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Hands-on with SanDisk Sansa View
We already saw the Sansa View get unboxed, but there's just something special about catching a gadget up under the hot, hot lights here in Vegas. Pictured below is a gaggle of shots of the aforementioned media player, but you'll have to settle for images of the 16GB iteration. 'Course, the folks at the booth swore up and down that the just-announced (and curiously absent) 32-gigger looks exactly the same, so yeah, you shouldn't be missing out on anything. %Gallery-12969%
SanDisk prepping a 32GB Sansa View?
The Sansa View might have just hit, but it looks like SanDisk's already looking ahead -- the specs link on the View page lists 8, 16, and 32GB capacities with a top-end price of $330. Of course, there's no indication when this bad boy might come out, but those of you who had just gotten comfortable waiting for the right View probably don't mind waiting a little longer.[Via DAPreview, thanks Vizion]Update: Looks like it could be false alarm. Pretty much every player on SanDisk's site is showing sizes up to 32GB, even the device we know damn well don't havethat much storage, like the mysterious new 8, 16, and 32GB TakeTV, e200 series, etc. Thanks, Clay!
SanDisk's Sansa View gets unboxed
Barely a month after getting reintroduced, the 16GB SanDisk Sansa View has been acquired, unboxed and lovingly photographed for your viewing pleasure. No real surprises here (well, aside from the Best Buy logos scattered about), but inside you'll apparently find a stash of paperwork, the player itself, a USB cable, earbuds and an Installation CD. For a closer look at what's waiting within, be sure and hit the read link.[Thanks, Randall B.]
The SanDisk Sansa View returns
So you might remember that earlier this year SanDisk introduced, and then somewhat abruptly cancelled, the Sansa View, a new widescreen flash-based portable media player. At the time they said they wanted to "re-scope the product" and "develop a PMP that will meet the needs of the market." Well, the result is the all-new Sansa View, a completely different device that seems more like a proper successor to SanDisk's much-loved Sansa e200 series than a follow-up to the product we played with at CES back in January.The result is a smaller player that less video-centric, but does improve on the e200 series in lots of important ways. They've upped storage to 16GB (there's also an 8GB version coming out), made it thinner (it's about 8.8mm at its thinnest), added better video codec support (it handles MPEG4, WMV, and h.264), increased the screen size and resolution (to 2.4-inches and 320 x 240 pixels, respectively), eliminated that dedicated voice recorder button which we were always accidentally pressing (yes, we should have disabled it in the preferences), and replaced the sub-par music control buttons with a clickable scroll wheel (which we're hoping is as good as the one on the Sansa Connect). There's also an FM tuner, integrated digital voice recorder, a microSD memory card slot that can handle microSDHC cards up to 8GB in size, support for playback of MP3, WMA, and WAV audio files, and enough battery life for playback of at least 30 hours of audio and 6 hours of video. Should be out sometime early next month, with the 8GB model retailing for $149.99 and the 16GB model going for an extra fifty bucks. Click on for a gallery of high-res images.%Gallery-7157%
SanDisk puts Sansa View on ice
Just got official word from SanDisk that they're putting the Sansa View on ice, at least for the time being. A rep we spoke with told us that SanDisk has, "decided to re-scope the product, so we'll not be bringing it to market this year." Apparently they're still committed to the portable media player market, but that, "the market is changing fast and furious and we want to shift our efforts to develop a PMP that will meet the needs of the market versus pushing out the wrong product. So we're taking another look." It's disappointing that we won't be seeing their take on a widescreen flash-based portable video player, but we'll give 'em points for at least being upfront about the sitch -- and for realizing that it's better not to release a product at all than to release one that offers a sub-standard experience. Usually when an electronics company kills a product before launch like this they just try and pretend like it never existed in the first place and hope that nobody notices that it never came out.
Hands on with the Sansa View
You've already got the lowdown on specs, but here's the new Sansa View up close and personal. Shiny, thin and well-screened? Check, check and check. They wouldn't let us touch 'em, though, which was lame. Whatever, SanDisk, you're not invited to our birthday party -- so there! Keep reading for some more shots.UPDATE: Alright, birthday plans are back on. We finally got a hold of the View for some actual "hands on" pics, and it really is a looker -- though with all the slim going on here, we're still not sure we could squeeze this thing into a jeans pocket. Also, the software is way early on this thing, so don't figure these funky screen shots will have much to do with how the final interface will look like. With that said, check out our new pics after the break.
