14 DAY TRIAL // Although SanDisk has come packed with its full arsenal at this year's CeBIT, as far as its storage-related products are concerned, the portable multimedia player's corner was rather poorly populated. However, it would seem that things are about to change in just a few weeks' time, as the company plans to unveil a whole new family of products in the Sansa series, in just about two weeks' time.
Although the source of the information has not provided any other significant details regarding the product, we've read between the lines that we'll be dealing with something to fill in the void between the large View model and the smaller Clip model.
As you probably know, the View model combines the common MP3 attributes with full video support that usually are to be found in larger portable media players (PMPs). The device comes with a larger display and offers up to 24 GB of storage space. Of course, the large capacity demands long battery life, and the View promises a lot under this aspect.
Th device has a smooth and backlit scroll wheel that makes it easier to navigate, and the vibrant 2.4-inch widescreen display running at a top resolution of 320x240 allows you to comfortably watch a clip. The View model offers access to a music library, a video collection, digital photos, digital FM radio with 20 pre-sets, an integrated microphone and voice recording as well as the possibility to listen to audio books.
The Sansa View features important enhancements in the listening and viewing experience, such as smooth video playback at 30 frames per second and photo viewing up to 16 megapixels. The device can render most audio formats and is compatible with the MPEG4, WMV, H.264 and DivX video standards.
On the other hand, the Clip incorporates support for a plethora of music download and subscription services, such as Rhapsody To Go, Napster, eMusic and others. The device works seamlessly with the most popular music formats such as MP3, WAV, Audible (for audio books) and Windows Media Audio (WMA). The player comes with an OLED screen and has a battery autonomy of up to 15 hours of continuous playing time.
The two models currently available on the market share several important features, so it's safe to say that any product designed to close the gap between the two will include said characteristics as well. Thus, the future product will most likely provide support for MP3,WMA,WAV and Audible audio books, will support some of the most popular music services around and will also feature recording and FM radio capabilities.
As for the other features and specs, it's difficult to have a guess at what the engineers from SanDisk will throw in, but we'll most likely have a pretty good chance to find out in a very short time.
Live report by Bogdan Popa and Alex Vochin from CeBIT 2008 Hanover, Germany.