There have been several people who have recently asked me what I use for my choice of portable sound devices. I use a three-component system. The first component is a Toshiba Gigabeat. It sports a 30 GB capacity and is a shade smaller than the traditional Apple Ipod (see photos at the link above).
The awesome little screen is a 2.4" LCD screen which plays movies (including widescreen format) and displays photos with brilliance. I did load the movie Ice Age and some NCIS tv episodes on it and they left room to spare. Each episode of NCIS compressed to about 50 MB each. Ice Age was only 156 MB. With size compression like that, you could fit a whole lot of footage on one of these little devices!
A neat feature which Toshiba packaged in this little device was the ability to direct-connect to any digital camera (cable included). You can dump photos directly on it from your camera (in case your memory card is maxed-out). Pictures can be made into a slideshow with music at the touch of a button. Handy.
In spite of all of these tech-savvy features, the music features impress me most. Up front I must admit that I am a complete audiophile. Along with being persnickety about the quality of sound, I also am a fan of Windows Media Player 11. The Gigabeat synchs seamlessly with WMP and fully supports .wma file format and CD quality audio. The player pulls all of the album art off of WMP as well, if you are a fan of looking at album art while you listen to music. This was enough to sell me on it. After ordering it, I was worried that the amp wouldn't be able to drive my high-end headphones (more to come on those in the future). When I plugged in the cans, they sounded awesome without an amp! I am hooked on it.
Only con: battery life. It last about 2.5 hours playing a movie (Ice Age and one ~40 minute tv episode). On music, it lasts about 12 hours. I don't travel super long distances, so I have to recharge about once a week. It really isn't a con for me at all. I'm just passing along what CNet and other reviewers have said.
I almost forgot to mention...this player is not as available as it used to be, but it is still much, much cheaper than other comparable players. It costs on average $150-175!
All in all, the Toshiba Gigabeat is the way to go if you are looking for a great .mp3 player!!
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