MSI is working on releasing a competitive multimedia player to the masses. The company’s new portable multimedia player sports 1.8” color display, large HDD for extensive storage opportunities, USB 2.0 connectivity, SRS WOW audio enhancing technology and image viewing capabilities.

P640 supports the traditional trio of audio formats, which includes MP3, WAV and WMA with DRM, of course. The video player not only supports standard JPEG image format, but it’s also capable of supporting 320x240 pixel videos. You can record audio from CDs and FM tuner, which could come in handy for particular talk shows and the like. For those of you who may need to use your multimedia player for text can also use the integrated text viewer.

One thing I don’t understand is the integration of useless features, such as the text viewer. A lot of people have cell phones (if not something better) these days, which are far better at organizing your thoughts or to-do lists than a puny multimedia player. So what’s the point of having a text viewer? If MSI and others think people are actually going to read their faxes or word documents on their multimedia players, I think they are mistaken. In a battle to see who can come up with the most features on its products, this race is getting out of control.

Regardless, MSI’s P640 should be available soon.