Ok…i hate that I keep going back and forth between MP3 players…I was torn between a 4GB Creative Zen and the 4GB Fuze…since its a gift and I know the GF doesn’t care for a million features…i went with the smaller of the two and got the Fuze…but the Zen is pretty nice looking…bigger screen for video and all that…and even though I have the Fuze already…still thinking if I should get the Zen instead.
Can you Fuze lovers help me in letting me know why NOT to get the Zen and keep the Fuze? I was gonna buy a Zen from walmart and play around with it to see if I really liked it and if it was easier to navigate and easier to set up the track names and ■■■■ like I mentioned I wanted to do in my other thread…just a lil annoyed that I can’t have “artist - track name” show up if you go by SONGS…but I know its all the same route ARIST > ALBUM > SONG…so its whatever you set the track to…but should be an option where you can have artist and track show in the song list if you select by song.
OK…i’ll shut up now…why should I keep the Fuze and forget about the Zen?
The Fuze has proven itself to be stable (at least for me). I personally haven’t seen any of these known bugs listed in the Latest Firmware post stickied above. Also, the sound quality is great. And I personally like it for the simple menus and for the Ogg Vorbis support that they just added (although if battery power is your thing, stick with 128Kbps or lower MP3s as these use up the least amount of battery power).
This isn’t really an appropriate place to discuss players not made by Sandisk, but since you brought up the Zen I will tell you that the Zen does not integrate the contents on a memory card in it with the contents of the internal memory. For the price, the Fuze is a great deal. No mp3 player will give you everything you want, the way you want it. If you are willing to pay more, and perhaps forgo the memory card slot, you could find players that navigate by a choice of folders or tags. I won’t name them here. Even so, these players probably won’t give you most of the things you want, and may have sound quality lower than that of the Fuze.
Well, the Fuze has better sound quality, and IMHO, better physical controls. The UI and content navigation could use some improvements, but those will presumably be coming soon with future FW upgrades. The Fuze is of course smaller, more intuitive for your ipod-owning friends to use, has a bit more cool factor from what I’ve seen (if that’s important to you, not so much for me), has a better radio and voice recorder, and is cheaper. The Zen has great sound as well, is no easier than the Sansas to synch music to, has a replaceaanble battery that’s easy enough to change, you can carry two, has a much better screen, and works better for playing videos, has a nicer UI, and comes in larger capacities (though both are expandable, and microSD’s don’t cost much more than regular SD’s these days). Overall, I’d say the Zen makes a much nicer PMP (portable media player) if you like to watch alot of videos. Personally, if I wanna watch videos, I just haul along my PSP I bought for $20. If you just want a nice, cheap, straightforward music player that will (eventually) hold all the songs you need, sound great, and be able to take everywhere and use every day, I’d stick with the Fuze.
OK…i’ll shut up now…why should I keep the Fuze and forget about the Zen?
For me, the fact that it’s not made by Creative is enough reason to keep the Fuze. Sansdisk actually fixes bugs and adds new features based on customer feedback. Creative doesn’t really do either.
Then of course there’s the features, sound quality and value of the Fuze. But in fairness, the Zen might do a better job on video, if that’s important to you.
Yeah…i know I really shouldn’t mention other company’s products here…but who better to hear opinions from then actual Fuze owners…the thing that stopped me from getting a Zen was reading a lot of bad reviews of it freezing up or not working anymore after a while. The GF uses a portable CD player and old skool walkman headphones while she works out…so I figured she’s really like the tiny size of the Fuze…get an armband for her and throw in some canal earbuds. I also read that the Zen is a lil harder to navigate until you get used to it.
The video isn’t THAT important…but its a cool feature…but I can’t see her watching videos on it all the time…but nice if she wants to show friends or something at work…would look a lil better on the Zen’s screen…but still totally watchable on the Fuze. The GUI of the Fuze is nice but it just needs a lil more…not sure what but a lil nice layout would be cool.
I put an 8GB MicroSD in the Fuze…12GB is PLENTY for her since I’ll most likely be the one transferring any new music she wants on there for her…plus for 47.99…can’t beat that. The 4GB Zen is 74.99 at Walmart.
I’ll just stick with my original purchase…I got it for a reason and going with my gut!
The battery in the Zen is not replaceable, although neither is the battery in the Fuze. I hate the idea of buying a player with a built in battery, although there are very few choices of players with a battery that is easily swappable.
