my fuze is running as smooth as it was when i got it 2 years ago. but I’m wondering when I should get a new one. It has only frozen up once and I never have problems except for putting movies. Any tips?
No. I don’t believe it is worth buying another dedicated mp3 player at the price the fuze commands. The writing is on the wall for the death of the dedicated mp3 player above $20. Have you played with theRockbox OS for fuze yet?
The other thing is your next music player will probably be a cellphone. The price of a music capable smart cellphone without a contract has dropped to under $100. That way you can have a camera, mp3 music, a SD slot, and be able to call 911 without cellphone charges. The Nokia® X2 at $59 is one such animal. I’m sure there are better smart cellphones and cheaper without a contract out there. I haven’t researched it at all yet.
@rgv99 wrote:
my fuze is running as smooth as it was when i got it 2 years ago. but I’m wondering when I should get a new one. It has only frozen up once and I never have problems except for putting movies. Any tips?
If you’re in the U.S., Amazon still has them for sale at about $60.00 for a 4GB and about $80.00 for an 8GB. Just don’t buy one from Bear Motion Tech Mart. They want $200.25 
and shipping and handling! :dizzy_face: For that price, one would think that they’ll ship for free. :smileyvery-happy:
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Fuze-Video-Player/dp/B0015LOWD4/ref=pd_sim_e_4
Seems to me that it’s okay to wait a little longer before buying another fuze.
The problem with using the cellphone as the mp3 player is battery life. The smarter the phones get, the more they drain the battery.
Then there’s the question of how good playback quality is on cellphone vs. Fuze.
I didn’t replace my first Fuze until long after I had snapped off the little plastic bump on the power switch. Eventually the wheel started skipping after two-plus years of constant use.
But they are sturdy little gizmos. When I read here about people who have managed to mechanically break theirs I have to wonder how much abuse they were putting them through.
@black_rectangle wrote:
The problem with using the cellphone as the mp3 player is battery life. The smarter the phones get, the more they drain the battery.
Then there’s the question of how good playback quality is on cellphone vs. Fuze.
Battery life is god. That’s why I have one of those Tekkeon AA battery chargers for my fuze. I have a habit of playing Gameboy games on my fuze while listening to audiobooks. The battery lasts less than 3hrs. The problem with the cellphone reviews is they are reporting battery life using the communication part of the device. We can’t assume just listening to mp3s causes the cellphone to have the same battery life as talking on it. The standby time on some of the cheap music phones is >300 hrs battery life. Someone needs to test just listening to mp3s. Plus some of the music cellphones have replaceable batteries. You can carry extra batteries for that long time away from a charger.
To beat the battery drag, I’m thinking an android unit with the capability to turn the receiver off. The proprietary OSs aren’t going to have this feature as its not normal today to use a cellphone only for its computing capabilities. These smart phones are just pocket PCs (remember the late 90s) with cellphone chips.
The sound issue. Both FM radio adapters for car radios and bluetooth adapters don’t have the bandwidth to broadcast the quality output of a Fuze, yet people still swear by them. The sound range on a cell call is <4800Hz. A music player needs a range of 10-20,000Hz and at least a 16 bit DAC/DSP. Who knows what the manufacturers are using for playback. I can’t find it in any of their spec sheets.
@rgv99 wrote:
my fuze is running as smooth as it was when i got it 2 years ago. but I’m wondering when I should get a new one.
Why fix it if it ain’t broke? As long as it works and you’re happy with it, just enjoy it. 
