Rio Forge Sport 256MB MP3 Player

• Reviewed by: Noinoi

  Strengths: Excellent size and easy to use. Really like the product when it turns on.

  Weaknesses: Has an issue with not being able to turn on. Firmware gets corrupted easily.

  Overall: Had this product for about 10 months and had to return it 3 times. I've had to reinstall the firmware from the website several times. Spent many O'nights problem solving. Now it doesn't work at all. Overall wouldn't buy another one. Something went wrong in the manufacturing process on this. Good design but poor quality.

• Reviewed by: bogmonster

  Strengths: sounds great, great battery life (20+ hours on a rechargable AAA), fairly robust ( my daughter has dropped it many times)

  Weaknesses: the SD expansion is touchy. I don't really like the menu structure. You really have to punch down through the menu structure to choose a picklist.

  Overall: Overall it's been a great player. My wife is one of the most non-technical people around and she loves it. My 6 year old daughter listens to it for hours on end. I've had problems with mine. Every once in a while it will look like it's playing but nothing comes out the headphones. I found that if you take the SD card out (put one in if there wasn't one in there) it will start working again. This also solved a problem I had where the whole unit wouldn't power up.

• Reviewed by: kailin1998

  Strengths: Cheap

  Weaknesses: Unreliable.

  Overall: Failed after 3 weeks. Can not be turned on. Nothing happens after turning on even with new battery. Same Terrible customer service for 30 min on hold to their support then directed me to their tech support, which redirected me to http://system.s2gstore.com/, which is for sales only. DON'T buy it. You are buying headche.

• Reviewed by: apollo79

  Strengths: fashionable.

  Weaknesses: ugly looking

  Overall: I bought it a couple months ago and I take it everytime when I do excise. It has high quality when I running. that's great. but the ugly looking for the mp3 makes me not very good. Overall this is great mp3 with big LCD screen.

• Reviewed by: ericwoodford

  Strengths: Inifintely expandable memory. Easy to use (and familiar) interface (similar to Motorola MP3 player). Has bookmark feature for long audio files (Ancestor podcast!). Does not require iTunes!

  Weaknesses: Metallic front always has finger prints on it. Battery life shorter than expected, no car adapter functionality. Cannot access memory chip via Rio Music Manager, have to remove from device and use com

  Overall: I purchased this device to replace an older Rio Nitrus (w/ 1.5gb micro drive). The Nitrus died an unfortunate death due to dropping it too many times. With flash memory, I do not expect this to happen again. I had originally purchased a 256mb RCA Lyra, but found it did not have any functionality to bookmark your current location. This made listening to hour long audio books impossible during my short commute to work. A new feature in this device is the FM Tuner with record functionality. The reception has been remarkably well, despite having no visible antanea. Tested along a rural road with very little static heard. Very pleased. Uses single AAA battery, which makes it handy for travelling. My previous Rio used internal rechargable battery which required carrying a seperate charger or car charger (I used a Sony car kit with my Nitrus).