Toshiba Gigabeat 20GB MP3 Player - Black

Great player, can easily be made perfect

Strengths: Great screen, lots of included accessories, easy to use, low price, and stylish

Weaknesses: Bad software (will hopefully be fixed in future)

Summary: I've had this player for a few weeks now, it is my fourth hard drive based mp3 player (previous: iRiver H120, Dell 20GB Gen 1, Creative Zen NX) and I can easily say that it is the best one. I looked at the iPod photo but found its lack of accessories and it being very common (I don't want something the same as everyone else, I want my mp3 player to stand out) deal killers. So I decided on the Gigabeat.

The player uses a plus-touch system to navigate, mainly this functions as if it were 5 buttons, 4 at the corners and one in the middle with a handy grid at the bottom showing you what each point will do at that certain menu position etc. This makes it much easier to use at first, without the grid you would find yourself having to read the manual for some help. However, there are times when you can use more than just the button functions. For example when you are playing a song, sliding your finger from right to left will get you to the part of your library that you are currently listening to making it easy to select another song from the same album or selecting a different album from the same artist. Also, at any point, if you slide you finger from left to right you return to the now playing screen, bottom to top returns you to the main menu. These added functions of the plus touch sensor make the player very easy to use once you know them.

The one feature I am most surprised about of this player is the photo viewer. I bought this player just wanting the nice and easy to read display, I had no intention to try the photo viewing features out. I was pleasantly surprised when I did try them as the quality of the display with photos is fantastic. The photos are very sharp and looking through them is easy as even the thumbnails are very easy to see. Also, the speed at which the player will scroll through the photos is very fast making looking through vast collections of photos a breeze.

The screen is what makes this player so great, the now playing screen can be customized in many different ways from showing vibrating speakers to simply showing album art, of course this is in addition to track and album info. To really appreciate the screen though you have to see it for yourself.

Navigating the library is very simple, organized by artist>album, album, genre, or playlists. Playlist can be created on the fly by using the bookmark feature and then when connected to the computer you can convert these bookmarks to playlists.

This gets me onto the software, Gigabeat Room. The software is a pain to use, it consistently hangs when doing anything more than scrolling through songs but once you have everything sorted on it all you have to do in future is connect the player to the included dock and press the syncronize button, this will transfer any new songs or photos from your designated folders. Getting album art organized is also difficult as it will take any image from the folder, using a separate album art program I found on the internet I got all of this sorted out.

The value for money with this player is good. It is cheaper than the iPod with all of the same functions except for a bigger screen and lots more included accessories. This player comes with a dock, AC adapter (yes a way of charging your player without a computer which iPod owners now have to pay extra for), USB 2.0 cable and some earbud headphones.

Overall this player is great, it is very stylish, the buttons on the side light up a nice blue, and of course, the large bright screen sets the player apart from others. Only a few problems with the software (you can use WMP10 but Toshiba have limited it to USB 1.1 speeds) which can be fixed if Toshiba work on it a little stop the player from being perfect. Great battery life, fantastic screen, very good sound quality and lots of accessories, what more could you want from a player??

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Great Buy

Strengths: Looks Great, Compact, Screen looks awsome, Affordability

Weaknesses: if any, probably the fact that the touch screen takes a little bit to get use to, but if u use the touch pad on labtops, then you should have no problem.

Summary: I was Mp3 player shopping for about a week trying to find the largest hard drive for the money buy. I decided on the Toshiba Gigabeat f20 and have been very pleased with the purchase.

The thing that will stand out to most is the 2.2 inch screen its absolutly gorgous best ive seen on any mp3 player. Loads of options, music quality is great, earbuds are a little "hard" all plastic no cushioning but still ok.

I read many reviews before buying about people having trouble with the software that comes with the gigabeat, but to tell you the truth its not to hard to figure out how to load pictures and music. took no longer than an hour and ive already mastered it. i suggest the "giga room" software over napster or windows media player.

I highly recomend this mp3 player

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Best Buy! Tons of features, nice look, 68 GB of songs and pics crammed into 12

Strengths: Compression software is killer.. crammed over 68GB of songs and pics and still have near half the memory left. Best Screen on the market, easy to use.

