The new Sansa e280 by SanDisk, is now the largest flash memory music player on the market; housing a whopping 8Gb of space and microSD expansion slots, in its sleek alloy metal scratch resistant frame, with a 1.8inch LCD display screen, - for the agreeable price of 249.99,“once again making it incredibly affordable for consumers to purchase the most feature-rich, high-capacity players," (Eric Bone, SanDisk's director of audio/video product marketing).

This release surely marks progress from SanDisk’s recent involvement with Toshiba; where work was done on expanding its flash memory capacity, and recent purchase of M-Systems which passed on to SanDisk a vast portfolio of products including Flash-SSD drives and embedded modules.

The 1.7" x 3.5" x 0.5" player comes equipped with photo and video playback, FM radio tuning and recording, and built-in microphone (aka= memos on the go).
The e280 supports open, non-proprietary DRM systems, and users can process photos and videos using the bundled Sansa Media Converter software; which work with both MP3 audio and windows media, and PlaysForSure compatibility so the Sansa e280 will support subscription services like Rhapsody To Go, Napster, etc. The e280 is equipped with a USB 2.0 interface connectivity and lives up to 20 hours in between charges to its obviously rechargeable lithium ion battery.

Pre-orders are being accepted now on the SanDisk products site with estimated availability tied to mid-September. Windows XP is required for hook-up.

In making room for the new addition to the Sansa e-family, prices have dropped on the other e200’s, as well as an offered free case for your player with purchase. (The Sansa e250, e260 and e270 are now priced at $139.99, $179.99 and $219.99 respectively