What exactly does something with a 60GB hard drive expect to do, with 10 days of video, thousands of photos, and over 40 days of CD music? With the exceptionally large hard drive with the 2-3/8" screen, Toshiba is doing well to pick up its name in regard to the MP3 players. Preloaded with Window's Mobile software, and the intuitive interface on the Media Center edition of Windows XP, any television show can be translated immediately onto the gigabeat. Many features are available, such as the WMV 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9 video files - and the JPEG display images. It plays MP3, WMA, protected WMA and WAV audio fields. Its 60GB holds up to 2,000 hours of home services, up to 240 hours of movies, built-in FM tuner with 30 preset stations, high-speed USB interface with cable. It offers up to 20 hours audio or 4.15 hours video, with a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery.

With Toshiba's type of reputation, a person expects them to put out the same type of product. Nothing mind-blowing or earth shattering, but something that does exactly what you want it to. This is why the Toshiba Gigabeat Portable Media Center is so wonderful. But on the other hand, its Gigabeat Mobile Audio Player is less than wonderful. If you are wondering what customers are talking about, lets start with the screen. Toshiba produced a great 2.2" screen that views as well as any digital media player on the market today. Why is this bad? Because the Toshiba Gigabeat Mobile Audio Player is just that, an audio player. You can view photos, but no video. What a waste of a big time screen.

Next, a place where an MP3 player can be labeled great or horrible, is the navigation system. Toshiba has designed a PlusTouch system that forms a cross in the middle of the player. Like Apple, Creative, and everybody else, Toshiba believes in their system, but this one is weak to say the least. For starters, sometimes it reads your actions for something completely opposite of what you intended (pausing when you attempt to turn up the volume, etc.).

But worst of all, the quality of the software is less than desirable. It does offer the use of Windows Media, but this is almost impossible to do at times. Toshiba offers the Gigabeat Room Management Software that inexplicably attempts to reformat all MP3 files into a .SAT format. This format is almost unreadable by a computer which causes a major problem if you are looking to send your files back to your computer. But as its been said before, when it comes to electronics it is truly "to each their own". And each person may find that they enjoy what Toshiba has to offer in their player. However, Toshiba's Gigabeat Mobile Audio Player seems to be lagging behind quite significantly in the digital audio race.