Design
Measuring in at 31.9x13.2x82 mm (WxDxH), the gigabeat flash isn't the smallest flash-based player around. But Toshiba's first entry into the flash MP3 player market does sport something many of its competitors don't - a colour screen. The 1.1-inch OLED screen has a resolution of 96x96 dots (pixels) and can display 65K colours - on par with the quality of some mobile phones.
To mark this little player out as part of the gigabeat family, Toshiba has included its proprietary plus-shaped navigation button in the centre of the unit. Underneath the plus-shaped button is a play/stop button, while the hold switch and power/menu key are placed on the gigabeat flash's right side. The headphone and line-in jacks are located at the top of the player.
The player itself sports an interesting design based on the plus button - a sunken silver cross runs along the length and breadth of the front and back panels, with the sides and back made up of one continuous piece of silver-coloured plastic. As was the case with the new gigabeat X30, the biggest design dud with this new gigabeat flash is the unattractive headphones included. They look cheap and plasticky, with the cord itself looking like cheap silver electrical wire covered in a thin sheet of clear plastic.
Features
The gigabeat flash is at its heart a music player, and as such has the ability to play MP3, WMA and WAV files. And just like its bigger cousin the X30, it can display digital photos on its colour screen. But unlike the X30, the gigabeat flash's abilities don't stop there. Top of the list of added features is a built-in FM tuner, which features a 10-channel memory preset. The gigabeat flash can also act as a voice recorder - without the need for a separate microphone installed. Finally, the player's line-in port means you can plug in external audio devices (such as a CD player) and record directly onto the gigabeat flash's internal memory.
Another big plus for the gigabeat flash is it doesn't use Toshiba's room software when synching with a PC. We're not big fans of room, and have found it to be confusing to use. The gigabeat flash uses Windows Media Player 10 as its PC conduit.
Performance
As an MP3 player, the gigabeat flash provides decent performance. The flash seems a little quieter at high volumes than other players of its type, but the sound it produces is generally pleasing to listen to. The gigabeat flash has five present equaliser settings (flat, rock, jazz, classical and pop), and also allows the user to set their own levels from a five channel panel (as opposed to the gigabeat X30, which only allows users to affect bass and treble).
The gigabeat flash's other functions work reasonably well. The FM radio function has a painfully slow frequency seeker, although with the ability to preset 10 channels this shouldn't be an issue for most users after the first few hours of use. The voice recorder is also handy, although the built-in microphone isn't terribly sensitive - don't expect to be taping lectures from the back of a hall with this unit.
In terms of useability, we actually found the gigabeat flash to be more intuitive and simpler to use than its bigger X30 cousin, probably because there are fewer buttons overall to get confused about (the plus-shaped button isn't touch sensitive on the gigabeat flash, however). With more features overall and a friendlier user experience than other gigabeats, the gigabeat flash is an attractive MP3 player option from Toshiba.
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soylentgold
03/02/2008, 09:12 AM
rating
2/10
cannot transfer from gigabrute to pc
Pros: non
Cons: will not play alphabetically
very much useless
wish i didnt buy it
toshiba head in the dirt
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Watley Marsh
18/12/2007, 01:20 PM
rating
7/10
My player doesnt seem to connect to the computer (not recognising it) after exactly one year and one day. This strikes me as kinda sucky, since in all other ways it is a great little device. The Image viewer is pretty dodgy, but its a pretty tiny screen so I guess it cant be helped.
Pros: Cool menu system, tho it lacks the ability to delete from the unit itself ( I always had to get into PC to do that)
Cons: Obviously, there is something iffy about the unit after a year has expired
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oakey
06/11/2007, 10:05 AM
rating
2/10
re-poor conection to computer
never worked again, cbb getting it fixed again, so i got a hammer out a smashed it into a million pieces, got a new mp3 50$ 1 gig way beter the this toshi%er
Pros: it no longer exists
Cons: why wont it work
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Micky_Jay
07/05/2007, 10:25 AM
rating
3/10
When it works it is not a bad player. Easy to use and get around. But...
