Good choice, not perfect yet!
Written: Oct 14 '00 (Updated Oct 14 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good sound, small, downloads books
Cons: not attractive, useless case
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| tochriste's Full Review: Rio PMP-500 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
An MP3 player was one of the few gadgets I did not own. Since I travel quite a bit, and get bored on airplanes, I am always looking for something new to entertain me. Hence, my decision to purchase an MP3 player. After much research, I decided to purchase the RIO 500. One of the biggest reasons for choosing the RIO is because it allows you to download books from audible.com. Not all MP3 players allow you to download books. In fact, some players are very limiting (the Sony walkman does not make it easy to download much). I not only wanted to listen to music, I wanted to be able to listen to audiobooks on my player.
The Rio comes with 64MB of built-in memory. It doesn't come with any external memory, you have to purchase that separately. I bought a 64MB compactflash card, bringing the total memory to 128MB. This is enough to download a book and plenty of music. The sound quality is excellent.
It takes a little effort to get started. I got a few error messages before I successfully downloaded, but, all in all, it wasn't too bad. The Rio uses a AA battery, which is supposed to last 12 hours, however, downloading really eats up the battery. The 12 hours is just listening time. Make sure you have some extra batteries handy.
I don't particularly like the design of the RIO. I prefer the cool looking gadgets. This is like a slim little radio, not the most attractive of toys. There is a case included with a clip, however, the case has a plastic cover, which makes it difficult to push the buttons. They really shouldn't have bothered with the case.
The earphones that are included are KOSS, and high-quality. They fit comfortably in your ear.
All in all, this is a good MP3 player, but it could be a lot better. I would like to see a stylish design, a nicer case, and rechargeable batteries. Then, this picky consumer may be totally satisfied.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tochriste
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Location: Chester, NY
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 5 members
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