I’ve been a fan of Sandisk products for several years, the flash drives, the SD cards, now the players. I agree about the video issue, I use my Zen Vision:M for video, the Fuze is passable, but I don’t think I could watch a full movie on it.
I think the thinness is probably to make it easier to pocket, and the extra width makes for a larger display. I had a Sandisk DAP, the red 256MB model, and it was not pocket friendly. The Express is better, but I hardly notice the Fuze in my shirt pocket.
On the issue of the battery, I wish someone would go the way that HP/Compaq did on the iPaqs. I had a 3650 that was “sealed”, the battery could only be replaced by opening the device using a small (read:hard to find) Torx driver. I bought a 2490 and it has an easily removable battery. It’s still proprietary to keep the device flat, but it is easy to remove. Spares/replacements are readily available from HP. I would like to see a player in the View/Fuze class that could do that. I have a Rio Nitrus with a failing battery, and I just don’t know if it’s worth the money/trouble to replace it.
The thing with the proprietary connector is tough. USB doesn’t have the pins for much more than data transfer. Motorola’s RAZR does manage stereo headphones through a USB connector, and some HTC-made phones are able to charge while listening to music, but only through the use of a splitter. That’s another little part to lose. Like others have suggested, I’d like to see a combination of USB and A/V connectors. But unlike the Vision:M I’d like to see it done without an extra dongle.
It’s hard to analyze “Fuze vs. SM Player” in terms of audio. I have a particular couple of songs that I use to compare earphones, but I can’t really tell the difference in players. The SM Player is definitely heavier.
As for iPod, I can’t believe they don’t have a radio. Even Sony’s MiniDisc players had radios. The one I have has FM, TV (useless after Feb '09, I know), Weather, and even AM. If it just *didn’t* have SonicStage. I have it for the novelty as well, I did rip a CD to one of the MiniDiscs, and it came out OK. But I don’t think my Fuze has anything to worry about from it.
