Sansa Fuze+ Review.

The Sansa Fuze+ MP3 Player (Black)is the successor to Sansa's original and legendary Fuze. This model eliminated mechanical controls for the hopefully more reliable touch sensitive alternative. The gloss black plastic body is nicely sculpted, but aggressively attracts fingerprints. In general it is a fine MP3 player. It will also play videos, shows photos, and has FM radio for your entertainment. Use it to record a voice memo as well. I found it a decent player, although the UI takes a little time to get used to and there is no easy way to scroll through a long number of songs. Mine came from my local Target store. Sansa players are available almost everywhere you can find an iPod for sale.

Specifications: 2.4” QVGA LCD(320x240) screen. Capacitive touch control pad. The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 24 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video playback. Your results will vary (downward) depending on your usage habits and the properties of the content consumed. External controls include Volume +/- and Power/Hold. The control pad has Play/Pause, Back, and a 4-way direction pad with center Enter/Select. MicroSD-HC slot holds cards up to 32gb. The firmware version on the Fuze+ reviewed here is 2.36.03A.

Dimensions: 3.8" tall x 2" wide x 7/16" thick, and weighs 2.26oz(64g).  You can find the Fuze+ in 4gb, 8gb, and 16gb versions. It has a microSD card slot with support for up to another 32gb.  Color choices depend on which version you get.  The 16gb version is only available in black.

UI: Getting around the Fuze+ is a little confusing. At the upper level you have the main media apps side-by-side, and can slide to each with a left/right slide or tap. Tap the center of the direction pad to make a selection. Once you enter into the music app you can slide/tap left or right to move from Artist to Album to Song to Genre and so on. On each sort option the list will rebuild using the selected ID3 tag. Scroll up/down to make your selection from the items listed. I often get the Back button confused with the Left button. Once in the Now Playing screen of any media app you'll need to tap or hold Back to go back to your content list.  The Power button on the top edge will lock/unlock the controls with a quick press, but turn OFF the Fuse+ if you linger just a little longer on the button. I strongly recommend reading the User Manual, as there are several functions that use a double-tap or long press on a control button.

Music: Formats supported include MP3, WMA, secure WMA, FLAC, AAC/M4A, (DRM-free iTunes® music files), WAV, and OGG-Vorbis. In addition, the device supports Audible and audiobook formats. You can sort your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Playlists. If you have a few thousand or so songs expect it to take several dozen swipes to find a specific song. No textual search, and no alpha-numeric shortcuts. Sound quality is good. Not the best I've listened to but up near the top. One pleasant surprise was gapless playback. No break in the audio between consecutive songs in a live album where applause or prattle carries across tracks. Delightful! Music gets an A from me. If there had been a quicker way to scroll/search/locate songs it would have been an A+.

Video: The Fuze+ plays H.264, MPEG4, and WMV file types (320 x 240). Additional file formats including 3gp/3gpp2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX(ver 6.0), DVR-MS, MOV, MP4, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MJPEG, FLV, and Flip® file formats can be added to the player easily using the optional free downloadable Sansa Media Converter (SMC).  The 320 x 240 resolution limits the value of the Fuze+ as a Video player. Yes, it plays them.  Odds are that you'll need SMC and lots of patience just to get playable videos installed on the + though. Don't buy it as a video player. I'll give videos a C+. Average for other devices with the same screen.

Photos: The Fuse+ will display JPG and BMP images. The screen isn't the best I've seen. The low resolution also reduces its value as a photo wallet. You do get a slideshow option. You can add any photo as background. You can reorient them. You can also select music for your slideshow, and also delete any photo.You start with a thumbnail array of the photos on board, then can swipe or tap to move from one to another. I'll give photos a C+. No zoom capability and the small screen suggests you don't buy the Fuze+ for its photo capability.

Radio: RDS support. Swipe left or tap right for Presets list. Hold center to Add or Delete current frequency from presets list. Double-Tap center to bring up options listed below. With RDS and recording capability, as well as great sound, I'll give radio an A.

• Add or Delete Preset status of current frequency.
• Record Radio
• Play Recordings
• Auto-Scan for Presets
• Seek Mode On/Off
• Delete all Presets
• Delete all Radio Recordings

Podcast: Podcasts play just like any music on the Fuse+.  No special features like bookmarking I could find.  You do get fast or slow playback as an options, but I can't tell how MUCH it speeds up/down the playback.  You can also delete a podcast from the Podcast player. With no bookmarking I have to give podcast playback a C.

