After a long wait, SanDisk is upgrading its core MP3 player line. The Sansa Fuze+ should replace the 2.5 year old original with a fresher design that uses capacitive touch buttons and a color OLED display. It would fix issues user had around support for AAC and H.264. The under apprecitated slotRadio format will stll be in the mix via the microSDHC slot.
Most of the features would be on par with competitors on sale today, with 24 hours of battery for music, five hours of video and capacities between 4GB and 16GB. An FM tuner is still onboard and will support both DVR-style pausing and recording for later. The player doesn’t have a price but should ship September 12.
SanDisk is still second place in MP3 players in the US but has just a small fraction of the market versus Apple’s estimated 70 percent. It does continue to have lead over Microsoft’s Zune line.