Weaknesses: It would be nice to have a light up Cross on the front, all other buttons light up.. PC Software a laggish, but otherwise easy to use.

Summary: I've had the pleasure of owning my f20 now for a few weeks and have put it through the paces.. I make an effort on any electronics I buy to try and fry it within the first couple of weeks.. multiple formatting, rip/remove/rip/remove, simultaneous apps and so forth. So far, my f20 has performed flawlessly. The 16 hour estimate is based on flat EQ settings @ 1/2-3/4 volume and no additional apps running (pic viewer), under those settings, mine lasted nearly 17 hours.

I typically have either Rock2 or SRSWOW1, max volume (since I hook up with an FM Modulator) and run the slideshow. Averaged 14hrs 20+mins.

I also found if you open the Gigabeat through My Computer similar to opening your C: Drive, you can store any file for transfer to someone else's computer. BUT, DO NOT OPEN THAT WAY TO SORT OR REMOVE YOUR AUDIO/PIC FILES. I learned this the hard way, you have to open the player in GigaRoom or MP10 to sort audio and pic files.

I am a Beta tester for MS and I've noticed a few hangs with WMP RC1Beta 11, I emailed a tech slip, hopefully they'll have the hangs fixed before release, WMP10 had no conflicts or hangs.

GigaRoom needs a little work though, somewhat user friendly.. find your files, select your desired files, click synch or transfer (synch-all files on both player and PC // transfer-just adds selected files to player) OR just puch the sync button on the dock, pop a CD in your drive, click transfer OR just push the CD button on the dock, kick back and relax while your PC and player do all the work..

WMPRC1Beta11 resolved the issue of running @ 1.1USB, if you do not have 2.0USB, dload (to floppy) a new 2.0 Univ Host Controller and install, if you do not know how, refer to www.intel.com/cd/softw...& and look for it there. You'll be amazed at the difference.

One last note... If you need to charge on the road, try a Motorola RAZR or SLIVER cell phone car charger........ I tried with mine... worked like a dream.

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Terrific mp3 player

Strengths: Beautiful screen. Easy to use. Great design.

Weaknesses: Doesn't play video and no FM radio

Summary: The main use for this mp3 player is for in my car. 20 gigs is more than enough for a library of music. When I got the player it came with the software version 2.0 and it seemed to work perfectly (no freezing up). However I got the 3.0 version from Toshiba since it is supposed to be better. I love how you can customize playlists to play whatever songs you want. You can also choose from many different eq settings or customize your own. The black color of the player is really nice. I like how it already comes with a dock so you don't have to buy one in addion to the player(I use the dock in my car). The downside to this mp3 player is that it is an older model and doesn't have new features like video support.

All in all the gigabeat is a great deal.

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Very uncomfortable to use compared with other MP3 players

Strengths: Very good pricing and comes with a lot of accessories.

Weaknesses: The metalic design, screen and lighted buttons are stylish "but" the rest of the plastic makes it look a little cheap. The software is also very weak. I really hate the interface.

Summary: I don't like how the software on the player works. I'm going to try and exchange for a cowon iaudio x5 30 gig. A lot more stylish and very user friendly.

I deleted an item on the player using the delete option from the gigabeat, but the items icon still lingers on the player. I don't like that at all. Thats like draining the soda can and leaving the can in your room. It'll get real messy.

The software that came with the player wasn't that great. When I transfered the files onto the gigabeat, the software registered that it was in fact on the gigabeat HDD. "BUT" when I took the gigabeat off it's rack to play the songs. only about 40% of the songs registered on it. I don't know where the heck the rest of the 60% went to. I really hate this software.

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Gigabeat 20GB MP3 Player - Black

Strengths: Large screen, Long battery life

Weaknesses: None so far

Summary: this is a very nice mp3 player. it has a slick look. the battery power lasted about 14 hour of continuous play. the display is bright and detail to read. when under direct sunlight, it's a little hard to read and see. the only thing i don't like about it is the cross but that's just my personal opinion.

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