It's been quite a while since SanDisk's latest foray into the field of portable music players, but it would seem that the memory solutions' manufacturer is not about to abandon this field altogether, since the company has just announced the launch of a brand new device of this type, namely the Sansa Fuze+ (plus) MP3 player.

The Sansa Fuze+ portable media player offers sleek and thin styling, while also featuring a new capacitive touchpad that provides the sensation of using a touch-screen without obscuring the device’s viewable area.

And speaking of displays, it's important to mention that the player’s bright, colorful and large 2.4” QVGA LCD screen produces sharp, deep images when viewing videos or photos.

The player’s unique GUI operates like a film strip, enabling intuitive screen navigation.

For example, left to right finger sweeps select functions such as Music, Video, Podcasts, FM Radio and Photos, while up and down sweeps or double taps on the touch-pad let users explore and select individual categories and files.

The Sansa Fuze+ portable media player’s broad audio and video CODEC pack ensures easy compatibility with most major media formats, including here MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC/M4A (DRM-free iTunes songs), FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Audible, Secure WMA, Podcasts audio files, H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, Flip Video formats and photos in the JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF and PNG formats.

The Sansa Fuze+ portable media player is fully compatible with SanDisk slotRadio cards or any microSD card loaded with music, photos or videos, while its rechargeable battery lasts up to 24 hours of audio playback or up to five hours of video playback.

Plus, for enhanced versatility, the device also includes a recordable FM radio, gapless playback and a microphone for audio capture.   “The Sansa Fuze+ is the most versatile portable media player available for under $100,” said Tom Bailey, senior director, AV retail, SanDisk.

“We developed an entirely new product to provide consumers with a stylish, affordable device that performs exactly as a sophisticated yet easy to use player should,” Mr. Bailey added.

The Sansa Fuze+ is available in red, white, black, blue and purple and 4, 8 and 16 gigabyte (GB) capacities, which will retail for $79, $89 and $119 respectively.

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