It seems that Sony is not the only major name in the portable audio recording industry to come up with a new range of products these days. Thus, another Japanese company, Sanyo, also has a new roster of such products just waiting to hit the market, namely the new ICR-FP700D, ICR-FP600D, ICR-FP550e and ICR-FP550 digital MP3 recorders, all of which offer superior recording features, compared to their predecessors.

The Sanyo ICR-FP700D supports voice recording in high quality MP3 format (up to 192k bits/sec stereo encoding), via its built-in stereo microphones, the resulting audio files being stored onto SD cards (no internal memory whatsoever) with capacities of up to 8GB (544 hours of non-stop recording). The device also sports a voice activation system, timer recording, a playback speed control system and a USB port for transferring files, all of which are powered by one AAA battery with an estimated functioning life of around 29 hours.

The ICR-FP600D is slightly different from its more advanced sibling, featuring a built-in mono microphone, but also an external stereo microphone jack. The rest of the features and functions are pretty much identical.

Next in line comes Sanyo's ICR-FP550e model, which features 1GB of internal Flash memory (enough for storing 280 hours of audio recordings) but no extension memory card slot. The device supports HQ/SP/LQ recording modes, has an adjustable sensitivity system, voice activation system, MP3 stereo music playback and is powered by two rechargeable AAA Sanyo eneloop batteries (via USB). In fact, these rechargeable batteries represent the only difference between the ICR-FP550e and basic ICR-FP550 models, the latter providing the same features as the former (apart from the eneloops, that is).

All of the new digital MP3 voice recorders from Sanyo will arrive in stores over the course of May 2009 and will sell for 130 US dollars (the ICR-FP700D), $100 (the ICR-FP600D), $80 (the ICR-FP550e) and $65 (the ICR-FP550) respectively.


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