Apple might be the dominating force in the mobile music player arena, but that hasn’t stopped rival manufacturers from releasing trendy alternatives to the all-conquering iPod range.
SanDisk Corporation launches its new Sansa Fuze music and media player. Credit: SanDisk.
So, bearing that sense of market variety in mind, meet the SanDisk Corporation’s little Sansa Fuze MP3 player, a multi-faceted piece of portable hardware that comes crammed full of capabilities and features to keep music consumers entertained while enjoying their favourite tracks on-the-go.
Available in pink, red, blue, black and silver, the Sansa Fuze offers Flash-based storage capacities starting at 2GB and ranging up through 4GB and 8GB models for those looking to slip their entire music collection into the diminutive player.
The Fuze also comes equipped with video playback, image gallery functionality, an in-built FM radio, and a microSD card slot to flesh out its list of media features. Despite its small physical sizing, the Fuze offers up a 1.9-inch colour display screen that provides easy menu and content navigation while also enabling users to watch video media in landscape mode.
“The Sansa Fuze is an eye-catching player that consumers will enjoy for its looks, capabilities and incredible value,” trumpeted Eric Bone, vice president of product marketing for Sansa. “This new MP3 player combines some of the best features found on other Sansa products, including great sound quality. It’s yet another strong offering by SanDisk in the sub-$150 music player market.”
While the Fuze comes in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB model selections, the player also boasts a microSD card slot for those users looking to quickly add external content onto the device or expand its overall storage capacity.
Sansa is also keen to point out that (unlike certain other rival music and media players) the Fuze is not hamstrung to a single music portal and is compatible with a wide variety of subscription-based download services including the likes of eMusic, Napster and Rhapsody To Go.
Music playback is supported via MP3, WAV, Audible and Windows Media Audio (WMA) in both protected and unprotected file formats, while video and image playback is supported through MPEG-4 and JPEG. Computer compatibility runs through Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista operating systems as well as Mac and Linux alternatives -- under MSC mode.
The MP3 player works with computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista. It also works with Mac and Linux operating systems (under MSC mode).
The Sansa Fuze is scheduled to join the existing Sansa Clip and Sansa View players at US retail in April of 2008, with pocket-friendly prices starting at $79.99 USD for 2GB of storage, $99.99 USD for 4GB, and $129.99 USD for 8GB.
Canadian and European markets are expected to receive the Sansa Fuze in the latter part of spring 2008 with other regions following thereafter.
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