Rio Carbon 5GB Portable mp3 Player

Strengths: Nice design, software which can be used apart from any media player.

Weaknesses: on single song select, doesn't return to original playlist. Turning shuffle on and off takes a few menus.

Summary: I have recently purchased a Rio Carbon and am very pleased with the options that are included. One of those options is a shut off timer which can be set up for many different preferences, the default is 5 minutes. Perhaps Nightmarennt was confused by this power saving option as he had not read any of the manual nor explored the settings on his Rio Carbon. I would emplore anyone who is reading his review to discredit it entirely. He or She has judged this product prematurely and should be less myopic when posting to the public. I only wish there were an easier way to turn the shuffle on and off. Also, when you select one song it will only play that song and then stop rather than going on to the rest of the uploaded content. Other than that, it is a capable player with great sound at an unheard of price. I bought mine on ebay.com brand new for $122 plus shipping...grant it, it's one of the ones that have the static problem when plugged into certain headphones with medal contacts...but it came with an adapter, which works great in my car's auxilary port. So far I have no great complaints for this player and most sites have raving reviews. You too can get an MP3 player for under $130 that looks stellar and is not an iPod. Let's face it, everyone is looking for something different than the standard, and this is it. If you don't want the static problems then get the Rio Carbon Pearl; it is the same player, but with a different facade. Obviously I am pleased or I wouldn't writing this extensive review - go out and buy it, you know you have wanted to!

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Strengths: Battery life, storage, stopwatch (cool), size, adjustable 5-band graphic equalizer

Weaknesses: Battery meter is not accurate. It will seem to drain away, but it's just the firmware not accurately reporting actual battery life. Rio Software requires that Windows Media Player 9 be installed

Summary: I have read many reviews of the Rio Carbon (%gb) player and I can say that I really am glad I did not buy the iPod Nano. Though I was just a minute away from clicking BUY on CompUSA.com when I remembered this player.

It has more storage space (at 5GB -> iPod's 2GB), longer battery life (20h -> iPod's 8h). Though it may not be color and have all those features it is still a better buy. However, Rio went under so if you can find this player get it. I got mine for under 200$.

The software installed fine, but requires that Windows Media Player 9 be installed as well, which is silly. It's because WMA files that are protected with DRM use MP9. I have two PC (XP & Win98 SE). I have had no issues with the USB plug-n-play under XP, however the player will not install fully under Win98 SE unless you have a USB 2.0 port, which mine does not. It will go through the motions, but when you try & access the drive it woin't show up in the drives list even though the Device manger says it there.

Battery meter is not accurate. It will seem to drain away, but it's just the firmware not accurately reporting actual battery life. I have used this in a cross country trip (LA to Arkansas) and was able to listen to 12 hours of music, and the battery didn't die. This week I charged it full on Monday and it died (shutoff) yesterday (Saturday after midnight). I have 23hrs of music in 388 files (96kbs to 320kbs). It shut off on song 311. So the battery IS just over 20h.

All in all a very great buy over the iPod fad. If you can find it, get it. Plus, you can put regular files on it and playlists.

NOTE: Someone said you can't generate a playlist. You generate a playlist with your MP3 program (listsening to songs off the Rio, of course) then save the playlist to the Rio; then you have a playlist to listen to.

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Strengths: memory

Weaknesses: breaks, 90 day warranty

Summary: When I first purchased the Rio Carbon in Jan 05 I did not have alot of time to spend with the unit. I did however download 20 songs which I played thru my cars speaker system. I even bought a camera case to keep it secure. In April when I had more time to play with it I found that my computer would not recognize the Rio when I plugged it into the USB port. I did not have alot of time to trouble shoot on the phone with Rio and I figured I had just done something wrong. I later took quite a bit of time trying to fix the problem. By July Rio customer service told me it was a Microsoft issue. Having even less time to deal with Microsoft, I put everything on hold. Thinking it was my computer, I took all my software and my Rio to my husband's office where it also didn't work. Rio customer service worked with me but said, in the end, that the unit was defective. Guess what 90- day warranty! They will gladly send me a re-furbished replacement for $99 plus $15 because I needed the unit before they would get the broken one in the mail (I am going on a 17 hour plane ride in 7 days and really wanted an MP3 player with me) plus $28 rush shipping. All in all, $145.00 to replace my New $249 Rio Carbon with a re-furbished one with probably no warranty and this one was already returned by someone as broken. WHAT A DEAL! Will not buy another Rio product. I will spend my $145 on a new Dell MP3 player! Sorry to say this was a real dissapointment.

