Not Worth Your Time!!! (Diamond Rio 600)

Member Name: chrisfried

Product:	Diamond Rio 600
Date:	19/04/04 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: low battery life, low memory capacity

I realised at some point in my boring life that I needed to listen to music on the move. I also realised I had a large amount of music on my computer (over 1000 tracks). So i thought I would combine the two. This MP3 player is my first one and I don't think I shall turn back from my decision to change to MP3.

I have been told that the Rio 600 was one of the MP3 players that began the craze a few years ago. This I am not sure of, please tell me if my information is wrong. I feel however that it is a bit dated nowadays. I think I may return and buy a newer more up to date one! This is for the following reasons---

1. The player is all plastic. It's whole casing and protection system is plastic. Hence one little fall could damage it completely, not good if you are on the move a lot like I am!

2. Only 10 hours battery life! This is terrible when you think that most MP3 players nowadays have a battery life of 25 hours plus. Also it has no power adapter so it isn't possible to listen to music while in your home without wasting battery life. (when transferring tracks though it does gain power through the USB port)

3. It comes with 32Mb standard memory. This is only enough to fit on 10 songs at max. This is terrible compared to modern MP3 players. They con you into spending more of your money and buying upgrades of memory in 32Mb slots hence drawing more from your bank account.

These are of course the negative aspects of this product. However there are some postive aspects to it. I have to give it some credit!

1. At 68g it is extremely light, useful if you use it while exercising as it doesn't weigh you down.

2. There's no denying it, this player looks sexy. It sleek image makes it cool to look
at, and you feel cool while using it. You can change the faceplate colour as well making it's appearance variable for your mood.

3. It has other functions. For example it has random play, repeat one track, and repeat all tracks functions within it.

4. It comes with very easy to use software called Rio Audio Manager 3. This is fast to transfer MP3 and has a very good user interface.

Overall I think the advantages do not outweigh the advantages. Yes it looks good, but this does not outweigh the practical problems that come with it. You can't store much music, you can't play it for that long due to low battery life, and if you if it falls from a distance it will be most likely damaged.

I shall be on my way back to the store to return this as soon as possible. All in all I would recommend that you buy a different MP3 player to this one. Hopefully one with more memory, and a longer battery life.

I don't know of any others but can anybody recommend to me a good price MP3 player with a long battery life and high storage capacity please?

Summary: