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Ever since I piped music in my helmet for the first time, I knew I had to have it.  Adding tunes to a motorcycle commute transformed the ride from decent to downright enjoyable.  And since my ride in is no less than forty minutes each way, it matters.  I am writing this review with the perspective of a motorcycle rider.  I am not an electronics geek and do not know every little function / feature this unit has.  My mission - does this PMP work well on a motorcycle while wearing motorcycle gloves.

NOTE:  To answer the obvious questions as to why not an iPod?  I don’t know.  I have this thing.  I don’t like Apple.  And since I ride an Aprilia, I have proof that I’m not trendy.

After much research and reading of the reviews at various online electronics websites, I settled the Toshiba Gigabeat with 30GB.  The reviews had glowing things to say about the software interface between the unit and Windows Media Player 11.  On the flip side, some people complained about the lack of battery life and poor customer service. 

Here’s a blurb from the product description:

The new Toshiba gigabeat S series utilize 1.8″ hard disk drives for storing audio, video, photos and even recorded television programs. With an easy-to-use interface, superb multimedia capabilities and a large, vivid 2.4″ LCD display, you can now effortlessly select, download, manage and enjoy multimedia content from anywhere at anytime. Content management is made easy through the use of Microsoft Windows Mobile based Portable Media Center software which lets you download and transfers your favorite videos, music, photos and even TV Shows. It’s capable of holding an incredible 30GB of digital media: MP3 and WMA compressed audio and even uncompressed, full-resolution WAV files. That’s about 7,500 songs at 128 kbps MP3, or 15,000 songs at 64 kbps WMA. Its bright, crystal-clear, 2.4-inch LCD screen offers 320 x 240 resolution and the ability to render over 65,000 colors to ensure elite video and picture quality of your videos, photos and even movies come to life!

Sounds good, right? Well here’s my story…

I ordered the unit from buydig.com for about $200.  They were great and the unit was at my door in about three days with standard shipping.  One thing I noticed right away is that it did not come with a ocking station for charging.  It did come with a 2-piece cord to plug into the wall, but I think these days, a docking station is best.  But I digress.

So I charge the unit up overnight and dump about 2 GB worth of illegally downloaded music on the hard drive.  For the next three days, I commuted on my bike to downtown Phoenix for training.  This was about an hour (no less) each way. 

To have music on my ride was nothing short of transforming a regular commute to something that was enjoyable.  The “cross” on the front of the unit is how you navigate the menus with the center button serving as the “enter”.  On the side of the unit are the small round buttons and one elongated button.  The top button is the power button, the elongated button controls the volume, and the three bottom buttons either pause or skip one song forward /backward. 

With motorcycle gloves on, I was able to easily navigate the menus on the front and get started on my commute.  However, when (for whatever reason) it came time to skip a song, it proved next to impossible to get it right.  Again, imagine trying to find the correct small button, at 70mph on the highway (doh!) with motorcycle gloves on.  One time I even turned the thing off accidentally.  Adjusting the volume was guess-work too.  Half the time I altered the volume opposite of my intent.

None of this really mattered much since this was my first day and I knew that over time I would learn how to use this thing efficiently.  Day #2 came and things slightly improved with my finger work on the way to training.  Unfortunately, on the way home the battery charge died.  While that sucked - about three hours of play time compared to the twelve claimed - I wasn’t too worried since it was the first charge.  I WAS WRONG.

That turned out to be my best charge of my ownership.  After the fourth charge lasting less than three hours, I called customer service and they agreed to repair the unit.  I sent it in (at my cost) and they did their thing.  I got it back within a week and was happy.  At this point, I am going to give the Cliif’s Notes version of the remainder of my experience:

• Got it back
• Battery lasted about three hours max (with minimalist power usage settings).
• Sent it back (at my cost…grrrrrr)
• Got it back
• Battery lasted about three hours AGAIN!!!
• Got a customer service guy on the phone and he said that they were out of new units and wondered if “I would accept a refund”
• Hell yes
• 4-6 weeks to process a refund after they receive the unit back (at my cost…#!$#$%)

A note on Toshiba’s customer service.  Each time I called them, they were very nice, cordial, and apologetic.  That said, I think their system sucks.  When I ultimately returned my unit for a new unit, it went to a different facility in a different state.  I got no response after ten days from delivery so I contaced them.  When I called the customer service line to confirm that they received the returned item, I was told that “they are a different department” and that they had no way of knowing the status.  The result was that after pestering three different people throughout the next week or two, I finally got someone who knew how to get the info I needed, and he was the one who offered a refund instead of an exchange.  Overall, this disconnect left me hanging for almost two weeks and I found that totally unacceptable.

The Good:

• Content management was a snap with WMP 11.
• Very nice display.
• Smaller than iPod.
• Came with all necessary cords and cables.

The Bad:

• Power, skip, pause, and volume controls were on the side of the unit.
• Same buttons were too small to use with motorcycle gloves.
• No docking station.
• 2-piece A/C adapter.

The UGLY:

• Battery life, battery life, and battery life was a show-stopper.  Period.
• Customer service disconnect (OK, that was the claim) between the departments is unacceptable. 

Overall Rating:

To me, it doesn’t matter how good the sound is or how good the content management is (the only reasons for the non-zero rating), three hours is not enough.  That’s less than a flight from Phoenix to Detroit (ask me how I know).  In addition, for my specific motorcycle use, the button layout was not practical.  The buttons were not on the top surface and were too small for the fat fingers that motorcycle gloves cause.  In my little world, the Toshiba brand took a hit.  I had intended on putting my new replacement unit on ebay and cutting my losses as I lost all confidence that the Gigabeat was a high-quality component.  I would definitely not recommend this Portable Media Player to anyone…even to Ducati riders.

EDIT 28May2007 - I should have mentioned two things.  First, I use the Etymotic ER-6i for the earphones.  Second, and maybe the error in my ways, was that I wanted to be at $200.  This pretty much eliminated the Apple products above 8GB.  It seems that there is a built in 25% ‘exclusivity tax’ to own an iPod.  I don’t like taxes of any sort.