The gigabeat has a widescreen display, 4GB of flash memory and a Windows Media Center interface, the T400 looks like a promising media powerhouse. But can it overcome its DRM handcuffs?
Review summary of the Toshiba Gigabeat T400:
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 Upon first look, the T400 seemed promising; we loved the interface, had no problem syncing, and the transcoding process we expected to be difficult gave us no problems. However, we quickly realized that while the T400 is an excellent digital music player, as a video player it is abysmal. Our own transcoded videos looked terrible, and the selection of paid or subscription videos was sub-par. With the other options available, we can't recommend it for videos, but for the user who is only concerned with music and photos, the T400 is a solid option. Release: September 2007. Price: $120.
Pros: Windows Media Center interface, lossless music support, widescreen
Cons: MTP transcoding, awkward OK button placement, minimal accessories
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Full Toshiba Gigabeat T400 Review:
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Design - Very Good
The T400 is almost exactly the size of a credit card. Extremely lightweight, we had it in a variety of pockets (shirt, pants, cargo, etc), and each time we almost forgot it was there. It fits within the palm of our (yes, large) hands and even the change pocket in our jeans. It makes a rattling noise when shaken, no doubt due to the cheap plastic hold/power switch at the bottom of the device, yet it was disturbing nonetheless.
The player packs 4GB of flash memory, which seems to be about standard for its price range, but was too small for us to consider it a serious video player. However, the flash memory is nice because of its higher speeds, lack of moving parts and better battery life than a comparably sized HDD. Similarly-sized devices like the Cowon D2 at least offered an SD card slot for expanded capacity (albeit with admittedly slower data access), which would have helped the T400 here. In addition, while 4GB may be acceptable for the casual music fan, listeners with considerable music libraries will undoubtedly find the size inadequate; we didn’t penalize the T400 too much for this, since that audience is obviously not who the device is aimed at.
The 2.4-inch LCD screen was effective enough, and we liked how it was widescreen, playing videos horizontally to fully take advantage of every available pixel.
Interface and Transfer - Excellent
We weren’t that disappointed that the T400 didn’t include a touchscreen; after all, Apple’s ubiquitous iPod line only recently went touch, and that hasn’t stopped us from reviewing it favorably. The buttons on the tiny device were decently sized, but we couldn’t get used to the OK button (by far the most frequently used button on the device) being in the top right quadrant of the button array. We kept finding ourselves pushing the center of the direction pad when we wanted to progress through the menu, which of course did absolutely nothing. We suspect that this aesthetic choice is one that simply takes some getting used to, but it still bothered us.
That being said, we were surprised at how much we liked the interface, which was simply a scaled-down version of Microsoft’s Windows Media Center. In fact, the entire file-transfer/interface system was completely Windows-centric. The T400 is PC-only, and uses Windows Media Player 11 for file transfer and management. We like it when devices get behind a universal application like WMP, since the teams working on features, updates and support for these programs are considerably larger than those working on proprietary programs designed for a single manufacturer or device. In addition, it integrates the new device into an application that the user is most likely very familiar with, has extensive experience with and probably already uses to organize their music and video collections.
Interface-wise, navigation was extremely quick, with virtually no lag at all when navigating through pictures, music and video. Music can be sorted by artist, song, album, genre or playlist, videos can be sorted by source or by date, and pictures can be sorted by date or folder. We liked that when scrolling through music files, the speed rapidly increased when we held down the D-pad, and we liked even more that as we passed through the list of songs, the corresponding letter of the alphabet was viewable in the background. The “quick list” option allows you to create on-the-fly playlists, which, while not fully alterable once created, can be cleared and started over if the user so chooses.
The transfer process was—for the most part—painless, syncing whichever folders we pre-selected, and allowing us to manually add or delete songs and videos with ease. Speeds were on par with other USB 2.0 devices, although when using the on-the-fly transcoding of MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), speeds were almost unbearably slow, taking about one minute for every one minute of video (more on this later). Files could be added manually in Explorer, but we found the transfer process in WMP11 easy enough that it became our method of choice. Besides, the stern language of the user guide explicitly states: “Always use Windows Media Player 11 or 10 when transferring data to the gigabeat. Never use any other method of transfer.”
Audio - Very Good
The T400 plays MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless and WAV-formatted audio files. We like that it supports at least one lossless format, but it would have gotten some bonus points for playing the more commonplace FLAC or even Ogg Vorbis files. That being said, this option is less than ideal considering the small capacity of the device (in addition to the lack of external storage options), but at least it is included as an option. We were impressed with the sound quality on the T400; we were not expecting much amplification from such a tiny device, but we were pleasantly surprised.
The included photo viewer works while music is playing on the T400, allowing you to easily listen to music while browsing photos or viewing a slideshow. The button that makes this simple is the Windows logo button, which brings you to the home screen from any menu on the device. Once there, it was simply a few clicks through the easily navigable interface, and we were viewing a slideshow of a recent trip to Yankee Stadium while listening to a live version of "The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives." Our one and only complaint was that we found no way to return to the regular “Now Playing” screen once we had started a photo slideshow with the music playing.
Video - Good
While we spent a good deal of the "Interface and Transfer" section extolling the virtues of symbiotic relationship the T400 has with Microsoft Windows, when it came time for actual playback, we realized Toshiba had signed a deal with the devil, and the user was paying the bill. The device is designed to play purchased, DRM’d video files from sources like CinemaNow, but both the available library and implementation into Windows Media Player 11 doesn’t even come close to the iTunes Music Store. While the disappointing library of DRM content doesn’t bother us too much, the device’s sheer contempt for other formats did.
When we attempted to import a file encoded with the popular DivX codec onto the T400, the MTP immediately began to transcode the file for playback onto the device. Not only was the process painfully slow, but once we attempted playback on the device, the quality was beyond unacceptable. The image was horribly pixelated, and the player seemed to drop frames at least once every four or five seconds. The only videos we were able to get to play with any success on the player were home videos encoded in WMV format, although we assume similar success could be had with PlaysForSure movies downloaded from CinemaNow or other outlets. We imagine importing recorded TV shows from a Windows Media Center PC would be as simple as compatible music is, but as we did not have a Windows Media Center machine, we could not test it.
The video we were able to play properly on the device looked decent. We did like how the video’s information was viewable in the menus, we also liked how videos could be played from the beginning or resumed from the last point stopped during playback. But overall, we were neither wowed nor appalled, and felt that on the whole the experience was simply average.
Accessories - Good
The accessories included with the T400 were about as basic as it gets. A cheap pair of earphones, software CD-ROM and USB cable signified the bare minimum required to use the player. Even the manual was missing, packed into the CD-ROM. However, we saw this last omission as a positive, considering that most manuals end up in a trash bin or junk drawer, and the high-resolution PDF can never get torn or wet. Not to mention, it’s much "greener."
We would have liked to see an included clip or case, as the device’s weight and size make it suitable to clip to the shoulder strap of our bag as we traversed the New York streets and tunnels. Unfortunately, we were forced to hold it in hand, or worse, put it in our pocket.
Price and availability
The Toshiba Gigabeat T400 will start selling for $120 () in September 2007.
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