the new Roland E80 Arranger

Look here:
http://www.roland.com/products/en/E-80/

It is what it is, an arranger. Maybe one day arrangers will support sampling, but for now E-80 is basically a modification of the G-70.

Stupid marketing...

Waveform memory: 1 Gbit.

(This is the point where the most distracted ones will start saying "Wow! 1 Gig of waveforms! Cool")

I hate when they do this.

Korg PA80 has a sampler on board, it is basic but it is a sampler and it reads samples loops ettc.
you could do some things with it. And PA80 is 5 years old.

The PSR-9000 and the Pro-9000 from Yamaha both have samplers on board and they are available since 1999. I used to own a 9000 Pro and I know them quite well. To me, Yamaha Arrangers were always slightly ahead of the rest.

http://www.jostsauer.com
"When one is not expressing himself, he is not free." - Bruce Lee

The E80 looks nice but without the ability to read samples at least I think it is not my first choice although it is supposed to have fantom x sounds. tyros 2 can read samples, and if you want to play some exotic instrument sounds or back up vocals I am sure it will handle it just like the PA 80 does only better. And what is the deal with the floppy drive? I hope that a system upgrade might support sample reading. both on the G70 and the E80.

I am not sure sample reading is a requirement for an arranger keyboard if it already has tons of sound and expandable sound sets. Arrangers need to start up and play music in seconds; should it frooze(all of them do at somepoint). Interesting things is Yammy MotifES rack doesn't even come up with sampling capability while it is in the position of the need for sampling.