Rating: 
Summary: Not enough memory!
Review: If you need an mp3 player and have a small budget this product is great for you. Hovewer I have some complaints: My main complaint is its low memory. I expected 2 hours(written on the box), but I only got a little over an hour. The battery is also a problem. This device eats up batteries. It's supposed to last around 11 hours but only lasts around 5. The headphones [stink]! But most headphones which come with devices aren't that great eather. It's small size and light weight is great. It also has some nifty features.
Rating: 
Summary: Broke in 1 hour
Review: I bought this PLAYER and after 1 hour of playing music it quit working. Really poor.
Rating: 
Summary: Battery hog
Review: I've had my Rio 600 for many months now and my biggest complaint echoes that of other people: battery life. Not only does it drain the battery like crazy, but the battery indicator is totally inaccurate -- not even close to telling you how many hours of battery life remain. It'll indicate that 7 or 8 hours of playing time are left but then die 15 minutes later. I believe the advertised battery life was 12 hours, but I'd estimate that my player has never lasted more than 4 or 5 hours on a single battery. It drains significant power even when it's off, so you MIGHT get the advertised battery life if you remembered to remove the battery whenever it's not in use. In any case, I always have to bring an extra battery with me because it's so unpredictable. Even changing the battery was a hassle for me. It's encased in a thin plastic sheath that covers the battery when you remove the back of the player, but I found it very difficult to re-clip the sheath over the battery without accidentally popping the battery out of place. In addition, the headphones that came with the player died within a few weeks of use. I found the player's controls to be OK as well as the software (actually, I use RealPlayer's plug-in for transferring songs), but the battery issues are a deal breaker for me. This is the first MP3 player I've purchased, but I'd assume there's got to be better ones out there.
Rating:
Summary: Basic user controls are impossible to use
Review: The basic user controls (play, rewind, fastforward, stop) are impossible to use. There is a single piece of plastic over all four buttons. It is impossible to reliably press one. or the other. What's more, they are not debounced-- in other words if you press and hold fastforward you usually end up going to the next track rather than going forward within the same track. If you have hour long tracks of low bandwidth voice, this becomes tedious. Even if you take great care, you cannot reliably use the controls. Unless you plan to hit "play" and leave it alone, avoid this player.
Rating:
Summary: Horrendous pain to use and keep working
Review: This is a very poorly engineered unit. I knew this when I bought it but I wanted a player that would support the audible.com sound format and there are few alternatives. I find myself having to remove the back of the unit frequently as the unit stops working for no apparent reason several times an hour. This unit is a turkey.
Rating:
Summary: Good luck getting help when it breaks....
Review: I got my Rio 600 for Christmas this year and it was frustrating trying to install the software and get it working. Once I'd figured that out, I listened to it for 2 hours total before the unit completely died. I have spent days trying to get email help from tech support and once I finally got a guy on the line at tech support (on a half-hour long distance call) he said they are no longer making Rio 600s and I had to take it back to the store for a refund. He couldn't help me. What a waste. Sonic Blue has abysmal customer support and products that fail right out of the box. Think seriously before buying a Sonic Blue product. Their products are nice - full-featured and easy to use - but if it breaks, you're stuck with it and they don't live up to their warranty.
Rating: 
Summary: 9 months and still working
Review: I bought this about 9 months ago and have used it 2-3X a week for period of 30-60 minutes while working out. Get the 64 MB not the 32MB otherwise you'll be limited to 5-6 songs. The case: reasonable, can't always read the menu but has never fallen off even during B-ball. The earphones: weird but lightweight, single ear pieces and I'm still using them although should buy a padded set of headphones. The software: A real pain, I have to click thru Realplayers advertisements every time I want to transfer mp3s from my PC. Menus are not intuitive and realplayer often saves my songs anew unless I make them properties, attributes read-only...so a song I downloaded a year ago suddenly has a new date on my hard drive. The battery: change them often. I always worry about changing the battery because this involves carefully removing the back plate that covers a metal connecting clip with about 24 tiny prongs -- Bend one prong and you're out of luck; however, just take a 2-3 minutes and things should be fine. The buttons; tiny but your fingers get used to them. Overall -- some flaws but hey, it's new technology and still works well.
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but not worth it
Review: the rio 600 is a sharp player. the sound qualty is great, the features are great. but it isn't worth it unless you have a small collection of audio. it just can't hold that much. 64 mb can hold max 25 good length mp3's. and if you want to upgrade sonic blue is the only palce to buy new memory. instead of removable memory cards, they sell backpacks specially for the rio, and the biggest memory card they sell is 128 mb. the controls are also very difficult to work. they are small and you tend to hit the wrong button. if you are looking for a small mp3 player with good sound, it is nice but i don't think it is worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems? What?
Review: Purchased my Rio 600 about 3 months ago and i must say i am pretty impressed. I read many complaints and wonder to myself if i am the only electronic-literate person that visit's this website. Or maybe i just don't have fat fingers or DROP it everyware. :-P
Nevertheless, i take it snowboarding and through pretty hard falls it stayed together. My battery life is near 8 or 9 hours. Prehaps other people have problems with battery life because volume is too high or somthing? And another thing, if you are a reasonable age (lets say.. 40 or less?) the LCD ISN'T HARD TO READ, get some bifocals if it is. For people complaining about overall quality-of course there will be more problems with these then other MP3 players, this specific model sold more than any other, so obviosly the more units sold the more defective untis there will be. Thanks and have a good New Years.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Player, But Beware of a Few Things
Review: I got my player earlier this year and have had a fairly good experience with the unit. First of all, I tried the software that came with it (RealPlayer), and immediately stopped using it and took it off my computer. It does not work well for one, and secondly, RealPlayer tries to take over your computer (and your life). Advice #1: I have been using Windows Media Player with the downloadable driver for the Rio Player, which works smoothly. I use mine primarily when I am running, mountainbiking, and motorcycling and have had no problems with shock or skipping. But, the headphones lasted a month or so before developing a crack in the wire and then start crackling. Advice #2: Buy some quality headphones if you want good sound and reliability. The other complaint that I have is with the battery draining after the unit has been turned off. If I put a battery in and play it often, it lasted a reasonable amount of time. But, if the unit sits (in the OFF position) it will still drain the battery down completely within a week or so. Advice #3: Use rechargeable batteries. Overall, this player does sound good and has some nice features. I continue to use mine with good performance, considering the downfalls mentioned above. I do, however, question the integrity of the SONIC BLUE/RIO brand of products from this experience and from similar experiences from other fellow consumers. I don't plan on getting the backpack expansion for this product because I've heard of quality/performance issues from others. Unless they can prove to me that they are going to make a good product and stand behind it, I will be leary about any of their future products. Hopefully, reviews like this will make a difference so that everyone wins :)
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