Toshiba's well-liked gigabeat series of portable media players has, until now, been confined to the hard disk category. The new 2GB gigabeat U Series certainly breaks the mold. It's a tiny, attractive flash memory-based device that sells for $100—a full $50 cheaper than the 2GB iPod nano. What the U Series lacks in grace (its graphics and tiny screen are unremarkable) it makes up for in ease-of-use. Navigation is straight-forward using the "PlusPad" buttons and the Menus don't bog you down with convoluted paths and too many choices, unlike the RCA Opal or Cowon iAUDIO 7. This player is by no means a masterpiece, but it is reasonably priced, boasts both FM and line-in recording, looks pretty cool, and is a breeze to operate. All in all, it's a strong first showing for Toshiba in the flash-based player market.