Microsoft Zune vs. Toshiba Gigabeat

November 21st, 2006

While there is certainly no doubt who the big dog is at the moment when it comes to the digital music players, there is no dearth of selection for those looking for an alternative. If Microsoft is to achieve their goal of overcoming Apple’s stranglehold on the market and become THE digital music player they will first have to provide a cost-efficient, durable, and versatile music player to those looking for the alternative. One of the alternatives on the market for Microsoft to overcome is that of the Toshiba Gigabeat player that boasts some of the most impressive stats on the market. Here’s a comparison:

First off, while the Microsoft Zune may not have proven a whole lot in the digital music arena they have certainly created a product worthy of interest before a product that costs about $50 more. The Gigabeat comes in at about $300 whereas the Zune is around $249 for the exact same amount of hard drive and more benefits in terms of accessories, etc.
The second area where the Toshiba Gigabeat comes in behind the Microsoft Zune is in the very important battery life category. Zune comes in at about 14 hours of battery life on a full charge, while the Gigabeat provides around 12 hours of battery life on a full charge. This is not the end all, but it is certainly not a good step for a more-expensive, less-flashy digital music player.
Toshiba does provide a very nice video screen with the Gigabeat, coming in at around a 2.4” LCD screen for your viewing pleasure. While it is certainly not a big screen, the Zune puts this screen to shame with a 3” LCD screen that is capable of being viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
Microsoft Zune is definitely providing a rival to iTunes with the Zune Marketplace, but Toshiba isn’t completely worthless when it comes to downloads as they are a part of the PlaysForSure network. While the ability to download through Rhapsody or Napster is nothing to be depressed about, it will not have the power of the Zune Marketplace once Microsoft puts a few years and many millions of dollars into it.
Both players sport an FM tuner to give you the flexibility of listening to a downloaded or ripped song or flipping to a frequency on the “old” FM dial. Neither sports the recording capability of the Creative Labs Zen Vision, but the ability to listen to FM radio on a digital music player is nothing to shake your head at!
While Toshiba is not necessarily a “no name” in the world of electronics, it certainly doesn’t have the pull of Microsoft in the world of digital media or computer technology. Considering you save a few bucks and get name recognition, it would be difficult to go against the Zune.