My Gigabeat: Initial impression of the Gigabeat F40

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Initial impression of the Gigabeat F40

I've been asked for a short review, so here goes... If you have specific questions feel free to email me and I will do the best to answer them. I will continue and update this post during the day. Final full review will not be completed until Sunday night.

AS you can tell by the pictures this is a ver nice stylish player. The imidiate impression when finally holding it in my hands is that feels solid. It has a metal look and feel to it, and it does not feel plastic at all. The model I have has the extra 3mm extrusion on the back, so it does feel a little bit thick. At least compared to the 20GB iPod. But if you order the 20GB model I would suspect it feels just a thin as the iPod. (If you can wait another couple months you can get the F41 without the extrusion...)

The navigation functionality is crucial when it comes to portable electronics. I had played briefly with the Gigabeat at CES earlied this year and I liked the "Cross" back then. This time around it works even better. A slight tap wakes up the screen out of stand by mode. Tap the the center of the cross to play or pause music. Tap left or right to skip a song. Tap up or down to change volume (This can be configured for Album skip). A quick upward stroke brings you to the menu where you can search for music or change one of the many settings on this player. Its very easy to get used to the "cross".

On the right side of the player you have some buttons. The top button is for power. The button under that one is for the menu and under that one is the volume button. Some redundant buttons maybe, but its all a matter of preference. Under the volume is a "A" button that an be configured for EQ, Album Skip, Bookmark, Mute, or Display Jacket (Album cover etc.)

Updates below:
Ok, it's official, the stock head phones aren't that good. Not that it is a suprise. I plugged in my Sony MDR V400 and it sounds great. Good detail and really good bass. I'm not an audiophile, but I do like bass, and this player delivers. The volume is not low as I read someone saying, it goes high enough, as a matter of fact to high even for me...

Without any files on the player (Except the sofware and some sample files) I have 37.1GB of space available.

I'm just getting started with the Gigabeat Room software and Napster To Go...

You FW a song by just holding your finger over the right cross. Unfortunatly it does not make a sound when you come to a new song. I have had no problems with mixing up the FW with the Skip. To skip you really have to tap the cross.

The player works flawlessly with Napster To Go. I just loaded two playlists from Napster To Go on my player. Napster's software recognizes the player as soon as you dock the player if you have it in Windows Media Player mode. There are 2 docking modes, one for wmp and one for Gigabeat Room.

I'll attempt to try Yahoo Unlimted today as well.

It took about 4min to rip my Nine Inch Nail cd to the player by pressing the Rip tec button on the player.

While playing with all the different EQ option I actually managed to get the stock ear buds to sound good. They also look good when you wear them, if you care about that... and they fit my wife who is half my size. I think that just like Apple they realized what an important part of maketing the ear buds are.

Starting to like the horizontal view. It feels more natural to hold the player in that mode. It also works better with the photo-slide show which is in horizontal view. The horizontal view also makes the "cross" design shine. The idea at Toshiba to design the navigation with this "cross" was brilliant! When you go into horizontal view the "cross" just replicates the switch. All functionality follows with the switch. ie. a right tap is still FW etc. Hope that makes sense? So not only does the screen rotate, the "cross" functionality does too.

I never thought that the photo-slide show would impress me. But it is very cool to be able to see all your favority pics fade in and out while you listen to your favorite music. There are are options for the interval of the slide show: 2,3,5,10, and 20 seconds. 3 is my favorite. There are also 4 fade effects: No effect, Fade white, Fade black, and my favorite Wipe (I wipes one picture away while the next one comes on). All these features can be controled by clicking the Menu button on the side while pleying the slide show. No need to get out of the slide show mode etc.

posted by Tomas @ 8:40 PM

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49 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Looks good. Can't wait to hear if it works with the subscription services.

Thanks,

- Bill; Sat May 21, 05:29:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: ...it will work. Toshiba already said it will!; Sat May 21, 05:31:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Ah... where does it say that?; Sat May 21, 05:48:00 PM 2005
psychobabbler said...: Hey, I'm thinking about buying one. A few questions:

1.) Does it have a sleep timer, and can you tell me what the options are?

2.) Does the cross pad light up, it would be could if that was an option.

3.) How is the software, and/or can you drag and drop files onto it?

Thanks.; Sat May 21, 06:51:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: 1) Nope...
2) Nope...
3) Software works good. Not as flexible as wmp or napster, but it is very straight forward. Yes you can drag and drop anything onto the drive. Photos will only be available if you use the software though.; Sat May 21, 07:09:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: I should clarify that you simply drag and drop photos on the software though. Very easy.; Sat May 21, 07:22:00 PM 2005
psychobabbler said...: ah, that sucks about the sleep timer. I thought I recalled it had some sort of timer functions. I'd really like a DAP with a sleep timer, since it helps me slowly drift off at night.; Sat May 21, 07:45:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: I hear ya... can't see it being that big deal to add to the player though... considering the player only has been along for a short period of time maybe future updates will have more features...

