Unfortunately, the manual doesn't come in English, which may be a problem because the controls aren't as simple as those on other mp3 players (though they're very intuitive once you know what everything does). The controls and menus are similar to those on the Fs, and I think you can download the manuals to them from the Gigabeat website.
The software isn't terrible, but it's not very good either. Editing Id3 tags and such can be a pain, though it has some nice features (you can browse by both folder and Id3 info, and you can manually set pictures as album art). The biggest problem is that it crashes if you ask it to do too much, like changing the artist of 100 songs at once (which other music managers can handle). When I was transferring my music, I tried to change views from the computer to the Gigabeat, and it crashed, affecting the Gigabeat's hard drive. I had to reformat it and transfer everything again, a painstaking process.
Thankfully, you can also transfer with Windows Media Player, which I find to be a much better, more stable software application. Sadly, both ways encrypt the songs in SAT format. I had hoped to work around this with the USB mass storage, but while the computer recognizes it as a mass storage device, transferring files to it doesn't seem to work.
As far as style goes, I think the X30 definitely looks better than the S. Yes, they look very similar, but there's lots of little things. The plus touch on the X is cheap-feeling and ugly-looking (and I like the X30's touch-sensitive one), the buttons on the side are round instead of the slick rectangle shape, the two black buttons on the front look odd, it's strange how there's a little slope on the back, etc. I also think it's a shame Toshiba replaced the red color with metallic blue--I thought red was by far the coolest color. Also, the X30's screen has four times the colors of the S'--so pictures do look a lot better.
The Gigabeat X30 is overall an awesome player--stylish, compact, well-built design, long battery life, and great sound quality--but its feature set is a bit on the paltry side. I think it's fine for me, but there's no video, FM tuner, on-the-go playlists (I do wish it had these; you CAN make one playlist at a time, but it's very limited), or custom EQ (but it has a whopping 33 presets, each of which greatly affects the found--I'm sure you'd find some you'd like). So basically, you're choosing between the design (the X30) or features (the S series). I find the X30 to be a great mp3 player, and I've come to realize that I don't regret buying it, despite the release of the S series. If you look at features and value, the S might be a better choice. But only you can make that decision.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
Chowhound
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GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
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