1. Battery seems to have short life. Surprised more than once when my track drops out because of no power.
2. As I listen to many podcasts, I often have to turn the machine off mid way through. When I turn the machine on it, it returns to the start of the track and you have to FF to the las tbit you listened to (if you remember where that was)
3. When you do fast forward, if you do so without pressing play first (after you have selected the track), it will always return to the start of the track.
4 (and the biggest problem) I was initially able to drop and drag tracks to and from the player. After a period of time it refused to be acknowledged to my laptop to do any of this, then did the same thing on my work PC.
Time to get a new machine!
Pros: Easy to get around
Small enough to manage but not so small as to get lost
Cons: Changing characteristics and the lack of ability to be recognised by computers
Fast forwarding feature
Short battery life
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pinkraynedrop
10/11/2006, 07:13 PM
rating
10/10
I got this as a prize, I love it. Never a problem. Don't know why peole hate it so much. Toshiba didn't force you to buy it
Pros: Easy to use, sound is great. Charge lasts forever.
Cons: No cons
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joeblow
30/09/2006, 06:08 PM
rating
2/10
Dont buy this, too buggy
piece of **** dont waste ur money it will just break on you
Pros: piece of **** dosnt work, cant transfer my mp3's to my pc after recording heaps of nice tracks, now i lose them forever, gee thanks toshiba. dont buy this it sucks.
Cons: nice color screen, not bad
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Eromanga
25/08/2006, 12:25 PM
rating
4/10
Battery a dud but otherwise
Pros: The device has a good menuing system that is pretty easy to use and navigate. Its a nice small size.
Cons: The battery. Would discharge despite not being used, over a weekend. Wouldn't always charge when plugged into USB port?!?
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oakey
10/08/2006, 09:59 AM
rating
4/10
poor connection to computer
when i first got it i did not work so i had to send it to the toshiba factory costing 5$ australian. Another month later it came back.I charged it for three hours and it worked fine for about two weeks it then didnt connect to the computer and no it doesnt charge anymore
Pros: photos
Cons: connection
cant delete or rename files
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burtbachah
03/04/2006, 07:57 PM
I want my money back
I traded up from a cheap DSE.player. I still can't get the Wind media 10 to recognise even after buying USB 2 card which I was told might fix the problem. I set the radio stations which was fine but the next time I used it was in an area which couldn't receive any of the signals.My cheaper player picks up this area fine. Battery did not last long even when it indicated I had plenty of charge.
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Phil
08/03/2006, 04:01 PM
Very dissapointing. Sorry I ever purchased this unit.
My wife bought this 512MB flash MP3 player unit for my birthday. On paper it looked very good.
problem 1. Followed the booklet instructions and plugged it into the PC USB port. Screen lit up with "charging" Waited 4 hours, still no battery full.
Tried to switch on - no power in battery.
found out that Win media player 10 has to be installed to even charge the little bleeder's battery????
problem 2. can only be used with Media Player 10. media player 10 only runs on XP.
Problem 3.
I charged this little unit up and got it loaded. MP10 is a cow of a piece of software. Not at all intiutive. won't auto synch as promised. loads song folders that can't be deleted.
Problem 4. Next week we travel overseas to USA. The hotels (2 off) have business centres. Guess what? each PC is running win 98. Windows 98 doesn't support MP10. the rotten things won't even charge the flat battery.
Consequently my MP3 player is useless. Flat battery and no where to go.
I have an idea, what if I plug the USB into my USB port with plug pack power suypply. Screen comes on, says cahrging but no good. It's false.
Answer. Never ever buy any piece of hardware that is locked to microsoft products. Shame on toshiba. I have a MP3 player that is not portable and is useless to me. a wast of money and time. never buy toshiba again.
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