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Where to buy the Toshiba Gigabeat G20:

The Toshiba Gigabeat G20 (MEG200J) is only available in Japan right now. Dynamism.com, the experts in importing Japanese Gadgets and Computers to the USA, are offering the Toshiba Gigabeat G20 for their true price of $599. Call them directly at 1-800-711-6277 and mention that you saw the Gigabeat G20 on I4U to receive special treatment.

The Toshiba MP3 Player is thinner and has a different form factor. It also takes 20 cm3 less space.

At the first glance the G20 is impressing me right away. It is extremely light (138g) and it has only the size and format (76.5mm x 12.7mm x 89.5mm) of those silver cigarette cases. Compared to the (new) iPod, which measures 101.6x15.7x67mm and weighs 159g. The iPod is longer which when put in a shirt pocket makes it head heavy and easier to fall out. The Toshiba G20 actually fits exactly in a shirt pocket. Looks like Toshiba made this on purpose. The metal finish on the casing is typical Japanese electronics style. The design is very clean and elegant. The buttons are all on one side of the player. On the front is only the logo and the LCD display with blue backlight. On top is the headset plug and the lock button. On the right upper corner is a hole to connect a wrist band.

The Toshiba Gigabeat G20 fits perfectly into a shirt pocket. Most likely that drove the form factor. I had to stick something under the player in the pocket so the player still sticks out for the photo. It normally completely disappears in the shirt pocket.

What's in the Box:

Gigabeat G20 20GB HDD Music Player
Docking Station
USB Cable
Power Cable for Docking Station
Earphones
Remote Control
Two Manuals
Software CD

First thing is to charge the Player by putting it into the docking station. Charging takes a couple of hours. The DC power adapter can also be plugged directly into the player to charge it. Which is nice for travel. The Gigabeat G20 has a playback time of 11 hours. Note, on the back of the player is a slider to switch off the built-in battery. Make sure its set to on.

In the meantime I installed the software provided on the CD. There is a proprietary music management software (TOSHIBA Audio Application Ver2.0) to upload music files to the player. This program is very basic and I did not find it that useful. The good thing is that Toshiba has bundled a driver for the Windows Media Player 9. After installing the G20 shows up as a device on the Windows Media Player. Copying individual files or copy whole CDs is a snap with Media Player. I will go into more details on managing and downloading music to the G20 later in the review.
After charging was done I connected the player with the USB Cable to my Windows XP Notebook. To power-on the player, the big wiggle button on the side has to be pressed for about two seconds. The display lights up and the Gigabeat logo is displayed. The MP3 Player is immediately recognized as a drive and I can browse the file system on the players 20GB 1.8" hard-drive. You can upload any file to the player's hard-drive to use it as a portable 20GB hard-drive.
Music files however need to be uploaded either through the bundled simple music program or through the Microsoft Windows Media Player Driver. Why ? Because the player is wrapping music files with meta code and adds the extension SAT to each file. Without that extension the player does not see the file and does not play it back.
To test the sound I uploaded one MP3 file through the windows Media Player. I put on the bundled earphones and press the big wiggle button on the side to start navigating through the directory. On the uploaded file I press again the wiggle button and music starts playing. The sound is full and clear. I try the built-in equalizer and switch to bass++, which makes the sound even better for my taste. Volume is controlled by small buttons arranged on top and bottom of the wiggle button. Pushing the wiggle button will pause the play-back. To push the button up will move to the previous song or previous menu item. Pushing it down will move to the next entry. This button interface is very intuitive and I had no problem to figure it out right away. It is also very tactile. Once I am in a submenu the upper volume button becomes the back button. To get into the menu a small menu button is placed on the upper area of the player's right side. I go in more detail on all the features in the next section.

Right side of Player with all buttons. Besides the hold button which is on the top side of the player all buttons are on this side. You also see here the power adapter plug and the USB plug. Every button is nicely marked with an icon.

Remote Control:

The bundled remote control can be plugged between the player and the headset. It has a clip on the back to fasten it on a shirt collar. The remote features volume control buttons, a button to cycle through the equalizer modes, skip forward and backwards and a play/pause button. On the side is a hold button to lock the buttons. The remote is conveniently small (12x65x8mm) and lightweight and its case is black plastic.

This concludes the overview, press the next button below to dive into the features of the Toshiba Gigabeat G20.