Rating: 
Summary: Good on paper, flawed in execution.
Review: I have never been compelled to write a review for anything on amazon.com – until I got a hold of the Rio 800. I hate to say it, but what a piece of [junk]. I had high expectations for this product, but they were shot down almost immediately. A little note – I’ve been downloading MP3s since before Napster and Bearshare, but I held off buying a portable device mostly because of reliability issues. So when the Rio 800 arrived to the market, I was excited because it was Diamond/S3/Sonicblue/whatever’s third generation portable, so I figured it would be a pretty solid product. Boy, I was wrong. Yes, I RTFM, but that didn’t matter. Within 5 minutes of plugging the AC adapter into the device, the red charge light went off during calibration, which itself was a tedious 5 hour process. I assumed that the battery must have come partially charged, which is why the light went off. I wasn’t terribly alarmed, so I went ahead and installed the software after calibration completed. After deleting the music that came preloaded on the player, I uploaded some decent songs and was delighted. There’s no doubt about it – the Rio 800 sounds wonderful, has an intuitive interface, and great design to boot. I’m not sure why other manufacturers see it fit to make their players look so futuristic and tacky, but the Rio 800’s design is simple, even elegant, and it has great build quality to boot. Other owners can attest to this, I’m sure – it just feels right in your hand. Great care went into the little, often overlooked details – the buttons are rubberized, the connectors are gold plated, and the display is backlit and highly legible. As I was listening, I periodically checked the battery meter because I was afraid my unit would suffer the fate as so many other users’ Rios. It didn’t seem like I had a problem – 90% full, >10 hours of play time. Then forty-five minutes later, it died on me. No warning, nothing. Needless to say I was a little peeved. I checked the battery meter, which revealed a measly 8% left. Frustrated, I plugged the AC adapter back into the device and charged it until the next morning. Once again, the 800 died after forty-five minutes of use and 8+ hours of charging. The culprit, without a doubt, is the cheapo NiMH battery used in the backpack. NiMHs can suffer from a memory effect if the battery is recharged before it’s fully discharged; subsequent chargings only lessen the capacity of the battery. The fact that the red “charging” light went off so quickly initially was probably not a good thing. Sonicblue needs to take a page from Sony’s playbook and offer a LiION battery if they want to do rechargeable because they do not suffer from the memory effect problem and do not require a silly 5 hour calibration process. Yeah, LiION batteries are expensive, but the Rio 800 isn’t exactly cheap to begin with. More importantly, they need to beef up the quality control. It’s really a shame because as much as I wanted to love the Rio 800, I don’t want to deal with a device that’s plagued with an idiotic proprietary battery pack. The Rio 800 is packed with features, but just hope you get a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: After going through the process of calibrating, installing software, transfering files, and being completely delighted with the quality of sound, my Rio 800 died after about an hour. After recharging the batteries, again it just stopped after about an hour. I wanted more battery life than this, so I returned the Rio 800 and purchased Intel Pocket Concert.The Intel Pocket Concert is working perfectly.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of storage, but expensive
Review: With the Rio 800, you finally have enough space to store a decent amount of music. Unfortunately, solid-state memory is prohibitively expensive, and you are paying serious money to store two hours of music. While I'm not a huge fan of mp3's being played on nice stereo equipment (128 kbps just doesn't sound good on good speakers), the fact is you'll probably be listening to your Rio 800 somewhere where there is background noise or while you're running - basically, since top sound quality isn't too big an issue, 128 kpbs is acceptable. The question, then, is whether two hours of storage is acceptable. The answer depends on what you plan on using your Rio for. If you are either really addicted to a few songs, or you have the opportunity to change your playlist ever day with a desktop PC or, better still, a laptop, the Rio 800 is for you. However, many will feel that its price doesn't justify its two hours of music storage - after all, you could go by an MD player. If you decide that a 128 MB mp3 player is what you want, is the Rio 800 right for you? If size is a big issue, you should look elsewhere. The Rio 800 is small, but not tiny. However, I have found the Rio to be a very compatible mp3 player - it works great with Windows and Mac OS (even OS X). The LCD screen is great, the construction is very good. In a saturated market where high-capacity mp3 players are abundant yet expensive, the Rio 800 stands out as an excellent option. However, it's hard to justify the price, especially since six months after you buy this, a similar model will inevitably be available for half the price. Still, if you want a high capacity mp3 player and you want it now, the Rio 800 receives my recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: I love mine
Review: The reviews on this page are terrible, but I find this to be a very impressive product. Other than the fact that I hate the design of the headphones that came with it (they are VERY uncomfortable) I am very happy with my product. It has built in regarable batteries, a nice carrying case, and lots of memoy. It also comes with the car kit. IT is supported by virtually every major MP3 software package, too: Music Match, Real Jukebox, Windows Media Player, etc. Mine has been working fine since the day I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: two of mine died. This product stinks.