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Strengths: none

Weaknesses: power problems

Summary: This was a useless item and completey not worth buying, we had ours for less than 22 hours, ost of which we were sleeping and the thing s aleady having issues. it will shut itself off, then turn itself off, over and over again, if you hold down the power button then it will finally shut off, but when you turn it back on it will just start it up over again. The customer service is only available 3 days a week on a non toll free number and you can't return it to the stores, you can only send it back to the company with every single thing it came with, and I ean everything, every piece of plastic, packaging, paper, and notihng can be damaged! this was the bigest rip off thing I have ever seen in my life. I thought t was a god deal sicne it has 5 gigs of memory and 20 hours of battery life for only 200 bucks, and not only that but it doesn't have 5 gigs anyway, it's got quite a bit less, plus the battery life is at most 4 hours, f anyone is planning to buy this product, I would highly sugest not to!

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Strengths: sleek design,good sound

Weaknesses: software problems, lack of a workable interface led to many phone calls. Main problem occurs when transfering WMA files from my computer. The carbon freezes up if any file has a glitch...

Summary: If you enjoy countless hours calling tech support, re-installing software and firmware, only to have no resolution to the basic problems, then buy the Carbon, and prepare to meet your doom

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Strengths: great design, good operating system, ease of use, long battery life, fits well in a pocket, light

Weaknesses: The case included can not be clipped on the belt or hanged on the neck. Takes a bit long to start up.

Summary: Sexy, slim, elegant. She is so cool. Some people have reported that there is no hold button. That is not exactly true - you just have to press the menu and center buttons in the same time.

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Strengths: Small and sleek. Super easy to use. Holds lots of songs and doubles for a storage device for files

Weaknesses: I have the RIO Carbon 5gb for my daughter, and the 6gb pearl for myself. We think they are great. I did read that RIO is having financial problems, and this causes concern. I would still buy again.

Summary: We own two of these players, and so far they have been great. No installation problems, and my daughter never even asked for help setting hers up (16). I use it every day for my 1.5 - 2hr each way commute I usually charge it every 3 or 4 days. The battery has never fully discharged.

Some have complained that it drains quickly over time. We have not had this experience. I listen to books. If I hit pause on Friday, the unit shuts down after 5 minutes. On Monday I power up and am right back where I left off. Beautiful!

My brother bought an ipod mini, and is still trying to get it to work. Maybe it is him, but I still like the carbon better. It is lighter, thiner, and works great.

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Strengths: Lightweight, substantial capacity, attractive, good upload program

Weaknesses: 1. battery dies fast - not 20 hrs., more like 6 in use and will drain when turned off unless always charging. 2. Difficult bookmark-start-up settings, much re-scrolling needed.

Summary: Unfortunately, Rio has gone under, but plenty of these things are still on the market. Although Rio promises service support, the weaknesses suggest you shouldn't pay much for these. Bought it on strength of battery life as well as storage capacity, to my sorrow -- it drains way too fast, esp. when turned off. Never sure it will survive a cross-country plane trip, esp. if you have a connection and can't find a plug to recharge. Also, when you turn it on, it's either set at the last thing you played or the first thing on your total list, depending on what you've set it to do -- I would much prefer to have it start up with list itself and let me scroll-and-pick. Given the stingy battery, a big waste of time to go back through memory and rescroll to get to something you want.

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Strengths: very sleek design, large memory, good price, long battery life, good software package, very easy and fun to use

Weaknesses: not really any. carrying case is poor

Summary: Beats the I-pod mini in my view hands down - all the same features, better price, better looking design and feel. Sound is good, the included headphones are not the best but beat the I-pod ear buds. I have used this while running regularly with no problems.

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