Photos: SanDisk's Real media players

SanDisk Sansa media players offer a mix-and-match storage option. The media players come with slots for SanDisk's MicroSD memory cards, which currently come with a capacity of up to 2GB. Listeners can keep a core music library on the device, and a rotating music playlist via multiple memory cards.

In addition to the MicroSD expansion option, Sansa devices also have an FM tuner/recorder and can be used as a voice recorder. The devices were initially priced to be competitive with the iPod. The Sansa e280, the largest capacity released so far, has 8GB of storage, building up to 10GB with the addition of a 2GB MicroSD card. It's priced at $249, which at the time of release was a better deal storage-wise than Apple's closest equivalents--the 30GB video iPod priced at $299 and the 4GB iPod Nano for $249. On Sept. 12, however, Apple introduced an 8GB iPod Nano for $249, a 4GB for $199 and a 2GB for $149. , but it has said that it will be competitive.

SanDisk also offers a 1GB media player, the Sansa c140, for $80, while the 2GB Sansa c150 is $110. SanDisk's c100 series devices do not have expansion slots for MicroSD cards.

The Sansa c200 series offers the same capacities as the c100 series with the addition of an expansion slot for a MicroSD card. Priced at $80, the 1GB Sansa c240 can become a 3GB media player with the addition of a 2GB MicroSD card. The 2GB Sansa c250, priced at $100, can expand to 4GB.