The American manufacturer that deals mainly with storage devices surprised us with the Sansa Clip. Let us see if the Sansa Fuse will bring out as much enthusiasm as the little brother did.

Design and handling

What’s in the box? A USB 2.0 proprietary cable, a quick start guide, a CD (that is actually unimportant) and a case (not very elaborate) but enough to protect the player from scratches. The Fuze looks much like a mini-iPod and is as thick as the previous nano generation.
Glossy on the front side and with a rubbery back, the design of the Fuze is actually quite unextraordinary. The real good point is that it carries a microSD(HC) slot that allows you to cram in up to 40 GB in total.
The interface is simple and easy to use but again unremarkable. Sandisk should take some inspiration from both Apple and Creative… This detail can be overlooked though when you see the large number of formats the Fuze can play (WMA with DRM, OGG and FLAC). Cowon for example asks you to choose between WMA with DRM or OGG and FLAC, according to the firmware you select.
The player can read video and photo, has a dictaphone and FM radio you can record from.

Audio quality

Sound is clear and crisp. Cowon & co fans will be disappointed to find only ten equalisers(9 preset and 1 custom). They are well designed. It is a shame however to see the poor quality of earphones on such a good product.
Video resolution can reach 220x176, with 20 frames par second. Conversion via software is a necessary step. Do not expect to watch anything else but short clips on this device. Battery life (with FLAC) is more than 20 hours and with MP3 more than 25 hours, both very good. Files can transfer ether via UMS or MTP, so you can choose.

This second audio player by Sansa is altogether another great success. Leading manufacturers beware: Sandisk’s comeback is one that will not go by unnoticed!