Voice (Recorder): The voice recorder does a good job of recording from within a foot or two of the Fuze+. Notably clear when played back with no static or buzz. You can Pause and Resume, or STOP and save the recording easily. The recordings are 44kHz Stereo WAV files. MUCH better than most players that use 128kbps mono MP3 format. You can play them back with a right tap or left swipe to the playback side of the Voice app. Double-tap the center of the pad to bring up an option to delete the recording if you wish.

Card: Media on an inserted microSD card is combined with onboard media in the music/photo/video apps. If for some reason you need to seperately access content on any inserted microSD card you can choose the CARD option.  It will give limited options for card content.  Music by Artist Search only.  Videos, Photos, and Books if there are any on the card.

Settings: You get reasonable control over the capabilities of the Fuse+ in Settings. Here is a summary:

• Music: Repeat and Shuffle toggles.
• Video: Brightness and Orientation.
• Photo: Slide show timing, Shuffle and Repeat toggles, Music choice, and Orientation.
• Podcast and Book: Playback Speed and Chapter Skip On/Off.
• Radio: Set Region, Mono/Stereo, or Delete Presets.
• Background: Use one of three patterns or any on-board image.
• Backlight: 15 to 90 seconds.
• Brightness:
• Power Saver: None, or from 5 to 120 Minutes
• Sleep: 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.
• Customize Menu: Allows turning OFF or ON any media feature from showing in the main menu cycle.
• Equalizer
• Normal,
• Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Funk, Hip Hop, Dance,
• Full Bass, Full Treble
• Custom EQ (5 bar)
• Replay Gain
• Volume Level Limit
• Language
• USB Mode: Auto Detect, MTP, or MSC.
• Date:
• Time
• Format
• Restore
• info

Summary: If all you need is an affordable and easy to find MP3 player, then the Fuze+ is a good option. Music playback was stellar and gapless. Easy to add music to it. No iTunes or Zune software required. You can drag and drop or use Windows Media Player to sync music to it. You can download Sansa's Media Converter for free if you want videos on your Fuze and need them converted to work. I prefer touchscreen rather than touchpad UIs, but you won't find a decent touchscreen player at the prices you can find the Fuze+ at.  Amazon.com's prices: Sansa Fuze+ 8gb

4D.

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iOS 4.3 Home Sharing. The Good and the Bad.

My Archos devices have been able to stream media from my home network for more than a year now.  Apple finally saw the writing on the wall and added that capability to their latest iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPads. So how did they do?

To start, Apple doesn't just copy a feature they like. I give them credit for trying to add some value and capability when a feature finally shows up on their iDevices. My iPod Touch 4th generation received iOS firmware 4.3 yesterday.  Today I've been running the streaming capability through its paces.

To start, I had to enable it on both my desktop iTunes software as well as in Music Settings on the Touch.  The setting is under Advanced in iTunes.  On the Touch I had to input my Apple ID and Password under Settings>Music>Home Sharing.  None of these options will show up unless WiFi is ON and connected.

What I like?  My Touch is the 8gb version.  I bumped into the limited storage the first time I synced it with iTunes.  My music collect is over 20gb, and finding a 6gb or so subset of that to fit on the Touch came with compromises. Now as long as I'm home I can access, search through, and play any song in my collection.  Once you select your library it will take some time to populate the Touch with album art and other database info about the songs. In the image below no art has yet been added from my local library.

Inconveniences?   The PC has to be on. You need to have WiFi ON on your Touch or iPad or iPhone. Even if your content is on a network shared external drive.   iTunes has to be running. If you try to close iTunes it will warn you that closing it will disconnect anyone who is sharing your music at the time.

What else will it do?  You can share videos so long as your iTunes library knows about them. I had one 720p sample that played fine.  Anything with lower resolution also played fine.

There was no sharing option in the Photo app though.  Rather disappointed.  Videos playing over WiFi play fine, but the few I tried could not be resized or stretched to fit the screen. 

How does it compare to home streaming on the latest Archos devices?   To start, you don't need iTunes.  My 43 found and could play Music, Video, and Photos in any shared folder on my PC.  It would also find and play my shared media on my network drive when my PC was OFF. Win there.  Unfortunately you can't access shared content in the media apps.  Media is easily found using the file browser though.  Any you find will play when tapped on. Videos were a better fit on my 43's screen, and would re-size with a simple press on the screen. Win there.  Apple's strategy makes it easier to sort and search through songs so long as you don't mind having iTunes running when sharing.  Win there.

Conclusion?  iOS 4.3 is a worthy update. If for no other reason than Home Sharing. Well done.

4D

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Creative Zen Touch 2 with GPS. My Review.

