Rating: 
Summary: Bad Player & Bad Service
Review: Out of the box the Rio 800 was a lemon. It crashed on half the songs I loaded, the battery showed full when it was almost empty and, best of all, the people at Rio don't exactly respond quickly to requests for repair or exchange. The unit is sitting in a drawer while I wait for their Customer diService department to get back to me. Maybe I'm too impatient, after all, I emailed them barely a month ago.
Rating:
Summary: Just doesn't work...
Review: Well, I bought this and based on the feature list, I could hardly wait to open the box and get started. I easily connected this up to my computer, dragged music on to the device using WMP, and plugged in the headphones. And when I pressed play and heard music, I was stoked - so I headed out on my run. After about 30 seconds, the first song started skipping so I stopped and pressed fast forward. Then the second song started skipping. And then the 4th, and this one so bad the unit locked up. So, I called tech support who just told me to pack it up and send it off to them. Not what I wanted to hear. After about a month my package came back - no paperwork, no word of what they did to fix it, nothing. Just the Rio, suspiciously packaged in the same material I sent it out to them in. Anyway, I copied the music back onto the device, pressed play, and... the same skipping as before, but this time it locked up on every song.
I think if you get lucky and get a working unit, then this is a great device. Just pray you don't need any help from their technical support department.
Rating:
Summary: The worst products, support and service ever!
Review: The unit does not work, no service provided, no toll free support, must call long distance and pay a fee to talk, and when they cannot figure it out, you still pay the phone fee, and there is no one available to service the unit. Basically, if you buy it, and there is something wrong with it, you are stuck with it... and that came out of the tech support mouths!
Rating: 
Summary: Great little gizmo!
Review: i got my rio because i wanted to listent to Audible books. it works GREAT for this. the interface to the audible software running on your local pc and the server (usb) is fast, flawless and error-free. the memory capacity allows you to store all but the largest of books in a single pass.battery life is good. things i would improve: the writing for the display is microscopically small and almost impossible to read. menu system is not intuitive. there is no warning when the battery is dying. there is no car-charger, and the headphones you get with the unit are like a vice grip - unusable! but still, for what it does, it works great.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Customer Service
Review: I have 2 RIO MP3 Players. Both of them were purchased in June 2002. The buttons on one of them have stopped working and I have been trying to return it under warranty for 2 weeks. I have been e-mailing and calling there support center everyday. They request that you fax proof of purchase, which normally would not be a problem, except there fax machine is a voice/fax and if you do not hit the send button at exactly the right second it doesn't go through. After spending 20 minutes on the phone I now have an address to return it to. However, I have little hope of getting it fixed and returned. I would look for a more reliable product next time.
Rating:
Summary: Great player -- you can replace the batteries
Review: I bought the Rio 800 128 for my wife for Mother's Day in 2001. She absolutly loves it and has used it almost every day since for her workouts. However, about 4 months ago she started having battery-life problems like those described in the other reviews (less than 3hrs of battery life, wouldn't hold a charge, etc.) I contacted SonicBlue and they sent me a replacement backpack and new charger. Followed all instructions (calibrate the battery, make sure firmware upgraded to the the correct version, etc.) The Rio worked for about 20 minutes. Out of frustration, I removed the backpack from the unit and replaced the battery with an Olympus NiMH AA battery from my camera and the Rio works like a dream again. I even use the Rio charger to recharge the unit. Note that there is a warning label on the battery compartment cover that says not to do this. I safely ignored the warning and the player gives over 10 hours of playtime on a single charge.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Product
Review: My Rio 800 worked great for about two months, but after that short time, I have experienced a number of problems with it. I typically use the unit at the gym, and while it is lightweight and has a more than adequeate storage capacity, the negatives now outweigh the positives for me.
The battery life, like many others have said, is poor. I typically get about three hours of playing time out of my unit before it fails. In addition, the player crashes at random, requiring removal and re-insertion of the battery pack before it will operate. On some occassions, this does not fix the crash, with the player displaying "ready to download," and only replacing the firmware fixes the crash. In addition, many MP3s suffer in the transfer process, with annoying screeches and pauses being added.
In all, I would recommend not buying this product and saving your money for an iPod.
Rating:
Summary: Rio 800 128mb-don't buy it!
Review: Whatever you do-don't buy this! Pro-
the actual player is cool, and the headphones are tite
Con-
the software doesn't work-three different computers wouldn't recognize the player-two with windows xp, and one with '98se. then, i saw in the instructions that i should download some software from the web site, so i tried to, but it wasn't at the site.-so, if u want a cool player that can't be recognized, get it. otherwise, steer clear.
Rating: 
Summary: It's the best choice going
Review: I researched this thing intensely. I was looking for a solid state player primarily for workouts (running - treadmill and outdoors) and although I tried very hard to find something better overall, I kept coming back to the RIO 800 128mb. I actually bought the Yepp 30sh (128mb) and man is it small! But frankly, the inability to play other than mp3 and the inability to do firmware upgrades made me bring it back same day and get the RIO. Size really isn't an issue anyway (no pun intended). The RIO with it's included belt clip/case is practically weightless and stays firmly on your waistband. I've had the player two weeks, no battery or other problems. Headphones included are not so comfortable but this is a minor issue(Yepp came with earbuds which I just can't use). Bought some Phillips over the ear type for nine bucks. That's it, this RIO is the right player right now (8/2002). Go for it.
Rating:
Summary: Improved Storage Capacity but Poor Battery Performance
Review: This is the fifth different MP3 player I have owned. In the past the chief limitation of these devices has been their small storage capacity. Because of this, I found myself having to transfer files with almost every use so I wouldn't be stuck listening to the same content over and over. With 128MB of memory, the RIO 800 relieves some of that headache. To eliminate it altogether I heartily recommend the RIO Riot which has 20GB of memory but is considerably bulkier than the RIO 800. I like to listen to spoken-word files from audible.com, which are only available in their proprietary formats. The RIO 800 handles these formats (and MP3, WMA) without difficulty. I find that I can load about 15 hours of spoken-word content in Audible's (compressed) Format 3 without sacrificing much in the way of sound quality. Currently, the RIO Riot cannot play proprietary files from audible.com, although that is reportedly under development. Unfortunately, the RIO 800 has major battery problems which cause the device I own to play only about three hours between charges instead of 11 (as advertised). I have been back and forth with SonicBlue's tech support for two months over this (update: 3 months now), only to be told that replacement batteries are on back order with no definite delivery date. They told me they have been "overwhelmed" with battery replacement requests. While I can still use the RIO 800 with the shorter battery life, it's annoying to have to recharge it so often. The problem is compounded by the fact that the battery-level indicator is completely inaccurate, so you have to keep mental track of probable remaining battery life (or recharge it after every use). The RIO Riot, on the other hand, gets about nine hours per charge and the battery-level indicator is accurate. The other complaint I have is that the RIO 800 and RIO Riot have LCD displays that are hard to read, especially the RIO 800. Unless you are eagle-eyed, there is no way you can read the RIO 800 time-counter display and jog (or workout) at the same time.
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