Rating: 
Summary: Perfect player for me
Review: I've had it since Christmas 2003 and it has treated me very well. I was looking for a player with more than a gig of space but still small enough to fit comfortably into my pant's or shirt's pocket. Those were my minimum requirements and the Nitrus met them easily. On top of that it has excellent battery life (12-15 hours!), excellent sound quality, and great software. Before I played with a lot of players I thought software didn't matter much, but after testing the Nitrus, iPod, and Nomads I was really impressed by the difference that good software can make. EQ, Playlists, Bookmarks, Tag-based auto-playlists. All very easy to use and very helpful in everyday use. The only complaints I have are that it scratches easily and that sometimes 1.5GM isn't enough space (at least for me) for long trips away from a computer. I use mostly 192 vbr files and when full the Nitrus hold anywhere from 300-350 tracks on it. Thus far I've only ran into one occasion where I spent so much time with it that I got tired of the music I had loaded to it and I didn't have access to a computer to delete old/transfer new songs. I got it before the iPod mini was available, but now that I have played with both I am very happy that I went with the Nitrus. 30% of my files are WMA (not iPod friendly), the Nitrus battery is MUCH better than the iPod battery, and I the little stealth fighter of a player just looks cooler than Easter-egg pastels.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay away from Rio Nitrus! Very unreliable device.
Review: My Rio Nitrus started crashing about 80 days after it was purchased. Timed out while trying to upload songs, had to be reset with a paper clip every day, eventually failed to even turn on. It would just sit there and click. Tried calling customer service, but they were no help at all. They are clearly outsourced to India, and the poor people there had no clue about Nitrus. I eventually had to get my unit replaced (luckily I still had 10 days on my warantee). In the mean time, I bought an iPod mini, and it is MUCH better than the Rio Nitrus. 4X the storage, better sound, tiny, and looks cooler. Oh, and it works flawlessly. Stay away from the Rio Nitrus. Do not waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Bought it twice, returned it twice, there will not be a 3rd
Review: Well, here goes, a year or so ago, I picked up this unit. Installed fine, seemed to work fine. Downloaded all my tracks and in a matter of hours, it somehow erased every single track (about 400 of them). Called support - they sucked, I was pissed, and returned it. Bought a Rio S30S a few months back - which I am very happy with - but decided to upgrade again and give the Nitrus a 2nd chance. Installed it fine, downloaded almost 600 tracks, and charged it up. Grabbed it on the way out the door to work and found there was only a lonely Coolio track on the entire thing. Took it back without even giving support a call. Avoid the Nitrus like the plague. Have had good luck with the S30S and have friends who own a Cali model with no complaints.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars! Until it breaks?
Review: I purchased this unit appx. 2 weeks ago. I love it! So far... I chose this unit because my Archos Jukebox failed after 14 mos. (I was offered store credit for a different 1). I am here to praise this unit, with much reservation. It's perfect for me. Battery lasts 13 hrs. Holds about 400 songs, smaller than my flip phone. I bring it with me golfing, on sportbike rides & sitting on my desk @ work plugged into my Sony desktop speaks ($25). I got the 2 year add-on warranty. I hope it lasts!
Rating: 
Summary: Love it.... but on my 2nd unit
Review: Great little player - small, light, great battery, great capacity for my needs. "Upgrader" bug bit me on the start of a 1 month NY to Australia trip. Thankfully, the unit was still under warranty when I returned. They eventually agreed to RMA the unit and do a cross ship (this part was VERY difficult and they wanted to charge me until I complained). Knock wood - good luck so far with the new unit. As for the support folks - blame RIO, not them. RIO gives them the policies, and they do a great job following them. It's up to RIO to change their bad policies and stand by their product. They should know better than to give their customers a hard time when they KNOW their product has issues! I fully expect to be reading about a class action lawsuit by owners at some point (like the IBM deskstar/"Deathstar" from a couple of years back). That said, I LOVE my nitrus (now that I have a working unit) - I just worry about it's longevity.
Rating:
Summary: 0 STARS--BUYER BEWARE!!!!
Review: My rio went out on me also right around the three month period, just when the warenty expires. Rio says there is nothing that they can do for me-support was very hard to understand--INDIAN SUPPORT for an American Company! I had to pay an outrageous phone bill, BEWARE, CALIFORNIA AREA CODE!!! Save your money, and time-DO NOT BUY!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Machine....for one day!!!
Review: I also received "Operation timed Out" messages, uploaded firmware changes, etc. Finally stopped working altogether. Guy at the store said it was the second one returned within an hour. Still shopping
Rating:
Summary: Dead after 5 months
Review: Five months after I got this thing, it fails to boot up. It just shows the Rio startup screen forever. I've worked at big electronics companies, they put only a 90 day warranty on this thing for a reason, because they knew that was all it was good for. Don't expect it to last any longer.
Rating:
Summary: Another Victim of the Upgrader
Review: Yes, the design IS flawed, but not on a usability or conceptual level. The problem is, Rio picked a very bad hard drive to stick in this very sleek unit. Mine never worked. It never got past the Upgrader message, and I wasted time with Rio tech support (not an 800 number and outsourced to India -- so much for an American company) and finally demanded a refund. The FAQ about the Nitrus suggest hitting the unit to get it to work. Ask yourself if you want to pay about $200 for a MP3 player that you have to smack around to get it to work. If you really think you do, I strongly suggest you get a service plan along with the danged thing.
Rating:
Summary: RIO NOT helpful after upgrader message
Review: Like many others I was really enjoying this product until 2.5 months into its life I got the upgrader message, I did the firware upgrade and software upgrades but alas still wouldnt work and i got the upgrader message. This was an inconvenience but the BAD news was to follow, RIO had no interest in my problems. I got a if you did the upgrade and it doesnt work then return it message, no we will send you out a box to return it, or please bring it to X where it will be immediately replaced. I now have a defective product and not a easy route to replacement.
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