I'll pass it on to toshiba somehow along with other things I get feedback on... not that I have direct contact with them at all. But if we get a community togehter and let them know what we like i'm sure they will try to address it. It is after all just a matter of software.; Sat May 21, 07:50:00 PM 2005
Spider-Matt said...: I'm glad you can drag and drop onto the drive. I've been looking like a feature like that for quite some time. But can you drag files (or folders) from a folder and drop onto the drive? As in have a folder open in another window, click on an album you have (songs in a folder) and drag that onto over onto the drive (hope that makes sense)? That would be most simple and perhaps the greatest layout for loading ever. I bring this up (if it seems like a dumb question) because often times users are required to go to the folder using the required software, which I find annoying.; Sun May 22, 10:52:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: Is it TRUE drag&drop? Does it have its own drive letter (like D:, E:, etc.)?

Also, does it have a radio?; Mon May 23, 06:38:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: Yes it does havve it's own drive letter and you can drag and drop files onto the player.

In order to listen to music or view pictures on the player you have to drag and drop onto the Gigabeat Room program though.

But for backup purpose the dr g and drop works great.

No radio; Mon May 23, 06:42:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Oh, that's very nice then. Is Gigabeat Room fast? And once you transfer a music file to the player, can you transfer it back?; Mon May 23, 07:08:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: Room seems fast to me. One CD took 4 min to rip to the player at 192kbps quality.

Yes you can transfer back.; Mon May 23, 07:17:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: When you transfer music back, is it in the original format or the converted format?; Tue May 24, 02:59:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Two questions. What is the on-the-go playlist function like? Also, does the player have any auto-playlist support like the Ipod?; Thu May 26, 09:07:00 AM 2005
Tomas said...: There's no On The GO playlist, but there is a Bookmark feature which works the same way I would think. Basicly if you like a song you can bookmark it and later you can play all bookmarked songs as a playlist.

No auto play list on the player itself. But wmp, napster and yahoo unlimeted can manage that.; Thu May 26, 09:25:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: So, has anyone been able to confirm whether it works with Yahoo Music Subscription service? Still cant get anyone to verify. Thanks; Fri May 27, 08:36:00 AM 2005
Tomas said...: Yes it does. It's my favorite right now.

Blogged this a while ago: http://www.mygigabeat.com/2005/05/gigabeat-is-compatable-with-yahoo.html

You can use the search on my site to find preivious entries easily, adn also check the forum: http://www.mygigabeat.com/forum; Fri May 27, 09:10:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: Anyone know if it will work with Rhapsody togo?

thanks... Phil; Tue May 31, 11:37:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: So...I think the answer to this is "no", but I'll ask anyway. Can you navigate/play your music like you can on an iRiver player, by physical location on the hard drive. Meaning, instead of extracting album titles/artists/whatever out of ID3 tags, can you go to a folder on the Gigabeat called /COLDPLAY, then go to sub-folder called /PARACHUTES, and then play music files there? Or is music only organized by ID3 tags?; Thu Jun 02, 10:04:00 AM 2005
Tomas said...: You can have it both wasy with the gigabeat. YOu can browse using information from ID3 or by folder structure.

I also want to let people know that you can play music that you drag and drop onto the player. Please disregard previous post by me stating that this was not possible.

More on this over in the forum: www.mygigabeat.com/forum; Sat Jun 04, 11:10:00 PM 2005
Tomas said...: Yes it works with Rhapsody. Any "Play for sure" software.; Sat Jun 04, 11:14:00 PM 2005
Stevie said...: Can you view the pictures without reformating the pictures through the software?; Mon Jun 06, 10:37:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: Can you enqueue songs like in Winamp?; Mon Jun 06, 05:37:00 PM 2005
Kenan921 said...: Do you know if it has a bookmaring feature for audio books?; Thu Jun 16, 01:04:00 PM 2005
Jordan said...: Hey, great site. I saw the preview on Cnet.com and my interest really peaked in this mp3 player.

I've been looking for another large HDD mp3 player to go along with my iRiver H320. I'm trying to make my decision between the iPod 60 GB photo or this Toshiba Gigabeat F60.

I've got a couple questions, how is the random feature when listening to an album? That was one of the faults of an otherwise very good player with the iRiver H320. Instead of randomizing the the playlist of an album again once it played through once, it would keep the same list and go through it over and over. In other words, the "random playlist" wasn't random after the first play through.

I see that it supports the drag and drop feature which is great, my favorite attribute of the H320. I use iTunes to rip all of my music (in 192kbps mp3 form), since I am using iTunes I will not be able to view the album are as I listen to my music will I?

