Jim Jamieson
Province
What is it? Sansa View portable media player
Price: $299 US, but expect discounting
Why you need it: Videos on a small screen are cool.
Why you don’t: Eight gigabytes just doesn’t cut it for a video player and battery life could be better.
Our rating: 3 mice
SanDisk Corporation has had a short but impressive history in the audio/video portable-player space. The Milpitas, Calif., technology company is much better known as the world’s largest supplier of flash memory storage cards.
But about three years ago SanDisk saw that the future of the MP3 player was flash memory-based storage. So, although the company had no experience in the audio/video world, it jumped into the market with both feet.
The result has been highly successful, with a steam of credible products that have put price-point pressure on competitors.
At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, SanDisk launched the Sansa View, which it bills as its first widescreen media player. The slim (78.5mm x 123mm x 16.9mm) View features a
10-centimetre screen and also an integrated speaker.
The Sansa View offers just eight gigabytes of storage, although it can be augmented through SD and SDHC cards.
The company claims it can store up to 33 video hours, 2,000 songs or thousands of photos.
The device also features audio and video output to display content to a TV screen.
A plus is the Lithium-ion battery — which will provide four hours of video playback or 10 hours of audio playback — is removeable, so you can replace it yourself.
The Sansa View should be available in Canadian electronic stores by this spring.
© The Vancouver Province 2007