Sonic Blue Rio S35 128MB MP3 Player

Pros: good all round player. good sound, size and beltclip.
Cons: durability is suspect...and people are right: the FM reception is sketchy

I've had this almost a year now...it's seen lots of gym time and a few mexico trips. I have a 256 meg SD card in it so it holds 87 songs. I was pretty happy with it but recently the hardware volume switch broke so that when I turn it on, it comes on at "24" out of "30", and I can only raise it louder, not soften it. I can't trace the malfunction to any misuse like dropping it. I checked with RIO and got a funky answer when I asked about sending it in for repair. I'm bummed. I hate to think it's trash, but it seems to be. You ought to at least have an option for repair after the warr. is up.

Will I buy another?...that's a big MAYBE right now.

Pros: Great Sound, Good Price, Nice Looking, Easy to Use!
Cons: It is so light you have to look to see if it's there.

Yes this little GIANT of a MP3 Player does it all and in fine fashion. Small in size, but BIG ON SOUND. This little unit will become your favorite running companion. So Runners after you lace-them-up, just strap-it-on, turn-it-up, and BLAST-OFF.

Player used just twice at gym before falling from holder and hitting floor. Unit no longer functioned properly. Took nearly three weeks of repeated phone calls to speak to a cutomer rep. Took five days from time of faxing requested proof of purchase to response with return instructions. Has been 1 month since unit returned and still no replacement. Horrible experience!

I dropped my Rio Sport player after one month of owning it and cracked the display. The music plays; however, I can't see what is playing and cannot use the menu. I called customer service and they offered no assistance in the way of getting the player repaired. I've only had my player for 1 month and dropped it. I can imagine this would happen very often since it is a "Sport" player and the packing says "for your most extreme workout." There are even pictures of people jogging, rollerblading, mountain biking, and even skateboarding. Apparently this is not the case. If you want to use this for any athletic activity I would discourage it. I would not be half as upset if SonicBlue would help me get the item repaired, because the features are great and I enjoyed the product when it was working.

I am reviewing the arm band and sport functionality of this player. I have 18" arms and the arm strap fits great and is very comfortable. The Rio fits in a clear clamshell case that is made of a flexible plastic. This case can be cliped to your belt or on the armband. Because the case is soft it will not crack or break if you drop it. The player itself is made out of this soft plastic too. It will only protrude just over an inch. Not too ugly with the sport deep red color. Transfer with USB is slow though... but it's the only thing on the market that you can put on your arm that has this many features and low price.

This player has the exact spec that I was looking for but when I got it I was very disappointed. After less than 24 hours I had to return the product because the tuner didn’t work and the unit locked up frequently not to mention the fact that I almost completely drained the first battery in the first 2 hours of use. BIG disappointment for such a promising product

The most practical. Get the extended memory for 4 hrs of playing time. I invested in rechargeable batteries. Make sure you have at least two. Only 15 hrs of playing time.

I really like this product. Its everything I hoped it would be. Excellent quality, good volume (to drown out extraneous sounds). Size and light weight are real important to me because its used almost totally at the gym. I once accidently replaced a battery in the reverse polarity position - in most devices - that wipes out memory - but it did not with the S35. That's real handy as I seem to do that every once in a while.

I'm satisfied with its compactability.The tuner works fairly well,but it can't move around a lot when its on the tuner because of static.I also like the back light on it (which is a blue light)it can come in handy if you are caught in the dark.The downloading is fast and easy,but you have to read up on it and install the software which is also fast.The sound quality is very good.But, you can't record your voice or mucic off the radio.And the battery drained in under 10 hours opposed to the specifications saying the battery life will last up to 10 hours.

My first MP3 player and I am not disappointed. I have the 128MB version and so far I have 40 songs on it and have capacity for more. It is sporty, robust (I have dropped it already), screen lights up which is excellent and the wrap around earpiece is great. It exceeded my expectations.