Sansa's Fuze+
I returned to work recently. After a year of school and being able to drive there, being on the public transportation system (because driving downtown would take much longer), meant I needed to have a music player.
My options were using my old LG cell phone. Not an option because as a music player, which the Chocolate series of cellphones from LG are purpose built MP3 players, just wasn't working out.
Another option was a Philips 4Gig bluetooth device with MP3 built in. I can't complain about it, but the sound quality just wasn't working out either.
Basically I felt bad that my 8Gig RCA Lyra died. It was a great little player and even had a tiny postage stamp screen. It had enough can do spirit, and was tiny enough to be my personal music player.
I hauled off to Future Shop to find a replacement, spur of the moment as usual to find a replacement for my RCA Lyra. Kinda put off a but when no RCA devices popped out at me.
iDevices just aren't in my price to usefulness range, so those were out.
It didn't leave much.
But I spied the 16Gig Sansa Fuze+. At 16Gigs with expandable mSD card support, I happened to have an 8Gig mSD hanging around, 22 gigs was more than enough for everything I need to be carrying around.
Score.
But it ain't never easy dealing with consumer electronics. And I can't rightly complain about the packaging.. a pair of scissors are needed to open the package.
Because I was talking to someone while ripping it open I accidentally dropped the USB cord. So I was looking for it for like 5 minutes before giving up. I was like how is there no USB cord with this thing?! I had 2 more at home so I wasn't bothered. Just annoyed. Thankfully the device had half a charge on it. But I couldn't put any songs on it until I got home.
So strike 1 is that the device doesn't support wireless for transferring songs. This isn't really a problem given the price of the thing, $100 for 16 gigs. But it would come in very handy for file transfers. What it would do though is sap the battery, so as a feature versus usefulness trade off, I can live with it.
A while later I discovered the USB cable a few feet behind the chair I was sitting on when I ripped the packaging open. I set about downloading the firmware update and charging it.
As I had my laptop with me I was able to then transfer some songs to it. I think two of the really inexcusable problems with this thing are the ludicrous transfer times and load times. Apparently for your convenience and as a feature, the device converts and creates a little thumbnail for every file. Might be why it takes forever to load and transfer files.
But when it takes minutes to load up, not 15 seconds, then more minutes to load an mSD card if one is inserted and functioning.. you might be half way to where you're going before the device is ready.
Those are strikes 2 and 3.
Strike 4 is that the device has a 10000 file limit which isn't displayed anywhere. If you have 22 gigs (of 24 gigs), or 32 gigs (probably 28-29 gigs for files after formatting), by inserting a memory card (swap it between this device and your phone most likely) chances are you are going to rub up against the file limit.
But this assumes 2 things, 1, that you are using jpegs for photos, and 2 that you're using mp3 for audio.
Half my concern in buying a new PMP was finding one that had support for lossless audio codecs. Like FLAC. I can't recall when I picked it up though if it was on the packaging.
But using FLAC or any of the other lossless codec will mean much bigger audio files. The sound quality will vary, in if you can tell it isn't MP3 quality you're listening to. I'm just tired of certain MP3s in my collection so I'm trying to go Lossless.
So having the Sansa in pocket means the few lossless albums I have can be played by the device no problem.
Otherwise putting video on the device eats up gigs like crazy, even if the screen is only 2 postage stamps wide it is clear, the colors are good and the frame rate is also good.
All in all the experience is good. Not great, but good. It would have been great if like other PMPs it had mHDMI D so that it could connect to Hifis and HDTVs.
But since it is just a $100 mp3 player I can't expect it to do miracles. I'd pay a bit more if it did though.
To get video onto the device you should use the SMC software from Sansa's website. Sansa Media Converter works ok. Actually I should say I'm surprised it works. And it is honest. I have one file, a music video by the Veronicas that I really like. Just putting the file on the device resulted on there being no audio. What's the point without audio? After putting it into the SMC and looking at the preview, there indeed was no sound.
I think it means that the SMC doesn't support AC3 audio tracks and can't convert them into something the Fuze+ can play.
Fine.
To the internet!
I found a little application after a couple minutes, 4vieosoft Sansa Converter, that can convert video files into a format SMC understands.
Sadly the screen isn't so big so it is a small victory being able to put any video onto the device. They look and sound great though. Sorry.. I mean they look 'good'.
I just find it weird that after converting a file, twice, down to 640x480 then 320x240, that the bitrate is stil 1.2Mbps.