Here's another Q (sorry), how are the EQ settings and is their a User EQ were you can adjust the sound to how you like? Another feature that I like on the iRiver.; Thu Jun 16, 04:43:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: does it have FM radio and a mic?; Mon Aug 01, 01:48:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: is the room software something where you download music from or is it just a way of transferring your music to and from the gigabeat?; Thu Aug 11, 10:27:00 AM 2005
Roy said...: i need to knmow one thing.........does this mp3 include a case at least, cuz i dun't want it to be all scratched up especially the screen. And if there isn't how do u protect it?; Thu Aug 18, 09:17:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Not interested if it works with subscription services per se... but shareware services. What I mean to ask is: Can I upload songs which I don't necessarily have a "hard copy" of? Is there a barrier or "feature" that would prevent this?? Plus the fact that it doesn't have a 'line-in' is definitely a downer. That aside, looks like a jolly good player!!; Sat Aug 27, 02:51:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Just came across this site. Living in the UK, basically all that seems available is the ipod and the creative mp3 players, in the shops anyway.

Does anyone know where I might be able to test one of these in the UK? I cannot find a stockist anywhere and am really interested. THe only things holding me back is that Ive heard the software isnt as good as Itunes and also that the battery may get drained pretty quickly with a colour screen sapping power. Also, does it skip if you go running with it? I would appreciate anyones advice if they can spare the time. typically how many photos would the f20 hold?; Tue Aug 30, 09:23:00 AM 2005
Anonymous said...: I have itunes and all mi computer are mac, is good with mac or is bad?; Tue Sep 13, 01:05:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: I was wondering what i should get, i was wondering if i should get the creative zen micro which i lik, because it has and fm tuner and the back lighting is cool or should i get the gigabeat which i kinda am in love with?

and also i wanted to knoe if the gigabeat came with any games or anything. and also instead of pictures you can put videos on there which is a good 500 mb all you have to do is chage the file name to a pic and drag and drop as if it were a pic; Mon Nov 14, 09:02:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: I just got my gigabeat and i wanted to know how to delete pictures out of the photo file???; Fri Dec 23, 07:31:00 PM 2005
Chito said...: how do you delete pictures out of the photo file? It's not in the owner's manual; Fri Dec 23, 07:45:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: How do you delete pictures??? it's not in the owner's manual. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out.; Fri Dec 23, 07:50:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: How do you delete pictures????? it's not in the owner manual and it shouldn't be that hard to figure out.; Fri Dec 23, 07:51:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: How hard is it to delete pictures?????; Fri Dec 23, 07:52:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: adfgj; Fri Dec 23, 07:52:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: I just got a toshiba gigabeat f40 for christmas. And Yes You idiot it does have a sleep timer...; Wed Dec 28, 04:18:00 PM 2005
Anonymous said...: Deleting photos from the Gigabeat
Deleting photos is easy as long as you are connected to your PC.
1. Connect the gigabeat to your PC (with the USB cable).
2. Open gigabeat Room.
3. Select the gigabeat icon on the left navigation.
4. From the top menu bar, select Tool > Photo Browser.
5. Select the drive that is associated with your gigabeat (E: or F: or whatever it is. You may have to click on each drive to see which one it is).
6. Select the picture folder (or whatever the name of the folder is that has the photos in it).
7. The gigabeat photo browser will open the photo folder on your gigabeat and you will be able to see all of the photos on the gigabeat.
8a. To delete a single photo, click on that photo and press Shift + Delete (on your keyboard). Click YES to delete the photo.
8b. To delete numerous photos, while pressing the CTRL key on your keyboard, use your mouse to select the photos to be deleted. Then press the Shift + Delete keys. Click YES to delete the photos.
9. gigabeat will update and reread any photos on the gigabeat.

Hope this helps!; Thu Feb 23, 09:26:00 AM 2006
Anonymous said...: Idiot! Sleep timer is the second option on the list in Setup.; Sun Mar 05, 09:11:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: i am going out of my mind!
i cant delete pictures from the toshiba!!!!.. i tried what was recently posted but it didnt delete them!
heeellpp pleaaseeee :); Tue May 02, 03:17:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: Hey, I am pondering over whether or not to purchase one of these things...is it worth it....I have an ipod and i dont really like it, does anyone else have a comparison?; Tue May 02, 08:40:00 PM 2006
Adam said...: TOUCHPAD SENSITIVITY ... does anybody have any idea how to cure this?? It seems that on regular occasions, particularly after charging up, the sensitivity of the pad is just haywire. A touch anywhere on it just sends it scrolling up or down through the available options, with no way to stop it until it's reached top or bottom. No control at all. Does anyone have a tip on this?; Mon May 15, 04:28:00 AM 2006
Anonymous said...: Can recording be done on the Gigabeat f40 using a microphone? I'd like to record birdsong up in the mountains, and because of its light weight and decent battery life this would be ideal if mic recording is possible.; Tue May 30, 03:48:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: is it at all possible to take the songs i have on my gigabeat and put them back on my computer recently my computer crashed and all my music is on my gigabeat if anyone has any suggestions i would appriciate it thanks..

.............girl without any music; Tue Aug 08, 01:52:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: I can't get my Itunes to transfer to my Gigabeat. It did fine with my CD's but it just won't work. HELP!!!; Fri Nov 24, 01:51:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: subscription service?
CPA Test Review; Wed Dec 05, 06:11:00 PM 2007