Hardware Geeks

When I was first introduced to the T400 in August 2007, I fell in love with this sleek looking, Windows CE embedded powered device. I personally couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to review.

About a month and a half went by before I actually got my hands on one. I finally got it because Toshiba was kind enough to send us one to test out. I was so excited the day it was scheduled to arrive that I did not wait for FedEx to arrive; I went out looking for the FedEx guy.

After I found the FedEx guy, I went straight home to open it up. I tore apart the box like a little kid on Christmas morning. My girlfriend looked at me with this weird look as if I were crazy. When I finally pulled out the T400, I almost cried, not because I was excited, but because they sent me the PINK one. The T400 comes in blue, orange, and pink. I was disappointed; I’ll admit that, but I took it like a man. I decided to review it and, I guess, hand it over to my girlfriend when I am done because she loves PINK.

Let me stop rambling, and let’s get on with the review. Before we do, let’s make something clear. The T400 isn’t an MP3 player; it is a portable media player.

Like I already said the T400 is a sleek looking device. It’s very light weight and comes in black with blue, orange, or pink outlines. The outline color isn’t too overpowering, and the device looks 100% black from a distance. The T400 has a 2.5 inch screen and 4GB of storage.

The first thing I did to the T400 was check out the UI. The UI was really easy to use and kind of had a look and feel of Windows Media Center 2005. I really liked how it looked, and navigation was straight forward. Like the gigabeat U202, the T400 has a PlusPad(tm) navigation system.

The second thing I did was connect the gigabeat to my computer. It was plug and play. Windows XP and Vista both detected the device automatically. No software is needed; however, I recommend using Windows Media Player 11 for managing the songs and syncing them onto your gigabeat. You can also do it the hard way, and that is by opening it up as a hard drive via your “My Computer” folder and dragging your music, videos, and pictures into their corresponding folders on the device.

Once the music and video were on the T400, the only thing left to do was actually test how easy or how hard it is to navigate to the files on the T400, sound quality, and video quality.

So, first things first, I unplugged the T400 from my PC and navigated through the music, videos, and pictures stored on the device. This is basically as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Press Windows Key
2. Select between TV, Music, Pictures, and My Videos
3. After selecting one of the above categories, you simply select a file

If you selected a song, you will see a play button, an option to add the song to your quick play list, and the songs album cover.

When the music plays, you see the songs title, the artist names, a time line, the album cover, and the track number for the song. A lot of information fits onto that tiny screen, and even though there is a lot of information displayed, it doesn’t look cluttered. The sound quality of the songs is great. I compared it to the new iPod touch, the obese looking iPod Nano, and the Toshiba gigabeat U202. In my opinion, it outperformed all three; it literally was crystal clear. I kind of expected the sound quality to be as good as the iPod touch and was honestly surprised that it was better. I am still amazed by the quality of sound.

If you selected pictures, you will get an option to play a slideshow, or you can scroll through all the pictures stored on the device. The image quality is pretty good, and you actually get a crisp looking image instead of some blurry looking image found on other devices.

When selecting a movie, you simply scroll through the available movies on your device. If you were watching it before, you can resume from where you left off or play from the start. The video quality is freaking amazing. The quality isn’t HD, but it fooled me. The images were crisp, and they weren’t jagged or anything. I felt as if I were holding a mini HD screen in my hand. I kind of wish I could show you all what I mean, but I know even if I recorded this and showed you a video, it wouldn’t do it justice.

So, what about the TV option I mentioned? Well, if you have a Media Center PC, you can sync over your recorded programs. I tried it, and it worked. The quality is good; I swear this thing is like a Mini HD screen in your hand.

My only gripe is that it’s just 4GB. It definitely needs more space, and I spoke with Toshiba about this when I got the device. They hinted that it’s something they are considering. I wish I could get on their beta list so I could test out whatever they’re developing.

Even though the T400 I got was pink, and I risked being called a fruit for walking around with a device that has a pink outline, I love the T400 so much that I’m willing to be called names and looked at funny.

Overall the T400 is fantastic, and even though I have a pink one, I’m willing to walk around with it and display it proudly. It also can do a lot, but it’s lacking in the storage department. Because of the lack of storage, we can’t give the T400 our 5 Star award. It would definitely get it if it had more storage space. So what award do we give the T400? We give it our 4 Star Editors Choice award.

The T400 is available at Toshiba Direct for 115 USD and at amazon.com for 99 USD.

Reprint of Origiral Review Posted on: October 18th 2007

Post Tags: review  gigabeat  t400  toshiba 

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