- Keep moving with two hours of skip-free music
- 64 MB internal memory – upgradeable to 192 MB
- Integrated FM tuner
- Water and impact resistant
- Sports armband
- Rio Music Manager software
- Clock and stopwatch
- Plays MP3 and WMA digital music files
- Up to 10 hours battery life
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical Details
Product details
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Not so much a music player as a multifunction jogger's friend, the new Rio Sport is good to look at, easy to use and expandable.
Sonic Blue's latest mobile music player incorporates just about everything you could want from a music machine that clips on to your belt or wrist. As well as playing music, it has a built-in FM radio and a stopwatch with lap times, to keep you up to speed on a workout. It includes a holder with belt-clip, over the ear headphones that are a bit small, USB cable and a wrist strap, all in one package.
The amoeba-shaped, stopwatch-sized player has a brick red, rubberised surface with an LCD display, jog-dial and enter button on its front surface. Volume control, menu button and power switch are ranged around its edge and there's a slide off panel at the back, giving access to its single AAA battery and a Multimedia card slot. You can add cards of up to 128 MB to enhance its 64 MB internal memory.
The clear, backlit display is very easy to read. In play mode it shows time and battery charge, as well as the title of the current track, its author and running time. The jog-dial controls playback and track selection. Press the menu button and you're offered the player's other functions, including an FM radio with eight presets.
You've still got to get music on to your player, though and Sonic Blue provides RealOne and Rio Music Manager for PC users and iTunes software for those running with Apple Macs. A special cable plugs from the player to any USB port.
The Rio Sport S30S can playback both MP3 and Microsoft's WMA format music files and if you use WMA you can get a couple of hours music into the internal memory. That'll enable you to play it five times, given the battery's 10 hour life. --Simon Williams
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Having had to return a competitors MP3 player because the sound was scratchy and I kept getting interrupts on the Compact Flash memory that it used I tried my new Rio with a degree of trepidation. As a Mac user I have found it works seemlessly with iTunes software and this compact a sturdy little unit does everything it promised.
Direct connection via the USB allows the building of new playlists and the 64mb unit gives an hour of play but it is capable of taking MMC cards for additional memory. The graphics screen of the Rio is clear and easy to use and you can select a variety of play modes of your music. There is a built in graphic equaliser to suit every taste. The additional FM radio and stopwatch all add to the good value of this product which must be keeping Apple on its toes with its highly priced iPod.
The unit comes in the box with a clip on belt clip and arm band for those times when a belt isn't worn, All required software for both PC and Mac users, USB cable and comprehensive manuel (even though the use of the player is quite obvious). I must admit the earphones are adequate but I am using my own Sony earphones by personal choice. My only wish is that it could work in water rather than just being splash resistant as I swim a lot!
If you want a good value MP3 player that gives everything it promises I can happily recommend buying this one.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Finally sucumbed to the lure of an MP3 player to add some music to workouts down at the gym and although you look pretty stupid wearing it on your arm (with the provided arm band), it is practical and does work. The design is quite clever, the Rio S30 itself snaps into a translucent flexible plastic cradle which has a belt clip at the rear. This belt clip then locates into a slot on the arm band if required.
One touch controls for volume, next, previous, pause, play and stop make it a doddle to use and the sexy blue backlit display has all the info you could wish for and you can cycle through various display options by hitting the enter key.
I've been listening to a mix of MP3 and WMA on the S30 (WMA is about half the size for the same quality MP3) and can't really fault it acoustically. Not so impressed with the supplied headphones which are of an ear wrapping style that spectacle wearers may find difficult to get comfortable, however I already had some Sony MDR EX70s which sound great.
The S30 comes with iTunes for Mac users and Rio Music Manager (also Real One) for PC users. Rio MM installed on my XP laptop seemlessly and it handles the transfer of files to the S30 pretty well - as does Real One if you'd rather use that.
The S30 also has a FM radio tuner built in but the reception seems a bit iffy compared with my other radios - however I am in a difficult reception area and anyway, who buys an MP3 player to listen to the radio? It also has a stopwatch function should you need it.
Feels a little "flimsy" for the price and I would worry about how well the joypad style play controls would survive a drop or two onto a hard surface - however the cradle with the belt clip will provide a degree of protection.
Expandable via MMC cards, overall I'm happy with both the device and the software but only time will tell how robust it proves to be.
Roger
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
I like many other reviewers have had much difficulty in finding an Mp3 Player that actually lives for longer than 2 months. I found what I was looking for in the Rio S30s. It is easy to use once you get to grips with it and has good sound quality especially when connected up to my surround sound system. The hold function on the Rio took a little time to find but it is there just not that obvious. Many of my friends have shown intrest in the Rio and have commented on how sexy it is. It is a shame that Amazon dont offer us the S35s with the 128MB, but for a small amount of money you can get the MMC cards which boost the memory up to a maximum of 576MB. The trick with the Rio is to put WMA files on it. With the 64MB on the player you can get around 30 songs on but with an additional 64MB MMC I have got it up to 65 songs.
Great piece of kit, shame about the headphone quality.
Great piece of kit, shame about the headphone quality.
