SanDisk unveils 'largest capacity' flash-based MP3 player

SanDisk Corp. unwrapped what it touts as the world's largest capacity flash-based MP3 player—the 8Gbyte Sansa e280 that promises award-winning audio, photo viewing and video clip playback capabilities.

Priced at $249.99, the e280 device sports a microSD expansion slot allowing expansion to 10Gbytes of music (or 2,500 songs) with an optional SanDisk 2Gbyte microSD card. According to SanDisk, the e280 is the largest capacity flash-based MP3 player on the market. This device measures 4.4cm wide, 8.9cm long and 1.3cm high. Screen size is 1.8-inch TFT color screen (QCIF+).

Eric Bone, director of A/V product marketing at SanDisk, said that the most costly ingredient in a flash-based MP3 player is the flash memory. "Since we make the flash memory, we essentially remove the middleman and pass that savings directly to the consumer," Bone said.

The e280 player is designed to work seamlessly with a wide range of music formats such as MP3 and Windows Media Audio in both unprotected and protected files (such as those WMA files purchased from music stores).