Toshiba Gigabeat F20 review

If your MP3 player has a hard disk, then adding a colour LCD screen seems like a great idea. The thing is, many of the players with LCDs only have relatively small, low-resolution screens - not great for looking at photos.

Toshiba's Gigabeat looks set to change that. Its colour screen measures 56mm from corner to corner, just like that of its main competitor, the iPod Photo. Where the iPod Photo's screen has a resolution of just 220x176 pixels, however, the Gigabeat's is 320x240 pixels. The benefit is clear to see - menus are crisp and sharp, and photos show an incredible level of detail and excellent contrast, considering how small the screen is.

Nor is the screen the only good-looking thing about the Gigabeat; the player itself is a little beauty. The plastic and brushed metal case is stylishly understated, andthe buttons glow a cool blue when the player is on.

Another distinctive touch is the Gigabeat's cross-shaped control-pad. Toshiba calls the Gigabeat's control system Plus Touch. Rather than being a clickable, mechanical, button, the cross is touch-sensitive. The centre and the extremes of the cross act as control points. We found it simple to use, although we struggled to find the main menu during track playback.

Alas, for a player that is so nicely designed and looks this good, the Gigabeat sounded awful the first time we used it - we were actually shocked. What could be wrong? On the off-chance, we swapped the headphones for a pair thatwe knew to be good. The improvement was startling.

More expensive, higher-capacity Gigabeat players come with a remote control, but this 20GB model doesn't. You do get a cradle, and the software that is bundled with it is well designed and easy to use (thankfully, as it isn't possible to just drag and drop files on to the player in Windows Explorer).

Most people probably won't want to pay the extra money to carry and view photos - but if you do want a player with a built-in screen this is the one we'd recommend.