Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this MP3 Player
Review: Unfortunately, I didn't do enough research before I bought this player. All of the other comments here are true. The battery systems are all fouled up. The battery either does not charge correctly or does not calibrate correctly. Re-calibrating the battery helps for only one cycle. Battery appears to need recalibrating with each charge. Customer support doesn't answer the phone. Product is clearly defective. Buy something else.
Rating:
Summary: ...DO NOT BUY!!!
Review: Hmmm...lets see where to start. This...thing [is bad]! I just got it a couple weeks ago and it is totally bugging out on me. Its turning on/off whenver it feels like it, sound only comes out from one side of headphones(both sides if plugged in halfway >:[ ), tells me I got full 10hrs left after charging then goes down to 2hrs 10min later, and in the end makes me want to toss the...thing on the ground and step on it!
This freakin Enron-type company knows it too! They make these horrible gadgets that don't work...Then I find out on the website not to use the adapter it came w/ because it ruins the player and instead they'll send me a newer one...People..don't buy [this]...
Rating:
Summary: after 8 months of use
Review: I bought the player because of its compatibility with formats from Audible - audio books. After 8 months, the battery is at 30% of its supposed strength, if you are lucky you can use it 3 hours instead of the claimed 11 hours. The battery dies real quick even if you do not switch it on. The display is flimsy. Hard to read - the oval display does not allow to see the full text. The menu has a lot of features, and 128MB is quite helpful, if your battery makes it. The box is made of cheap material that can break to easy. I also own a Rio 500,
which is not working anymore.
These are my last buys of Rio products. I do not understand its popularity: must be good marketing. I recommend using a device with AA battery slots, so you can put fresh power in, where ever you are.
Rating:
Summary: Dead within 24 hours
Review: My story goes as follows: I purchased the Rio 800 128MB despite the poor reviews (big mistake), I charged overnight as per instructions. Next morning it lasted about an hour and died. Then I recharged it and used it again for about 2 hours, paused it, then it died again. Tried another recharge and it was totally dead this time - wouldn't even turn on. The software also froze on me three times trying to get MP3's copied onto the unit (Windows ME). I rang Tech Support and was told that 'sometimes the customer can damage the unit charging it - it must be returned'. IMHO a piece of junk.
Rating: 
Summary: The best MP3 player for mac.
Review: I have been owing the sonic 800, 128 mega bytes for the past year. It is the best electronic gadget I have recently owned. It is an extension of my palm during jogging, and it is very easy to make a new song selection in matter of few minutes using the mac iTune. It is very user freindly, and I belive it is better than so publicized iPod. it is lighter and more compact and less expensive.I am saddened to say that my unit heat up one day during being recharged and stopped working. I have no explanation as to why this happened. But, luckily I had the circuit city replacement plan, and a have requested a new unit at no cost. However, it is sold out till mid feburary. It is worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: waste of money
Review: i bought this last summer and it's just been a completely defective product. it's impossible to get anything resolved with the manufacturer when the product crashed and the customer service people are not responsive or sympathetic. i supposedly will be getting a replacement within the week (it's been gone for 4 already). i will not do business with rio again.
Rating: 
Summary: Great display, sound, size. Unreliable battery.
Review: The display is the better than any other players in this category. It's nice to be able to see the track title, artist, and the file size of each song. The sound is excellent. It is also shaped very well for holding while exercising, like jogging on a treadmill or lifting weights (it comes with a carrying case with belt clip as well.) The last thing that is cool is th microphone. All you have to do is hit 2 buttons to start recording ambient sounds. The worst part is what everyone complains about - the battery/memory unit. It seems like half the time it either isn't seated properly, or it just didn't charge, even though the indicator shows fully charged. Overall, I'm glad I bought it and plan to keep it.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy product, lousy support...
Review: So, I got one of these for my birthday. It seemed like a good choice, but the product was defective out of the package. It kept simply shutting down when I used it. I took it back to the store and exchanged it for another. This one took a month to break - the on/off switch just moves freely and does not turn the product on or off anymore. I first contacted Rio (SonicBlue) nearly two months ago via e-mail. They took over two weeks to reply, stating that the product appeared to be defective (duh) and to get back to them with the same info I had already supplied (don't you love automation?). It has been now nearly a month since that last e-mail (which stressed NOT to send the product back without an RMA). So, I call them (toll call) and they first disconnected me since all lines were busy, then when I called back - they told me there was a 20 minute wait (on my dime). Now I am on hold while waiting to talk to them.
I would highy recommend staying away from RIO altogether.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome product if it works
Review: I experienced the same charging problems everyone else had after first calibration. The red lamp went off after about 1 hour into calibration. The countdown numbers dissappeared with about 150 minutes left. I waited until the unit said "battery calibrated", since I could no longer see the timer. The unit then lasted about an hour before it died. I recalibrated, but this time set the unit face down, so the heat would rise out the backpack instead of up into the unit. My thought being that maybe the unit uses temp to tell when the battery is charged, and therefore shutting the charge off prematurely. I have no idea whether it made any difference or not. The lamp stayed lit for about 4 hours on the second attempt, however the timer still disappeared. When the lamp went out, I unplugged the charger and plugged it back in, without interrupting the calibration cycle. The lamp lit back up but went out shortly after. I waited until the unit said "battery calibrated", and unplugged the unit. A charge now lasts me approx. 9-10 hours, and the battery meter is reporting correctly, so I seem to be one of the lucky ones. If the battery is the only problem, I was thinking of replacing the 1.2V 1600mAh AA NiMH battery with my own, but that would void the warranty. There seem to be a lot of problems with these things, but if you can get a working one, they are well worth it. The sound quality, volume, and feature sets are exceptional. The Rioport manager was pretty easy to set up, and was a lot faster transferring than the WMP plugin. WMP is useless to me since I could not figure out how to transfer MP3's directly to the player thru WMP, without first transcoding them to .WMF format. Way too long. If it weren't for all the other people having problems(which can't be just coincidence), and the confusing calibration ordeal, I would have easily given this product 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Great front half --horrible back!
Review: This unit comes in two detachable halves: the front half which contains the player, controls, and internal memory, and the back which contains the combined external memory and battery. The front is a beautiful work of art, the back piece is a TOTAL DISASTER: The back is a permanent (they say) NiMH battery and 128mb memory fused together at a [high] price (to buy spares). These external tunes will cost you... per hour to store --I can buy 128mb Smartmedia... so what gives? The battery and charging system have some major issues which I got past because I'm mechanically inclined. I think most of those units being returned do not have defective batteries --the battery is either not seated correctly, or the charging routine misread the charge state and needed to be rerun, or people unplugged them from the initial charge too early. They should have just provided a loose NiMH battery and left the battery choice up to the owner. This is a public relations nightmare. The battery *does* come out even though they tell you not to remove it. They are the same as what works in my digital camera. I predict these backs will be redesigned. Or perhaps a third party could do it better and cheaper. Save for the above problems, this is a very nice player in form and function. The sound is great and the player controls are almost perfect. A minor problem is they need a better way to rearrange the play order of the tunes in-player. The included headphones look like they were designed for a the head of a space alien (the ear-pieces are pointing in a funny direction). Expect to replace them. The PC software: I don't want mp3 software that is chock full of obtrusive ads and nag screens (like real junkbox), I just want a simple window container that I can drag and drop tunes to AND from. Why cant this software extract from the player as well as write to it? My main requirement was solid-state memory. I was mislead by many of the tech sites that listed the Rio as being able to accommodate Compactflash external memory so I dont know if I will keep this one. If they had a back that took Compactflash or Smartmedia and a generic AA slot, it would be the perfect player.
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