By Richard Menta 3/14/06

It's a pretty big advantage SanDisk has over any other MP3 portable maker. That advantage, of course, is that their primary business is the making of the expensive flash memory that serves as storage for these things. Not only do they retain all cost advantages, but can reserve the latest greatest for their own players in the initial months for competitive advantage.

SanDisk has now released its 200 series players. Announced in January, these iPod nano competitors offer up to 6GB of memory, trumping the nano's 4GB top end. The unit's 3.5" x 1.7" x 0.5" dimensions compares well with the iPod nano's 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27 figure, though the Sansa is twice as thick.