Creative is now making an Android-based Zen media player.  I'm delighted to see more companies jumping on the android bandwagon. When the Zen Touch 2 (I'll referred to it as the T2) with GPS became available on their web site (you can also order them on Amazon.com) I ordered one.  Mine arrived 2/28/2011, and since then I've been going through it in detail, hoping to find what special touches Creative could add to Android, if any.  As of now,  I'm not sure they did anything beyond putting their name on this device.

Aesthetically the only interesting detail Creative added to an otherwise boring T2 is a faceted back derived from their Zen Mosaic.   Don't consider this player if you want to impress your friends with your stylish choices.  The nicest software touch they added was a quick graphic on boot-up advising you to "Touch the Sound of Perfection".  After that you get another annoying slide-to-unlock screen then a typical Android UI. 

What's in the Box?  In addition to the 8gb (only 4.1gb available) Zen Touch 2 you get:

• A mini USB cable, although I hope you have a USB port on the front of your PC as it is only 4" long.
• In-Ear headphones.  Better than what usually comes with MP3 players.
• Warranty sheet  (one year).
• Quick Start Guide.
• An ad for Creative accessories.
•  $10 EMusic card.
• One free Audiobook offer.
• and advice on protecting your hearing. 

Dimensions: 

• 120mm x 69mm x 13mm, 122g.  
• 4.72" x  2.72" x .5", 4.3oz
• For comparison:
• The Cowon D3 is 116.4mm x 64.2mm x 11.8mm, 120g.
• The Archos 43 is 135.0mm x 65.0mm x 9.00 mm, 132g

OS: Android 2.1, with hints (no promises) that it may eventually be updated to 2.2.

Controls and Ports (held horizontally with the Home button on the right):

• Power button (left end). Hold in to power the T2 on or off.  Tap to toggle just the screen off/on.
• Volume +/- (top edge)
• Search, Back, and Menu/List buttons (touch sensitive, to the right of the LCD screen)
• HOME button (oddly a mechanical push button on the front face)
• Speaker port (5/16" x 1/16" slot on back)
• Camera Lens (on back)
• Mini USB port (right end)
• Headphone jack (right end)
• Video output (Composite, uses headphone jack and custom cable)
• MicroSD slot (bottom edge under a rubber pull tab)
• Microphone (small hole on bottom edge, labeled by white microphone icon)

This Zen's media apps:

• Music: The T2 will play music in these formats:  MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, ADPCM, MIDI, WAV, and Audible.  I was shocked to discover there is no Equalizer. No Presets. No user settings.  I had to dig out my ancient Zen 4gb to see if this was Creative's pattern or not (it is NOT).   The audio output was powerful enough to easily drive my large Sennheiser HD595 headphones. No gapless playback though.   Just the basics it seems.  On the Now Playing screen you get a small album art view. Controls are all visible and active including List, Shuffle and Repeat buttons, as well as the typical Prev(Rewind when held)/Play(pause)/Next(Fast Forward when held) buttons. Info displayed includes a song length/position slider bar, artist, album, and song title. A long press on the last three brings up a Music/Browser Search window to find all songs or web info that matches the item touched. The Now Playing screen simply rearranges the same info for landscape or portrait view.  A tap on the T2's menu icon will bring up options for Party Shuffle, Add to Playlist, Delete, and Library.  With no Equalizer though the Music app gets a B.

• Gallery (used for video and photos): Both Video formats supported include H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, and AVI video.  Photo types include JPG, BMP, and PNG.  My Touch 2 played WMV, AVI, and MP4 video files fine,  although those that weren't the same width/height ratio as the screen had no way to be stretched to fit the screen. All you get when playing videos is the standard video Rew/Play/Ffwd and a length/position slider bar. No info, no submenu options, nothing. Don't buy the Touch 2 for videos.  Video gets a C- from me.  The Photo capabilities are only a little more useful.  No swipe to the next photo.  You have to tap on the screen to get a next or previous triangle to tap on. You also get a zoom (magnifying) in/out bar, a share icon, and a delete icon. Tap Share to bring up options for Bluetooth Object Push and Email.  You can also double-tap on the screen for one step of zooming in. Once zoomed in it is easy to pan around the photo.  Using the magnifying bar there are 13 steps of zoom, which does a fine job of bringing up the tiniest details in a photo.   Tap the T2's menu button for a few more options including Rotate, Delete, Crop, Details, and More. More adds Show on Maps, Slideshow, Settings (for slideshow), and another Push Image by Bluetooth choice. Slideshow Settings are more complete than usual.  Where both Videos and Photo suffer is from the poor screen quality.  Photos get a B- from me for leaving out the easiest way to see the next photo.
• FM Radio with RDS!  You need headphones plugged in to use the radio.  The Radio app will warn you to plug them in if they are not, and although the radio app will open it won't turn on without the headphones.  The app is fairly complete. You get a station slider bar, Off/On button, scan forward and back buttons, frequency up and down (in .05 steps) buttons, an add-to- presets (+) button, and a Presets List button which includes the AutoTune choice. If the station tuned to includes RDS info it will display above the frequency displayed. No HD-Radio reception. No option to delete a preset from the list that I could find. No recording of Radio that I could find. Radio will play in the background while you run other apps that don't have their own audio.  To turn it off you need to tap the power icon in the app, or run another program with its own audio (like Music). With no recording or preset delete I have to give FM Radio a B.

