A good choice for a budget MP3 player
Written: Nov 19 '02 (Updated Nov 20 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: inexpensive. small. easy to use. sounds decent. also a portable hard drive.
Cons: only 160 megs memory. included headphones are uncomfortable. lacks some features
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a better alternative to your cd or tape player but don't want to spend a lot of money, check out the RIO One.
|
|
|
| benminer's Full Review: Rio One (32 MB) MP3 Player |
The RIO ONE is an updated version of the "Diamond RIO" MP3 player, which was one of the first portable MP3 players available in the US. Since then MP3 players have taken off, and are available in a wide variety of styles and feature/price ranges.
There are 2 basic types of MP3 players; hard drive and flash memory. Hard drive players can hold hold far more music and generally have more features, but they are typically more expensive and tend to be larger in size. The Apple iPod is one of the most popular hard drive MP3 players, and depending on which model you get it can hold up to 20 gigs of MP3's, which according to my calculations is almost 2 weeks of music. (if 1 meg = 1 minute).
Flash memory MP3 players use memory chips, similar to the RAM chips in your computer except that they don't lose their memory when turn off the power. Flash memory MP3 players can be much smaller then hard drive players, and they are some that are quite cool looking. The RIO ONE uses SmartMedia cards, which are fairly inexpensive and readily available in electronic stores or online. You can buy several, load them up with your favorite songs, and then just swap them out. To me this makes a lot more sense then spending hundreds of dollars on a hard drive player. Case Logic makes a MP3 player case that has room for your player, small headphones, and several memory cards. You should always keep your memory cards protected, because if they get scratched they might not work any more.
The RIO comes with 32 megs of memory built in, and the SmartMedia slot will accept 32, 64, or 128 meg cards. As a general rule 1 meg equals 1 minute of music, so it can hold almost 3 hours if you use a 128 meg card.
Copying MP3's to your RIO ONE is a cinch. Just plug one end of the included cable into the unit, and the other into a USB port. After a few moments the RIO ONE will appear as a new hard drive in Windows Explorer, and you can drag and drop mp3 files into it. (It does come with some special transfer software but you don't need it). You can also use it as a portable hard drive. File transfer is not lighting quick, but it should be fast enough for most people.
The RIO ONE is not much to look at, and lacks many features you would find on a higher end player, such as a backlit screen, a radio receiver, or the ability to play WMA files. The song titles do not scroll across the screen like they do on some players. You will want to upgrade the headphones, because the ones that come with it are not very comfortable. (Sony makes some excellent bud-style headphones that come in a little roll-up case for great portability).
But it works just fine, and while it's probably not going to win any audiophile awards, the mp3's sound decent and the batteries last a long time. It's also a great thing to exercise with, because it won't skip while jogging or on a stair climber. (some hard drive players will skip if they are jarred hard enough). Since it's so cheap, you don't feel like you have to take extra special care of it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 55
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
benminer
|
|
Member: Ben Miner
Location: Alexandria, VA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Trust me, I know what's best for you.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.