Strike 5 is a weird behavior the device has when transferring files. I learned a few things though.
The device will not charge when transferring files using USB. This became a problem when on Christmas eve I tried to transfer 20-30 thousands photos to it. Before I knew about the tile limit. SMC claimed it would take 12 hours to transfer all the files. I mean there's enough space in the 22 available gigs but it just won't load.
I left it on for 3-4 hours and it died during the transfer. Windows made a device disconnection noise and the screen was black. It wouldn't turn on again. I tried to charge it and it wouldn't charge either. I was like blood hell and god damn it I can't even return this thing until monday.
The next morning I tried it again with an LG microB USB charger for a bluetooth handsfree headset, and it started to charge, yay.
Charging takes a while and there is no notification. Actually there's no speaker. If there was a speaker then it could make notifications. Beeping at least.
The radio feature is good. I appreciate the song information that they include. Sometimes it is just the show that is running and not the individual song but that is up to the broadcaster.
The voice recording feature is crazy loud. If you tap the screen or handle the device too much it gets picked up in the recording. Perhaps this was intentional so the device could be used as a clandestine recording device.. who knows.
I didn't use the Podcasts and Books feature, but given the tiny screen I'd probably go blind trying to read a book on it. Also.. wouldn't you look kinda of dorky trying to read a book from a device that would even look tiny as an e-reader in a the hands of an infant? Honestly people with larger hands would look like they were stubbornly contemplating the ridges and patterns on their palms since the device is small enough to disappear in your hand.
Ten things to keep in mind:
- Screen is tiny but good enough
- Audio quality is significantly good
- Touch controls are good, but some might find them twitchy
- Provided earphones are pretty good
- Includes a good Radio feature allowing presets and includes song data, Voice Recording feature, Podcasts and books on top of 16 gigs internal and whatever more you can afford in microSD memory cards, Lossless audio and h.264 video support letting you store and playback entire movies if you wanted
- 16 gigs might not be enough for most people's walking around music collection and microSD cards are a bit expensive in larger capacities, especially if you lose them
- Converting files may end up being a 2 part process
- Transferring files kills battery life. Try to file mSDs using a card slot on a PC or another device
- Loading mSD takes an eternity, ensure good battery life before attempting
- 10K file limit is ludicrous
I returned to work recently. After a year of school and being able to drive there, being on the public transportation system (because driving downtown would take much longer), meant I needed to have a music player.
My options were using my old LG cell phone. Not an option because as a music player, which the Chocolate series of cellphones from LG are purpose built MP3 players, just wasn't working out.
Another option was a Philips 4Gig bluetooth device with MP3 built in. I can't complain about it, but the sound quality just wasn't working out either.
Basically I felt bad that my 8Gig RCA Lyra died. It was a great little player and even had a tiny postage stamp screen. It had enough can do spirit, and was tiny enough to be my personal music player.
I hauled off to Future Shop to find a replacement, spur of the moment as usual to find a replacement for my RCA Lyra. Kinda put off a but when no RCA devices popped out at me.
iDevices just aren't in my price to usefulness range, so those were out.
It didn't leave much.
But I spied the 16Gig Sansa Fuze+. At 16Gigs with expandable mSD card support, I happened to have an 8Gig mSD hanging around, 22 gigs was more than enough for everything I need to be carrying around.
Score.
But it ain't never easy dealing with consumer electronics. And I can't rightly complain about the packaging.. a pair of scissors are needed to open the package.
Because I was talking to someone while ripping it open I accidentally dropped the USB cord. So I was looking for it for like 5 minutes before giving up. I was like how is there no USB cord with this thing?! I had 2 more at home so I wasn't bothered. Just annoyed. Thankfully the device had half a charge on it. But I couldn't put any songs on it until I got home.
So strike 1 is that the device doesn't support wireless for transferring songs. This isn't really a problem given the price of the thing, $100 for 16 gigs. But it would come in very handy for file transfers. What it would do though is sap the battery, so as a feature versus usefulness trade off, I can live with it.
A while later I discovered the USB cable a few feet behind the chair I was sitting on when I ripped the packaging open. I set about downloading the firmware update and charging it.
As I had my laptop with me I was able to then transfer some songs to it. I think two of the really inexcusable problems with this thing are the ludicrous transfer times and load times. Apparently for your convenience and as a feature, the device converts and creates a little thumbnail for every file. Might be why it takes forever to load and transfer files.
