Rating: Summary: Plug, Play and start your workout....!!! Review: Let me cut through the chase....I installed and transferred my first track to this sporty little player in a whopping 10 minutes (on Windows XP). So for ease of use, can you say "simple"? As far as the FM radio...it isn't very good. But then again, if I wanted an FM receiver, I would have bought one of those instead. As far as sporty MP3 players, ease of use and sound quality, I highly recommend this one. I cannot yet comment on durability...but will be back.
Rating: Summary: Great player! Works fine right out the box. Review: Opened it up, got the software installed and it worked! I was very skeptical after reading all the reviews on various web sites. The software is a little hokey, could be better. However, I put the disk in, installed the sw and was dropping songs onto the player in under 5 minutes. Menu navigation is very intuitive and the backlit display is a huge plus in my book. Also, you have lots of information in the display(battery life, song title, artist, album, date, track time, bit rate, etc...)Another plus for me is the time is always displayed in the upper left. After I did that, I flashed the firmware. This, too, went smoothly. Now I am running ver. 1.6 with no problems. And-In the README file it says it has been tested with sd512 cards successfully! That means that you could potentially have up to 640MB of storage. Pretty much the size of a cd. I'm very impressed with that feature(this is one of the main reasons I bought it). Between the size of the unit and potential memory capacity, you cannot go wrong. One drawback is I can't figure out how to set FM presets in the radio. This really isn't a problem seeing as I did not intend on even using the radio feature. However, would still be nice to have. Tried tech support and was politely told by a robot to call back later. Oh well, I'm not too disappointed. All in all, a great little unit for the price. If size, weight, large storage capacity, great display features, and upgradeability are a factor then this is the player for you(and me).
Rating: Summary: It's ok Review: Provides 6-8 hours per battery change. Works better than previous SonicBlue models
Rating: Summary: My first player---a great way to start Review: I bought this primarily for my morning run. It sounds great, and it is light as can be. Some things to consider: + size and weight are small and light + stylish looking + easy to use. Once you tell it where you store your MP3 files, you just select, click, and you are good to go! - At 128kb--a CD quality MP3--this does not hold four hours worth of music (as SonicBlue claims). It holds about two hours. - Battery life is less than 15 hours, as advertised. More like 7 - 10, from what I can tell. To be fair, I've not used it without having it on to download new tunes. I'm sure this drains some battery life. So do a little homework, and if you can live with a couple of hours worth of tunes, this may be a great unit for you!
Rating: Summary: Good product Review: I'm updating my review based on further experimentation with the the unit. I tried out this unit with MP3 files created using Real Jukebox Plus. The sound from the 35S was really annoying based based on the Real Jukebox files. When I recreated the files using the Real 1 software supplied with the 35S, the sound quality out of the 35S improved dramatically! All in all, the software package is is easy to install and use. I use the player now have to admit it's a great unit for workouts. If I were to suggest an improvement it would be to replace the headphones.
Rating: Summary: Rugged little unit Review: I bought the Rio S35S for my wife for Christmas and she loves it. After much research (and knowing what she really wanted to do with it -- listen to music while working out) it appeared that this Rio model, although new, was the best fit. My only beefs are with the included software. We should have been filmed by Apple as we were trying to install the software and connect the Rio to my wife's ThinkPad with Windows 2000. After about 20 minutes, I got so frustrated that I just plugged the thing into my PowerBook G4, downloaded the iTunes driver and let her load it up with songs from my MP3 library while I installed the various bits of Windows software. The sound quality is great, the integrated radio tuner works well and its rugged design seems to be pretty, well, rugged. A good purchase!
Rating: Summary: A neat little playa' Review: If you're looking for a little MP3 player for the gym, or running, etc., the Rio is perfect. The only problem I've really had with it is that the radio isn't very strong. That is, the stations don't come in very well. Also, there's no "hold" button, so if you acidentally hit a button, you may skip a track or change the radio station, etc. In terms of functionality and usefulness though, it's been great!
Rating: Summary: Rio S35S Review: SONICblue Rio S35S Sport physical construction is ergonomic, nice looking and appears to be rugged. Exterior, made of a "rubbery" material, has a good feel and allows for a good grip when holding the unit. Lighted display is excellent and fairly easy to navigate through the menus. Joggers will have to stop and navigate through the menus to switch from player to radio (or vice vera) since there is no radio/player hardware button. Sound of audio player is decent. Unfortunately, radio reception is poor. Earphone wires which serves as the antenna is sensitive to movement and the position of the device. S35S has a bass/treble equalizer but loses its settings in radio mode once the unit is turned off. Unit does not have much bass. When S35S is turned on, you may experience distortion for a few seconds, depending on settings. When unit is turned off in radio mode at a low volume setting, there is an annoying power/volume surge. People considering purchasing the S35S will want this product because of its small size, nice exterior features and expandable player capabilities but will pass if an FM radio is important.
Rating: Summary: It's ok.. Review: A couple things. I had an intel something model (64 model+expansion) before it got soaked from spilled soda and fried. That was an ok mp3 player. I had high expectations for this, 128+upt 128 with card, fm radio, small form factor. The memory is nice, the FM radio is bad bad bad unusable-it is a non feature and shouldn't be advertsided (really it's false advertising to say it has such a feature and it doesn't work), the headphones are average, the music quality playback ok, I miss the ability to replay over and over a song, the rio manager software is ok. The size is 2.5 times bigger than i thought. I should of checked out the specs better. But for [money] for what I paid a more accurate rating would be 2.5 stars. Very average at best for the price.
Rating: Summary: Wow - what a great little player! Review: I bought this for my husband who is an avid runner and we have nothing but great things to say about it. It's compact, has a great belt clip and is super easy to use. The software makes loading/removing songs fast and easy. This is one player you can use right out of the box - no need to spend hours deciphering some complicated manual! Definitely recommended!
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