Review: I bought my first rio about a month ago, and the unit died within two week. I swapped out the unit for another one and the second unit died within 3 days. Because I didn't return my product within 30 days I am stuck with it. Stay away from this product.
Rating:
Summary: Does not meet expectations
Review: I bought the 800 as a replacement for my 300. After properly charging it, and loading the music, I was off and running. Only problem is, it is not designed for anyone running as an exercise. The port on the top where you transfer music will capture sweat and moisture. Two days after charging the unit is dead, even if left in the Off position. Recharge it and try again....works awhile and then cuts on and off. Never more than an hour at a time. The leather case to carry it on your hip just rubs the skin off your sides. It's a shame that they moved away from a product with a solid approach for use by those exercising, to one that is so tempermental, you will learn to hate it
Rating:
Summary: I have had no problems with the Rio 800 /128
Review: I had read all the reviews on line the good and the bad. I was a little worried when my new Rio 800 arrived. I charged/calibrated the battery last evening overnight. I got up and loaded the cd on my computer and loaded about 10 songs all in about 45 minutes. I might add all before getting off to work. I had none of the issues that some people seem to have with undersatnding the software or getting the player to load music etc. I use microsoft media player not the one that is on the disk. I noticed in the paperwork to get some of those to work you have to download a patch from the internet. My only problem is I can't seem to get the backpack off to get the serial number to register it. I think that might be a user issue because of my nails. The sound is incredible and I had no problems navigating with the buttons and learning how to use it. I did print the manual off the disk and have read that also. I am no computer wiz kid but I can program my vcr, load software add hardware and burn a cd, this was easier.
Rating:
Summary: High Price Piece of Junk
Review: When the first RIO came out, I rushed to buy it, and ended up returning it because it obviously needed improvement. When I saw the RIO 800, it had the features for which I submitted suggestions years ago: more memory, better quality, rechargeable battery, etc. With high hopes that this RIO would be a completely different story from the first one I bought, I received the RIO and followed the instructions meticulously. It worked beautifully for two weeks and died. I returned it for replacement, and the next RIO 800 failed immediately. For the price charged for the player, you would expect it to function at least longer than a few days. As far as I am concerned, RIO will not see me express my faith in any of their products again in this lifetime. I should have paid more attention to the reviews here, but I really thought maybe I would get lucky at the draw and get a RIO 800 that works. Is there such a thing? I have a Personal Jukebox for MP3 files, and can listen to 80 hours of music before anything repeats. I use it in the car for traveling, but I cannot use it to listen to audible books (will they ever get the idea that maybe they should write an interface for the Personal Jukebox?). My search for a decent audible book compatible player continues. After reading the reviews for the Digisette, I will stay clear of THAT one, as I have had enough trouble with the RIO, thank you very much. Iomega's HipZip gets my next vote. Believe the reviews here that detail trouble with the RIO 800. SonicBlue should be ashamed of themselves for selling such an inferior product. Their quality control is non-existent.
Rating:
Summary: They should fix this thing
Review: I bought a Rio 800/128 on Wednesday, calibrated it (properly) on Thursday night, downloaded my MP3s on Friday afternoon and took it to the gym on Friday evening. As I started up the treadmill, the Rio just died. I took it back to Circuit City on Saturday morning. This thing is bad news and Sonicblue should fix it or take it off the market. Stay away from this one, guys.
Rating:
Summary: Worst product ever purchased
Review: After charging the Rio 800 and calibrating the battery (an annoying 5 hour process), I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to load songs on to it. This is mainly a fault of the instructions, once you get the hang of it, the software isn't that bad. The product was great for about an hour. Then, it shut down for no apparent reason. Even with the adapter plugged in, it won't power up. Trying to get through on their customer service line is next to impossible. This thing is a complete waste of money. After I returned it, I bought an Intel Pocket Concert. Its a little more expensive and doesn't come with as many accessories, but it has worked every time I've used it and I'm much happier with the purchase.
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