Toshiba Gigabeat F20

Excellent screen; useful one-touch rip/record function

Unnecessarily complicated to use

Taken purely as a player or picture viewer it's a good product at a good price but it's fatally hamstrung by poor software and complicated operation.

Toshiba’s slogan for the Gigabeat is, ‘Because Music is Just Better in Color’. This is of course, ridiculous; it sounds the same, but there is something to be said for the screen. As with mobiles, colour screens have been slow to appear on portable...

1 Touch CD Rip that bypasses your PCs hard-drive ; Large clear screen ; Standard connections ; Cons ; Software on device and on PC is not particularly intuitive ; Plus touch is nice for input but a little slow

Software on device and on PC is not particularly intuitive ; Plus touch is nice for input but a little slow

Toshibas Australian website does not list any pricing, but refers the client to a dealer - so shop around and make sure you get the best deal. New Zealand-based www.ascent.co.nz has them listed at NZ$520.82 (about US$367).

This is a handy player, especially if you're looking for an iPod-like device that can be controlled from the likes of Windows Media Player.

Despite some idiosyncrasies, the Toshiba Gigabeat performs quite well. It is a usable alternative to the iPod Photo, for instance, and with its 20GB hard drive it can store a large number of files of sundry types. The larger capacity alternatives in...