This Sturdy, Easy-To-Use Player ROCKS The House!! Go Rio! Go Rio!
Written: Aug 07 '03 (Updated Aug 20 '03)
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Pros: Great Sound, Extremely easy to use, nice display, very portable, expandable to 640MB
Cons: FM is poor, needs folder support
The Bottom Line: This small, easy-to-use device is perfect for non-geeks. The mp3 function is great, but the FM is mediocre.
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| chposter's Full Review: Sonic Blue Rio S35 128MB MP3 Player |
The quest for an MP3 player for my mother continues...
MY EXPERIENCES
I have had an MPIO FL100 256MB for about a month now. I had an RCA Lyra 1080 for about 3 weeks before I returned it.
MY MOTHER'S NEEDS
My mother liked my FL100 player and asked me to pick out one for her for when she walks or hangs out on her dock by the water. She has had a portable CD player, but she says it is too bulky to walk with and it was starting to misbehave. She has 4 CDs that she really wants on it and she will rarely change them. I like the FL100 for myself, but it seemed too difficult for her to use, so I ordered the MPIO FY100 256MB for her. As you can see in the FY100 review, it was unsuitable. This left only a few players with FM tuning and an expansion slot. I decided the next thing to try is a SonicBlue Rio. I was going to try the S50 thinking the display was going to be larger, but they were out of stock. After comparing the images, it appears that the displays on the S50 and the S35S are the same size. If this doesn't work, then the only remaining option appears to be the iRiver 256MB Digital Audio Player with Voice Recorder and Digital AM/FM Tuner, but it does not have memory expansion capability and doesn't have a belt clip.
INTRODUCTION
The $149 S35S comes with 128MB of storage. This was inadequate to hold the required CDs at the required bitrate, so I purchased an SD card to complement. WalMart had a 256MB SD card for $82, which was only a few dollars more than the 128MB one, so I purchased the 256MB one. Perhaps I should have bought the 64MB unit and expanded it with the 256MB SD. Oh well.
I installed the software that came with the device to try it out. The USB connector is proprietary, so if you misplace it, your other USB cables won't work with the device. I wanted to update the firmware and software, but had to wait until the next day due to a thunderstorm felling a neighborhood tree and taking my cable modem reception with it. Once I updated the firmware to the 1.85 version, I installed the 256 MB card and loaded music on it.
The unit advertises 15 hours of battery life with one AAA alkaline. I will let you know if this seems right. The unit has an on-off switch, but goes into power save mode when paused and will shut off after a certain period of time.
The unit is small, with a 3 inch diameter and weights 3 ounces. It comes with a belt clip attached to a semi-transparent cup that surrounds and grasps the unit. All buttons are accessible when using the belt clip.
The hold function is quick and easy - hold the menu button and press enter. When locked, it reminds you how to unlock.
EASE OF USE
Since the intended user is in the reading-glasses crowd, display readability is one key consideration. The Rio touts a "Large Display". While the display may be "Large" compared to an old LCD watch, it is small compared to many cell phone displays today. The song title text is not as large as the Readers Digest Large Print Edition, but is a nice size. Reading the other text and symbols, however, is like reading a tattoo off of a gnat's a**.
The round 4-position play-pause/stop/forward/reverse selector, and Menu and Enter buttons are very intuitive to use. The menus are awesome, making this device the epitome in the current market for ease of use. It is very hard to get lost, unlike the MPIO devices. For more advanced users, this may be too many keystrokes, but I found that it is really not that bad.
The manual is decent, and basically unnecessary given the usability of the unit.
SOUND QUALITY
Is quite good. The wrap-around earbuds aren't bad either. There is a treble and bass adjustment (apparently the S50 has a 5 band adjustment).
FM
The reception is mediocre. It may be unsuitable for folks wishing to listen to FM in a commuter situation or walking/running in or near buildings. It is equivalent to the reception on the RCA Lyra 1080. The reception on the MPIO devices was much better than the Rio. If you are standing still or the station is particularly strong, then the Rio reception is tolerable. When the backlight comes on, it interferes with station reception. This happens whenever you adjust the volume or change a station. Rather than going quiet during static, this unit blasts it in your ear. I don't recall this with other units, except maybe the RCA.
The unit has excellent preset station navigation, far better than other units. However, the manual FM tuning is not intuitive.
MUSIC FORMATS & STORAGE
Plays mp3's and wma formats of a variety of bitrates with no problems. I even tried constant and variable bitrates.
This unit does not have folder support, which I consider to be a big negative since it is capable of holding 640MB of songs (roughly 200 128kbps songs). Maybe a firmware update will fix this.
SOFTWARE
This unit is not seen as a USB drive in windows, a minor negative. Even stranger is that in Win2K, it is not even shown as an ejectable device. Use the RealOne to rip CDs if you don't already have a CD ripper favorite piece of software. Then use the provided software to load songs onto the device.
THINGS I WOULD CHANGE OR FIX FOR INTENDED USE
•Larger Display
•Larger menu items, or at least make the focused item larger
•Brighter backlight
•Folder Support
•Make Device appears as USB Drive in Windows
BOTTOM LINE
The unit is very suitable for its intended purpose, though a bit more expensive than others. I will update this review if the unit ends up being kept or not.
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I tried to make this review thorough enough to help users make a decision based on my experiences and concise enough to make it an easy read. If I overlooked some piece of information that you would find useful, I would like to know about it. Please comment or email me at the address on my profile.
Thanks!
Mark
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Proposal to Reduce Identity Theft with Personal Identification Numbers
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149
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Epinions.com ID:
chposter
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Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Discriminating hypershopper. I buy the best products and return the ones I don't love.
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