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Performance & Testing
Like the Philips GoGear HDD6330, the touch sensitive pad will take some time
to get used to. However, once you do, it works well and is quite
responsive. I still think they should have made it backlit like the
side buttons. The reason for this is because I found it hard to tap
the center of the cross-like pad in a dark lighting.
Interface
The
interface, while feature-packed, is not for everyone. Some may not
like some of the cheesy looking screens or may find it difficult to use at
times. I personally like it, and is certainly a nice change from your
typical DAP.
Navigation
Navigating such a well implemented interface can be quite challenging and
will take some time for you to know where all menus are and quicker ways to
access them. The touch pad is not fast enough if you need to navigate
through a very large collection of music files. The GoGear has a
slight edge here in terms of scrolling speed.
Playback
The
Toshiba has some nice playback features, including bookmarking and music
sampling. However, it lacks what I think is the most important,
on-the-fly music playback. You can at least manage though with the
bookmark features. Another nice feature to have is the ability to rate
music and play them based on your choice. Unfortunately, this player
also lacks this capability.
Sound Quality
**click to enlarge**
Sound quality is quite good, and on par with the excellent MP3 players from
Creative. Certainly much better than the Philips GoGear HDD6330 I
reviewed some time ago. As always, in order to really measure its
overall sound quality, high end earbuds were used as opposed to the bundled
and some cheap looking earbuds. Don't get me wrong, they will probably
be suitable for most, but I always like to use better earbuds such as the
japan only Sharp HP-MD33-S. Also, one thing you should note is
that their earbuds do not come with foam pads. While many may think
this is not a real issue, I tend to differ. The foam pads are an must
with this particular kind of earbuds and will not only keep them in place,
but help isolate exterior sound and provide deeper bass response. The
comments made on them where only after using them with foam pads.
Battery Life
Battery life was far below what
the specs stated. Specs say battery life is about 16hrs but that
depends on ambient temperature and only based on WMA files ecoded at only
128kbps. In our tests, it was tested with MP3 files that are all
ecoded at 192kbps. I Randomly played the entire collection and with
little interaction, I got 11.6hrs. Still not that bad, but I think the
specs are quite misleading. 12-13hrs would have been more in line.
Charge time took exactly two hours. That's pretty damn fast, and
certainly faster than any other player I've looked at. However, like
the Philips GoGear, the battery meter on the player is useless. It is
far from accurate and you'll find yourself running out of batteries before
the indicator does go to its lowest level.
Durability
The
Toshiba GigaBeat F40 is primarily made of plasctic with a metallic finish.
This is to help keep the player as light as possible, something most look
for when on the market for an new MP3 player. With that said,
durability is not on par to say either the Philips GoGear or Creative Zen
Vision:M, which are primarily made of quality aluminum. With that
said, dropping this player may render it useless. However, as long as
you're not careless and protect it, you should be fine. You may even
consider just get a screen shield to at least protect the screen from
scratches.
Accessories
& Third-Party Products
**click to enlarge**
Toshiba generously includes a docking station, in-line remote and some
earbuds. The dock, while very light and cheap-looking, does
conveniently have two buttons on each side for quick sync or ripping via
their software. The remote that attaches to your headphones is fairly
standard, including volume keys, mute button, track buttons and play/pause
button.
The only thing Toshiba fails to include is a
case. Not even a cheap pouch is included. However, Toshiba does
optionally sell a nice leather case for all their Gigabeat models.
As far as third-party accessories go, Toshiba
does list a number of them on their website that are compatible with this
player. These include products from Belkin, Case Logic and Monster.
Belkin
F8V3080 TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter
F8V234-GLD-APL Speaker and Headphone Splitter
F8V235-06-APL Y Audio Cable, 6 ft.
F8U0802 OmniDock-L for Handheld Devices
F8V366-DL Mobile Cassette Adapter
Case Logic
MPC-5 MP3 Travel Accessory Kit
MPC-7 MP3 Music Sport Belt / Armband
MPC-6 MP3 Player Shuttle
Monster
MBL-FM XMTR100 RadioPlay 100
MBL-FM XMTR RadioPlay 200 Wireless FM Transmitter
Also, note that the folks over at The
Invisible Shield also offers a
full body shield for this player. There product is excellent
and they have kindly sent over some samples for the Philips GoGear HDD6330
and Zen Vision:M. Overall, this is an inexpensive way to protect your
investment without the added bulk. Highly recommended!
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