I am looking at the Fuze and have a few questions from current users. I used to have a the e240v1 until it died without any hope of repair (I did nothing and I only had it 14 months - out of warranty of course).
Then I bought a Sansa Express to replace it and was very happy with (esp. the price since it was on sale). Well that just got stolen at the gym and I am without a mp3 player.
I mainly listen to the radio/some songs/podcasts, etc… I never could get the video feature to work on my e240. My main thing is I want simplicity for loading music/podcasts, expandable memory and a long battery life. Is the Fuze my best option?
What is the real battery life of the Fuze? I am going to be flying to Australia from the U.S. and I don’t want my MP3 player to die halfway through. It says 24 hrs for audio but is that reality?
I would say either the Clip or the Fuze. They are almost identical in core features, but of course the Fuze adds a larger display, limited video support, visual bells and whistles, and expandable memory.
If small form factor is important and 4GB or less is enough storage, then go with the Clip. But, if expandable memory really is important to you, then go with the Fuze.
As for the battery life, I haven’t tested it myself, but the review on ABI tested it at around 20 hours.
My Fuze is brand new, and I’m sure it’ll start to get longer as the battery “wears in”, but as of now I’m getting around 14 hours of battery. This is between riding the bus to school (~30 mins) then on the way home, and for about 4 hours a day on the stereo system.
I have the 4gb red version, with a 1gb card in it where I store audiobooks.
One comment though, it seems to eat battery faster listening to audiobooks at 64kbps than with music blasting at 320kbps.
Message Edited by cupooterluvr on 06-04-2008 01:58 PM
Does reading the audio files from the µSD card involve a higher current draw?
I am curious about the read operation from this bank of memory. Does the Fuze read the memory within the µSd card as it does the resident bank, or does it temporarily buffer the file to the main memory in pages?
If I understand the µSD system, the card is treated as a separate “device” by the Sansa, yes? I am curious as this relates to the initial Rhapsody glitch. (Rhapsody was “confused”.)
The new Sansas (e200 and Fuze) appear to perform more smoothly with the expandable memory device, allowing video and music to be easily accessed from the card.
I’m looking forward to experimenting with the µSD and SDHC devices with these machines… The View depletes its battery more rapidly with a card inserted in the bay. I’m going to bet that the Fuze will not exhibit this behavior.
Time for some research.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Message Edited by neutron_bob on 06-04-2008 05:09 PM
Keep in mind, the ratings from sites like ABI will generally be running through a list of songs at a set bitrate without touching the device. The play time will be much less if you mess with it from time to time, changing songs and activating the display. I suspect the 14 hours that a user experienced would be more applicable.
neutron bob brings up some really interesting points about the microSD. I find myself using that quite a lot lately.
I’m looking forward to experimenting with the µSD and SDHC devices with these machines…
I’m about to give it a shot as well. FYI, Newegg has a several 4GB Class 6 cards for under $20. Most retail stores are charging twice that for a Class 2 (agonizingly slow) card. I’d love to get 8GB, but I haven’t seen a Class 6 one anywhere yet. Plus, I’m sure they’ll probably be quite expensive. Seems like 4GB Class 6 is the best bang for buck right now.
Little did we know back in the 1960s that Mr. Spock was testing the earliest SanDisk SD cards. Here we are, years later, and those prototypes were actually huge in comparison to the µSD!