But when it takes minutes to load up, not 15 seconds, then more minutes to load an mSD card if one is inserted and functioning.. you might be half way to where you're going before the device is ready.
Those are strikes 2 and 3.
Strike 4 is that the device has a 10000 file limit which isn't displayed anywhere. If you have 22 gigs (of 24 gigs), or 32 gigs (probably 28-29 gigs for files after formatting), by inserting a memory card (swap it between this device and your phone most likely) chances are you are going to rub up against the file limit.
But this assumes 2 things, 1, that you are using jpegs for photos, and 2 that you're using mp3 for audio.
Half my concern in buying a new PMP was finding one that had support for lossless audio codecs. Like FLAC. I can't recall when I picked it up though if it was on the packaging.
But using FLAC or any of the other lossless codec will mean much bigger audio files. The sound quality will vary, in if you can tell it isn't MP3 quality you're listening to. I'm just tired of certain MP3s in my collection so I'm trying to go Lossless.
So having the Sansa in pocket means the few lossless albums I have can be played by the device no problem.
Otherwise putting video on the device eats up gigs like crazy, even if the screen is only 2 postage stamps wide it is clear, the colors are good and the frame rate is also good.
All in all the experience is good. Not great, but good. It would have been great if like other PMPs it had mHDMI D so that it could connect to Hifis and HDTVs.
But since it is just a $100 mp3 player I can't expect it to do miracles. I'd pay a bit more if it did though.
To get video onto the device you should use the SMC software from Sansa's website. Sansa Media Converter works ok. Actually I should say I'm surprised it works. And it is honest. I have one file, a music video by the Veronicas that I really like. Just putting the file on the device resulted on there being no audio. What's the point without audio? After putting it into the SMC and looking at the preview, there indeed was no sound.
I think it means that the SMC doesn't support AC3 audio tracks and can't convert them into something the Fuze+ can play.
Fine.
To the internet!
I found a little application after a couple minutes, 4vieosoft Sansa Converter, that can convert video files into a format SMC understands.
Sadly the screen isn't so big so it is a small victory being able to put any video onto the device. They look and sound great though. Sorry.. I mean they look 'good'.
I just find it weird that after converting a file, twice, down to 640x480 then 320x240, that the bitrate is stil 1.2Mbps.
Strike 5 is a weird behavior the device has when transferring files. I learned a few things though.
The device will not charge when transferring files using USB. This became a problem when on Christmas eve I tried to transfer 20-30 thousands photos to it. Before I knew about the tile limit. SMC claimed it would take 12 hours to transfer all the files. I mean there's enough space in the 22 available gigs but it just won't load.
I left it on for 3-4 hours and it died during the transfer. Windows made a device disconnection noise and the screen was black. It wouldn't turn on again. I tried to charge it and it wouldn't charge either. I was like blood hell and god damn it I can't even return this thing until monday.
The next morning I tried it again with an LG microB USB charger for a bluetooth handsfree headset, and it started to charge, yay.
Charging takes a while and there is no notification. Actually there's no speaker. If there was a speaker then it could make notifications. Beeping at least.
The radio feature is good. I appreciate the song information that they include. Sometimes it is just the show that is running and not the individual song but that is up to the broadcaster.
The voice recording feature is crazy loud. If you tap the screen or handle the device too much it gets picked up in the recording. Perhaps this was intentional so the device could be used as a clandestine recording device.. who knows.
I didn't use the Podcasts and Books feature, but given the tiny screen I'd probably go blind trying to read a book on it. Also.. wouldn't you look kinda of dorky trying to read a book from a device that would even look tiny as an e-reader in a the hands of an infant? Honestly people with larger hands would look like they were stubbornly contemplating the ridges and patterns on their palms since the device is small enough to disappear in your hand.
Ten things to keep in mind:
- Screen is tiny but good enough
- Audio quality is significantly good
- Touch controls are good, but some might find them twitchy
- Provided earphones are pretty good
- Includes a good Radio feature allowing presets and includes song data, Voice Recording feature, Podcasts and books on top of 16 gigs internal and whatever more you can afford in microSD memory cards, Lossless audio and h.264 video support letting you store and playback entire movies if you wanted
- 16 gigs might not be enough for most people's walking around music collection and microSD cards are a bit expensive in larger capacities, especially if you lose them
- Converting files may end up being a 2 part process
- Transferring files kills battery life. Try to file mSDs using a card slot on a PC or another device
- Loading mSD takes an eternity, ensure good battery life before attempting
- 10K file limit is ludicrous