do that, didn’t look - it was a challenge just finding the settings menu to adjust the clock and they even managed to screw up something as simple as that.  Swipe up (bounce!)…nope “down” to 7…swipe right to the minute column…no, the MINUTE column not the am/pm column…etc…and again, the whole unit felt like a cheap knock-offs from one of those “claw” redemption games…it weighed next to nothing and I knew it’s high-gloss shine would be scratched up in no time from normal handling…

Sorry for the excessive rant…I did a lot of comparison shopping a couple years ago and decided at the time to go with the Fuze, I just hoped the Fuze+ would have been “more”.  Bought myself a V1…and my wife one…and got a deal on a refurb V2 from WOOT.com for my 12 year old.  They figured out how to use it in no time.  The only headache was scaling cover art to 200x200 and using MP3TAG editor to update that…whether it was CDs I ripped, Amazon buys, or MP3s I had magically appear from places unknown…I was disappointed when my Fuze started randomly resetting or dieing even with a full charge…then the “refreshing” when nothing changed…and finally total death…

So…fast forward to last week…the MUZAK they pipe in at work (right above my head) drove me to the edge and I HAD to find something so thought I’d try the Fuze+ (mostly hoping gapless playback would be a feature…).

@coindoordave wrote:

 

 

The side-to-side “swiping” was aggravating, but not near as bad as the up/down and “back arrow”.  I’d try as gently & slow as possible to scroll up one song or artist, and it would jump 2 or 3, so I had to go back and forth a lot.  With the V1/V2 wheel I feel I have a lot more precision and accuracy as to where I go and when I stop. 

 

I think you’re not quite used to it yet or don’t fully understand how it works. You use the ‘swiping’ motion to quickly scroll through lists. To move just one at a time you ‘tap’ once at the far end of the swipe bar (whether it be side-to-side or up-and-down).

I love this player, I really do. It has a nice weight to it, I love the features and how it works. I have the clip+ which I gave to my son when I decided to get the fuze+. The unit appears to be faulty though, it plays one slotradio card and not another, they both work on the clip+.

It randomly won’t recognize some of the songs I put on it (not all), it says “unrecognized format” when I was listening to them an hour ago. These are songs I ripped off my own CD’s. When I format the player and put the songs back on it recognizes them again.

When I was listening to a slotradio card it suddenly started a loud buzzing noise that wouldn’t stop until I did a reset. It also won’t move forward one song when I tap the forward or backward tap areas, it usually goes 2, sometimes going forward when I tap back, or skipping 8 songs instead. 3, 5, 7, 1, 8… makes no sense.

I will have it replaced with another unit, in hopes that this is just a buggy one. Besides the problems that obviously aren’t intended it’s a wonderful and fun device. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced similar problems with it.

Before you ask, I installed the updater and updated it. I take very good care of my electronic equipment, I sewed a little pouch to protect it with a cord to hang around my neck, as I couldn’t seem to find any kind of holder for it online.

I was rather dissapointed at the lack of a real users manual, there’s a red dot on the top of the screen to the left of the shuffle icon. No idea what that is, an indicator of some sort. A user’s manual would be nice to find out what that is.

So, I have mixed feelings. Happy and Confused. :cry:

(unhappy that I’ll have to give it up and have to wait for a replacement!)

Can’t wait to try it mine will get to me some time today. !!! 

LadyPandi wrote:

 

When I was listening to a slotradio card it suddenly started a loud buzzing noise that wouldn’t stop until I did a reset. It also won’t move forward one song when I tap the forward or backward tap areas, it usually goes 2, sometimes going forward when I tap back, or skipping 8 songs instead. 3, 5, 7, 1, 8… makes no sense.

 

I was rather dissapointed at the lack of a real users manual, there’s a red dot on the top of the screen to the left of the shuffle icon. No idea what that is, an indicator of some sort. A user’s manual would be nice

 

 

it sounds like shuffle is on. go to settings > music settings if shuffle is on turn it off. 

Does the fuze+ support folder navigation?

@mags1230 wrote:

Does the fuze+ support folder navigation?

no

@drlucky wrote:

 


@mags1230 wrote:

Does the fuze+ support folder navigation?


no

 

That seems like a step backwards. I never cared about folder navigation myself, but I know it was a big issue for some, and there was much rejoicing in that camp when the Fuze got folder nav.

@gwk1967 wrote:


@drlucky wrote:

 


@mags1230 wrote:

Does the fuze+ support folder navigation?


no

 


That seems like a step backwards. I never cared about folder navigation myself, but I know it was a big issue for some, and there was much rejoicing in that camp when the Fuze got folder nav.

It should only be an issue if you don’t have good tagging practices. There’s sure to be some groans when this news gets out.

No folder navigation!?!!  :dizzy_face:

It was a feature I used all the time.   It should have been included.  :cry: :cry:

@marvin_martian wrote:

 

It should only be an issue if you don’t have good tagging practices.  

I make folders that are groups of songs that I like for each different folder.  I’m not a fan of making playlists and there’s only one GoList.  These folders do not show up in the Album list.  And using Top Rated wouldn’t work for me either.

Me I want it in the Audiobook section how do i do that 
Me: or is that only for .aa format 
Sandisk: You are correct. It is only for the .aa (audible) format.

THIS IS A RIP OFF. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO PAY AUDIBLE FOR AUDIOBOOKS WE ALREADY OWN JUST SO WE CAN HAVE THEM ON OUR FUZE+ THIS IS WRONG

Audible provides instructions on how to burn Audible files to CD; and then you can rip them to MP3 format.  You also can find instructions for this on the web–try a search engine search.  A bit of a hassle, but better than not.

once again you can use the podcasts folder and the audio books will appear under podcasts in the main menu.

Yah i get that but we should be able to have them in the AUDIOBOOKS section not the podcast section. its stupid that they did that. I hope that they make a firmware update that allows mp3 with the audiobooks tag to be placed in the audiobooks section.