Other hardware features include:

• Bluetooth - 2.1 EDR:  So far I've found it supports file transfer, stereo audio to headphone or speakers.  My bluetooth keyboards would pair but not connect. Audio quality over bluetooth to my Sony BT50s is on the better side of typical. All controls over media play worked both from the headset and the player.
• WiFi - IEEE 802.11 b/g/n:  No problems connecting to my Dlink n-capable router. Signal strength is as good as on any other 802.11n device I've reviewed, no matter where in my house I wandered to.    
• GPS: I'll need to find a GPS enabled app to give this a test.  Stay tuned.
• Compass: Seems to work.  Found north just fine using a compass app.  Not sure how useful it will be, but am optimistic it will eventually come in handy.
• Accelerometer: The UI and direction-sensitive apps react quickly when the T2 is rotated. Nothing else to test it with.  Another "stay tuned".
• Camera:  The camera will take still photos at 1600 x 1200 (2mp) or 640 x 480 as JPGs. Video taken is MP4 (H.264) at 21fps and 360kbps, 640 x 480 pixels. Video doesn't play back very smooth.  The camera app is pretty complete, with white balance, quality, GPS (location) tagging, effects settings, crop and delete, etc.. No zoom to speak of.  No flash.  The lens is fixed-focus and cheap. It is also easily blocked by your finger when holding the T2 naturally.

Web Browser: Works best with mobile web pages.  The low resolution hinders usefulness on classic web pages. A double tap works as expected, stretching columns to fit the screen width. Panning and scrolling is responsive and smooth. I recommend using a stylus if you expect to be accurate tapping on tiny links. Settings include options to Add a bookmark, Find on Page, Select Text, Page Info, Share Page, Downloads, and page content settings.  You can choose from Text Size, Default Zoom, Text Encoding,   Open Pages in overview, Block Pop-up windows, Load images, Landscape only, Enable Javascript, Enable Plug-ins, Open in Background, and Set Home Page.  In addition there are privacy settings to Clear cache, Clear History, Accept cookies, Clear all cookie data, Remember form data, Clear form data, Enable location, Clear location access, Remember passwords, Clear passwords, Show security settings, and even more advanced options. With exceptions for the low-res screen The Web Browser is very complete. Almost a joy to use on the Touch 2. Web Browser earns an A.

UI:  The android UI will turn horizontal or vertical depending on how you hold the T2, but only 90 degrees one way. The screen is sensitive and very responsive, but graphics do not instantly react like those on an iPod Touch. There are only three home page screens.  This will prove limiting after you start adding apps.   You get just 4 widgets including an analog clock, bluetooth control (PureAndroidAudio),  Power Control, and Search.  You can add Widgets, Shortcuts, or Folders to any or all home screens.  You can also choose the wallpaper (background) from 10 included photos, your own photos, or 4 different colors.  You can adjust the brightness of the screen from Settings-Display or the Power Widget.   Viewing angles are decent in one axis and limited in the other, typical for the inexpensive LCD screen used.   Other than for the poor choice of screen the UI response is as good as any other android device I've reviewed. Limited pages and included apps/widgets lead me to giving UI a B-.

Conclusion:  For a device with so many hardware features it is a shame Creative went with such a poor screen. The Touch 2 is almost as large as my Archos 43, but the 3.2" 480 x 320 screen is significantly smaller and less than half the resolution. Poor video playback and no audio equalizer round out the flaws.  There appears to be plenty of processing power. Audio output is strong. Bluetooth is great and FM radio with RDS is appreciated.  Is it worth $199?  The 8g Archos 43 is also $199 but comes with a better screen, better UI, more functional WiFi and Bluetooth features and remains my favorite device for now. So NO. The Touch-2 with GPS is NOT a good value at its current price.

4D

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