First 48 Hours with the Sansa Fuze

As I mentioned last week, my loyal iPod Video kicked the bucket and I had to decide on a replacement. Being no longer satisfied to pay the Apple tax for locked-down, proprietary devices, I decided to go for something more open: the Sansa Fuze 4GB. Besides the great price (about $50 and free shipping from Amazon), three things attracted me:

1. The reputation of Sansa devices for working very well with Linux.
2. Good podcast support.
3. Physical controls (not touch screen controls) that work without looking at the device, i.e. while bicycling.

I've had my Fuze for a full two days now, and here is a rundown of my impressions so far:

• Linux Support - as expected, this player works great with Linux. It should work with just about any PC, Mac, or anything else that can take Mass Storage USB devices. I plug it in, drop music files into the "Music" folder, podcasts into the "Podcasts" folder, etc. and that's it. Done. No iTunes, no buggy hacks to fool the iPod into working with non-Apple software. Plug in, add files, walk away.
• Podcasts - one reason I could not use my little iPod Shuffle (1st gen) to take over for my iPod Video: the damn thing cannot handle podcasts well. It constantly forgets what I'm listening to, and how far I've listened. I load my player up with a handful of hour-long-plus shows; it's not acceptable to lose my place in shows that long. Fortunately, the Fuze performs excellently. It automatically remembers where I stopped listening in each show, and allows me to resume from there or start over at the beginning.
• Controls - iPods have a touch wheel, but the Fuze has a control wheel that actually rotates when you move your finger around. It works very well, feels natural, and gives great physical feedback. I've used the Fuze while biking, while riding the bus, while doing chores, etc. and I've never had problems controlling it while keeping my eyes on the task at hand.
• Sound Quality - using the same headphones, I can't tell any difference in sound quality between this device and the iPods I've owned. The sound is great. I don't own $200 headphones, though; I imagine if I did, I would be able to tell the difference. But since I'm mostly listening to podcasts (people speaking), it doesn't matter much to me either way. The small amount of music I do listen to sounds quite awesome on the Fuze.
• FM Radio - a perk that all Sansa players give you is built-in FM radio. I'm not a big fan of radio because podcasts tend to offer better content with fewer advertisements. However, I do think it's handy to have radio as a backup in case I run out of shows to listen to, or I get bored with the stuff I've loaded. Sometimes random is good, and sometimes I want to listen to songs from outside my music collection (which is stuff I tend to play way too often). Here in Albuquerque, the Fuze has given me great reception on a variety of stations, while indoors and outdoors. Overall, a great bonus feature.

Overall, I'm stoked about this little device. It does exactly what I want, it does it well, and I don't have to use proprietary crap I don't want to. The Fuze makes everything dirt simple, and yet it is packed with features. I haven't even dug into things like photos, videos, and adding storage using the built-in microSD card slot. I expect those other features will work pretty well when I get to them.

Summary: The Fuze is an awesome and very inexpensive little device, packing tons of features into a tiny package. I am 110% satisfied.