My Gigabeat: The S30 recieves an 8.7 over at CNET!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

The S30 recieves an 8.7 over at CNET!

As I'm awaiting a Saturday delivery of my own S3o CNET published their review of the Gigabeat. "Toshiba won't send us units, so we ordered ours online for $280" atleast I wasn't alone on not getting a review unit.

CNET gives the Gigabeat S3o a 8.7 and Editors Choice. (iPod 30GB Video "only" got 8.0, and the Creative Vision M also "only" got a 8.0)

CNET are just exited as I am about this unit, and the only drawback is battery life. But then again the iPod has just about the same if not worse battery life. MisticJeff in the forum initial tests showed that the video play back was longer than 2.5hrs though. I will test this as well for my review.

The killer combo of S Series and WMP11 is also mentioned. All non-iPods have been loosing out on the software side and with PMC and WMP11 the iPod lost the advantage with iTunes.

CNET provides their standard S30 review for a second 30GB S Series, the Gigabeat S30VL (Blue). I saw this unit at CES and took some photos of it. But my understanding was that we are not to see it here in the states. No online retailers have it for sale yet either. I will try to get some more information on this version. I personally like that one the most at CES. I would not call it blue however, it's more like brushed aluminum.

Another thing that stands out is this: "The 60GB version has the same dimensions but weighs 5.3 ounces (the 60GB iPod weighs 5.5 ounces). " The specs I have seen states that the S60 is thicker. Atleast in Japan it is 3mm thicker.

Checkout the review at CNET

Thanks Mike B for the tip!

Also thanks to dapreview.com for mentioning this blog!

posted by Tomas @ 1:39 PM

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10 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Looks like theres still a dock connector even though a dock isn't packaged. Does this mean we can expect a dock as an accessory? And more importantly, does this mean the S series will work with my portable speakers made for the F series? You know... the ones made by Princeton from Japan...; Sat Jun 03, 04:49:00 PM 2006
qbix said...: That's a good point. I would also like to see an interface for my car. I just ordered a device to hook it up through the Auxiliary inputs but the ultimate setup would be if I could skip tracks using my on-wheel controls. There are devices like the IceLink that work for iPods, but there isn't anything for less popular players. I hope the user base for the Gigabeat expands enough to encourage the creation of more third-party accessories.; Sat Jun 03, 08:30:00 PM 2006
psychobabbler said...: This post has been removed by a blog administrator.; Sun Jun 04, 12:24:00 PM 2006
psychobabbler said...: Tomas, I think you should point out the fact that this score is inccorrect and misleading.

Cnet initially made a mistake and thought the battery life was 20hrs for audio and 6 for video. This is how they rated it then:

Design: 9
Features: 8
Performance: 9

Mean: 8.7

After they realized their mistake (its really 12/2.5 hours) they dropped the performance score. BUT, although they realized it doesnt support divx natively, the INCREASED the score for features:

Design: 9
Features: 9
Performance: 8

Mean score: 8.7

Talk about horrible. They would intentionally alter their score just to keep the 8.7.

The score should technically be a 8.3, if not lower since they should also deduct a point for the lack of divx.

What do you think about this?

-Michael
DAPreview.net; Sun Jun 04, 12:26:00 PM 2006
Tomas said...: Well, granted the score is definitly high. But, myself and others (Engadget for example) really liked this unit at CES. I will wait to put my own verdict on this machine until I recieve my own unit. I will have my own tomorrow.

If CNET gives the Gigabeat S30 a 8.7 it is up to them to change it.

I remeber when it was the other way around and people were steaming over CNET for not rating anythign else but the iPod high.

I have to say as well that 12hrs of battery life is more then enough for me. I never understood why you would need over 20hrs? Even if you do travel overseas, 12-18hrs, you are not going to be listen 100% of the time. I rather have a slim unti with the features I need. Obviously if you do look at how many iPod's Apple has sold many people agree to that as well.

If the Gigabeat S is as easy to use with WMP 11 as the iPod with iTunes we could start to see a shift in the dap market. Hopefully anyways...; Sun Jun 04, 12:35:00 PM 2006
Tomas said...: Oh, and one users in the forum that tested the video battery life reported 3.46hrs of play time. And I believe that CNET said that they have yet to test it and will update the review when they do.; Sun Jun 04, 12:38:00 PM 2006
psychobabbler said...: Who knows, maybe Microsft is backing cnet more now than Apple has :P

iriver clix and the S-series are the only players ever to get an 8.7. Not only that, but its like their last two reviews in a row. Addiitonally both these players are heavily endorsed by Microsoft. Cnet put out a review of the clix the day it was released to the public. The same with the Gigabeat and its annoucement. I just see a lot of similiarities.

Until they prove otherwise, this is the best motive I see to keep the score 8.7 when it definitely should be 8.3. Why do you think they upped the features score when they decreased the performance score?

For me, the longer the battery life the less I have to charge it and the less cycles it has to go through. When I had a Cowon X5L I didn't have to charge it for weeks at a time which was pretty cool. I felt a downgrade in that area when I got a Vision:M. The amount of cycles isn't that big of a deal since I'll be getting a new player before the battery dies, but some want the most out of their product.

As for that score for the battery life. It is good, but I believe it was done without full brightness. I typically prefer to watch videos at the brightest (or close to brightest) setting on my players. If the gigabeat got like 3 hours on full brightness it would be good.; Sun Jun 04, 01:06:00 PM 2006
Tomas said...: Well I guess you got your wish! :); Mon Jun 05, 01:52:00 PM 2006
psychobabbler said...: haha, sort've. I emailed him about it and he wsa nice enough to explain his reasoning. The way he changed the scores were not as I was thinking. He deducted another point from performance instead of taking away the point from Features he added with the edit. He told me he would've given it a 10 for features if it had a recorder. That's something I don't get.

Believe it or not, i would have contacted him if I found any such scoring discrepancies with the Vision:M. cnet reviews can be quite misleading and its sad that it is a large determining factor for many. Thankfully there are sites like dapreview and this one where users can really give you a good indication of how the player is :D

-Michael; Tue Jun 06, 12:46:00 AM 2006
Aaron said...: Wow, the "blue" version is friggen awesome looking. The only thing keeping me from buying the 30GB gigabeat S at the moment is the plasticy white finish and the battery life . . . Maybe Toshiba will decide they want to release the "blue" version in the states.; Tue Jun 06, 10:55:00 AM 2006