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Rio Carbon 5Gb MP3 HDD Player Silver Best Buy
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Price - £129.99 Correct as of 03/04/08
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5 Reviews for Rio Carbon 5Gb MP3 HDD Player Silver
New lease of life! - 22 Nov 2007
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Ok, here's my experience with the Rio Carbon...
I received this mp3 player from my ex (probably the only good thing to come out of our relationship, but that's another story!) for either xmas 2004 or 05 (can't remember which). It is now November 2007 and in that time I have taken it on holiday, been to the gym with it, taken it running, on the train etc. and it hasn't failed me once! Apart from just this week when I uploaded some new music and it gave me a message saying 'data full: remove old data'. I did this and it still came up with the same message. 'That's it,' I thought, 'it's gone to mp3 heaven'. I hastily ordered a new mp3 player, but in that time I discovered that all I needed to do was to reformat the player and, loe and behold, it's working perfectly again!
The sound quality is still excellent, it has most, if not all my music on it, the only downside is that the battery doesn't last as long as it used to, but I still get a good amount of playtime...
Basically this mp3 player has been an absolute dream! Looks cool (I have the pearl version), good size, user friendly, and ample storage. Who says mp3 players don't last more than 18 months? I don't!
Just bear in mind that if something goes wrong with it, you may find the answer in the help section of the software that comes with it, and there may not be a need to rush out to buy a new one (like me!)
iPod can go to hell! Viva Rio Carbon!!!
A little beauty - 27 Aug 2007
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
I have had my Rio for three years and I just love it. It is simple to navigate around and the sound quality is excellent. Because I needed more space, I also bought a Creative Zen Micro, which a friend had recommended. Big mistake. The Zen has a touchpad that is a devil to control and I was skipping all over the place. The Rio, a little shabby after much use, is far more stable, the menus are clear - and it is so dinky!
Love/Hate relationship. Good, but nothing special! - 17 Aug 2007
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
In the last year I have owned 3 - yes 3 Rio Carbons.
The first one I recieved was for chirstmas 2005 and I have to say, back then it looked pretty awesome. The style, the shape, perfect for slotting conveniently into your pocket and compared to other mp3's going around that time the Rio carbon looked best deal and value for money, and on the bonus it looked 'interesting' and 'unique' with the white againt a silver plated back & little sign which glowed orange when it was turned on, it was the epitome of cute with the smooth white face..angelic! so i was really geared up and had my expectations high on this. The earphones which are supplied are good and you can see that they've taken the time to ensure you get a good quality sound with buds shaped a certain way to nestle in your ear properly (however if you have abnormaly shaped ears it might be hassle getting the damn things to stay in your ears!) Anyway let's not worry too much about that..I have to say that the presentation is of a high standard, but I found that the silver plated bit on the back does get smudged rather easily with your fingers, and unless you're prepared to give it a wipe down every now and then to avoid it looking as though a 4yr old's been at it, it kind of spoiles the chichness of it all doesn't it? (which is why I kept my clear protective sheets over my mp3 for as long as i could!)
Moving on...This baby can load dozens of tunes all at once, however if you're wanting to upload say 50 songs, when you switch the machine on again, it does take a few minutes or so to fully upload, but hey if you're patient enough it shouldn't be much of a problem!
You can make playlists, search for an Artist, track, year and also access recently uploaded songs from a day, week or month ago which I found to be rather handy.
The big downside on the Rio Carbon I have to say is, and I feel this needs attention is the fact that it's batterly life does NOT last 20hrs! More like 5 on a good day..other times ive charged it for a full 3 hours only to get 5hrs worth playback which totally sucked, and when you switch it off then switch it back on alot during the day I found my batterly life decreasing even more! >:(
All in all, when it first came out, the Rio Carbon was a 'must have' for me and I was instantly drawn to it like a blueberry muffin in a baker's shop.. But as they say, looks CAN be decieving. It can certainly be a little bugger at times. My first one needed taken back to the shop as it just wouldn't switch on even on charge. My second one did the same one day, just switched off and refused to turn back on, and there was no way I was forking out on another one, as this was supposed to be good! so it had to be reset, but even after doing so it buggered up again after a few months!
Maybe I was just unlucky. I like to think I was.. because I don't like pointing fingers at manufacturing companies solely based upon my own personal problems with it, BUT in general I do feel that the company should thouroughly inspect all their players before selling them as I've already said I've gone through 2 and onto my 3rd!!!
- Why didn't you just buy a different mp3 I hear you say? Well, to be perfectly honest, I was skint at that time and the Rio Carbon was one of the very few mp3s that held the most songs for the price range i was willing to pay!
Software is excellent, easy to use. Just upload songs onto your pc then you can psysically drag the files onto the rio software. Simple. No problems in that department, & it also let's you see how much space you've used up and how much music space is left on your rio..
It's efficent, i'll give it that. Very quick and easy to get the songs you want on it and to retrieve them. HOWEVER, I would say now that it's 2007, the Rio Carbon needs updated in some way as the battery life is sadly lacking, and the design's getting a bit old; i'd love to see them bring out a better, slightly imroved version of it! Do not expect the Rio to be the Creme de la Creme, because it simply aint! But even though i've had more than enough problems with the damn thing, I still think it's cute and reliable (well at times..) Think of it as an on/off relationship with your partner,- don't expect it to comply with your every wish, but even if things do go dodgy for a while, which I must stress is SO annoying! Thing's usually work out OK in the end, and in the case of the Rio Carbon, I found it to be the CLASSIC example of a love/hate relationship.
MP3 that performs well....when it works! - 14 Aug 2007
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
I bought the Rio Carbon just under two years ago, as a friend had recommended it to me. The 6gb memory storage was the most appealing factor for me, although the player is fairly attractive in its design and fits comfortably into your pocket.
I used the player quite frequently for things like bus and train journeys, walking and visiting the gym etc. The majority of the time the player performed ok, however, on a number of occasions, it froze on me - requiring it to be reset. This can be a pain if you dont have a pin or something similar to hand (which is most of the time i find!) and so I would have to wait impatiently until i got home. From reading other reviews, I think the freezing thing is fairly common, however, its still very irritating.
I found the controls fairly easy to get to grips with, the software is a bit rubbish, especially when tryin to make playlists etc.
The sound quality is good, and it can reach a pretty good volume.
HOWEVER, the big problem (which i know has affected many others) is the 'UPGRADER' thing. My player is now stuck in this mode, and will not turn on. I have tried to upgrade the firmware, but to no avail...so the player is now useless.
In my opinion, its a risky purchase, however, if the MP3 players likes you, you may just get on like a house on fire...
A great player, most of the time - 22 Jun 2007
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Over the last 4 years I've had 2 Rio Carbons and I'm actually a little sad to be moving on to other models now.
Its a great little player, very user-friendly with intuative menus and all the nessesary functions as well as great sound quality.
I had a few problems with the software crashing when I tried to update my library but got around that very easily by using the 'my computer' option to access the folders directly. At times I've even updated it through Windows Explorer directly.
The only downside in my opinion, the only thing thats persuaded me to move on and get a new player is that when they break they really break. My mum had one for about 5 years with no problems at all but I have a tendancy to drop anything breakable on a regular basis. 90% of the time the Carbon bounced back with little/no damange, beyong a few scratches (even when my second one fell in a puddle) but there is no middle ground. If its not completely fine then its gone and you'll have to get a new one.
Its going to be hard finding another player I'm as happy with but I just need something more hard wearing.