A Compact, Full-featured Portable Media Player

I got the black 4GB variety (BH0807AXVK-4GB) as a Christmas gift and made sure to get the latest firmware. I've used it strictly for music since then and am quite pleased with it. I am listening through an old Realistic SCR-4500 receiver and some Yamaha bookshelves or Sony MDR-V150 headphones. The sound quality is quite good from what I can tell through my low-budget setup. I have music in MP3, WMA, Vorbis, and FLAC and this plays them all with ease. Compared with my PC's aftermarket sound card, the bass reproduction is lackluster and it isn't as powerful overall but it's nothing a powerful receiver won't compensate for. My only real complaints with the sound are that it generates a pop when it turns off and a low hum while it turns on/ boots up, in addition to having a fraction-of-a-second pause between tracks (noticeable on tracks that fade into each other). I rarely use the EQ, FM tuner, or voice recorder but they are all nice to have.

One of the first things that impressed me about the Fuze is its size. It will fit in your pocket with room to spare but it's not obnoxiously tiny like some others I looked at. Just be sure to get a cover for it or carry it in its pouch because its glossy finish does scratch easily. I once carried it loose in my pocket with some coins and it collected a few scratches.

I recommend the Fuze to anyone who does not want to pay more just so they can have the apple logo on their media player (I like to bash Apple, but it's really a matter of personal taste - and I prefer the less expensive Sandisk players). Now I just need to add a line input to my car's head unit and I'll be listening to it everywhere!

*A note about Windows Media Player support: you'll need WMP 10 or 11 to work with this device in MTP mode. If you have issues with WMP or prefer not to use it then go to the Fuze's main menu and open Settings>System Settings>USB mode and change from MTP to MSC. This way Windows will recognize it as a USB disk and you can manage it in Windows Explorer.