Hello Tosh gotta Toshiba?
Written: Feb 28 '02
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Pros: Incredibly lightweight, stylish, small, and FREE!
Cons: Short battery life, durability could be an issue.
The Bottom Line: Its everything a portable music device should be. Small and lightweight with good sound quality and decent memory.
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| Mattog's Full Review: Toshiba gigabeat MEA210 (32 MB) MP3 Player |
To begin with I have to make it clear that I am what they call in the marketing world "a late adopter". I am definitely not a techno gadget geek and an MP3 player was way down near the bottom of my list of stuff I need to buy.
However, due to a nice settlement from a recent class action lawsuit against Toshiba I was given a bunch of cash to spend in their catalog. Nothing there really appealed to me except the MP3, so without knowing the first thing about how to download a song I picked one up for about $220.
The player arrived a few days later and the first thing that struck me about it was the size! it is no bigger than a matchbook and doesn't weigh much more either. As an old LP collector I'm still trying to get my head around how something that small can play so much music, with no moving parts!
The accompanying jukebox software is very easy to use and I've been very busy loading my CD collection onto my computer and creating playlists. Only problem is that it can take about 8-9 minutes to download a CD, but I think that has more to do with my antique laptop than the software.
The player has 32MB built in and came with a 64MB card as standard; enough for a couple of long CDs....put it this way I can get 2 Allman Brothers CDs onto it.
The earphones are a bit of a disappointment and I use an old Sony pair which I prefer. The sound quality is great and as far as my untrained ear is concerned its as good as the original CD. Its also a very easy machine to use, very few buttons and a nice LCD display. It also comes with a handy waist clip for running around.
It takes a single AAA battery which generally last 2-3 hours; I'd prefer a bit more life but perhaps not at the expense of added weight.
My only real concern with the unit is that it may not be the most durable gadget in the world. It is so lightweight that it feels kind of fragile. That said, it has been tossed around in my gymbag for about a month, dropped a couple of times and soaked once or twice on rainy runs and it still performs admirably.
Bottom line - if a Luddite like me can get into the 21st Century and use one of these things with no problems anyone can.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 220
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Epinions.com ID:
Mattog
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Member: Matt R.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 37 members
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