User Reviews: Rio Carbon 5GB

Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player
$199.99
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4.1 out of 5.0 stars 118 Ratings (33 Reviews)
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    Rio Carbon

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Oct 15, 2004 | 85 out of 87 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Small, Long Battery Life (20 hours), 5gb hard drive space, easy to use

    Cons: None

    This little player rocks. It's small, sleak, and has more hard drive space than the ipod mini for the same price. It comes with everything you need, USB cable, Battery Charger, software (which is a sinch to install), headphones, and a nice carryi...ng case. It also has a stopwatch and voice recorder built in. One nice feature is the eq settings. You can customize it yourself. Whereas the ipod mini only gets 8 hours of battery life on one charge, the Carbon gets 20. Only thing that could have made it better was if it had a fm radio option were you could record right from the radio like the forge series. Overall though, this is a great player when compared to the others out there. This is the first MP3 player I've ever bought, and I am glad I waited for the Carbon to come along. Read more Less

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    RIO CARBON BEST PURCHASE I MADE!!!

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Sep 23, 2004 | 20 out of 21 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Excellent Sound Quality, SLEEK and SHARP

    Cons: Leather Case could have a clip on it

    The RIO CARBON is AWESOME. I was LUCKy enough to buy it just before they SOLD OUT. I viewed it on Rio's website read a few reviews and figured this is IT...! I am Sick and tired of hearing about the IPOD. Nothing against Macintosh's product. ...This RIO CARBON Ultimately puts the mini ipod to shame. Just like a Ferrari. Looks Good and Sounds GOOD. I got alot of good comments from alot of people after I let them listen to it.The price might seem shocking to some but I Guarantee,YOU Will Not Be Disappointed. Easy to put music on this baby and very easy software. The leather case comes with this product and its nice but when your at the Gym or Jogging you want to make sure it's well connected to you. Rios website does list a case with a clip for this product. LCD Screen is very easy on the eyes and the screen phases out slowly. Excellent Ideas were built into this player. Also the battery life is excellent. No complaints. I suggest you check this baby out for yourself. thank you RIO!!!!!!!! Read more Less

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    Great Product

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Oct 11, 2004 | 13 out of 13 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Lots of Storage, unique design, Very compact, easy to use, great present

    Cons: None

    I got this product for my birthday a few weeks ago, and I love it!!!! It has a lot of features, including a microphone recorder, stop watch with lap counter,and a song sorter. You can also lock the keys so that you won't switch songs on acciden...t, and it also has a feature on the power button that makes it so you have to hold it down until all the bars go across the screen to turn it off. This prevents you from accidentally turning it off while you are walking around with it in your pocket or something (that happened to me a lot with my CD player). It is very high quality, and you will not regret buying it! Read more Less

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    Not for the Athlete

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Feb 26, 2005 | 13 out of 18 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Nice Display

    Cons: Poor design and quality

    The Rio Carbon may be a decent mps player for a person who plans on sitting still when listening to it. For a runner... not a good choice. 1. The "carrying case" that comes with the player is nothing more than a miniture napkin holder, pro...viding no clip or strap to hold it to your body. So you have to hold it. 2. Due to the manufacturers choice of using a volume dial on the side of the player, you cannot place it in a pocket, fanny pack or other case of any kind, without the player bouncing around and spontaneously turining up or down the volume while in motion. 3. If you should happen to drop the player while running or just standing around (as I did) you may find yourself out of $200 plus dollars. Unfortunately, the player's is balanced so that when it is dropped, it land on the side where the volume dial is located. It's "sturdy" construction allows for devastating damage with little effort. Read more Less

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    The best little thing out there

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Dec 15, 2004 | 8 out of 8 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Its so small, Yet So Huge!

    Cons: The problem with other headphones

    Smaller than the IPod mini, and yet bigger than it for the same price! 5gb are in this little wonder and it comes with a voice recorder and a 20 hour battery built in! The only problem is wtih the head phones and the metal. It is a shame more people ...don't see that this is better than the Ipod Read more Less

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    Better than iPod

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Nov 26, 2004 | 6 out of 6 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Great interface, look, feel, speed

    Cons: Maybe too small, battery life not 20 hours

    The iPods I have used are far inferior quality wise than the Rio Carbon. Nothing wrong with it, however it doesn't get the advertised battery life of 20hours. It's more like 12-15 which is still more than the iPod. This thing is smaller, almo...st to a fault. So sleek and beatiful. Overall Great Player. Read more Less

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    Lovely Toy

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  Dec 2, 2004 | 5 out of 5 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Sound Quality, Ease of use, size, battery life, earphones

    Cons: No radio

    I bought this bad boy about two months ago when it first came out because I had read about the Mini Ipod and the competition and this is smaller, more memory, longer battery life, better looking, impact resistant and I just wasn't all that hyped ...about getting an Ipod. This was worth every penny. I payed about $250 and to be honest, let it sit around for a month and a half before I got to downloading some music into it. It is a beautiful little toy; light, compact, smooth and ergonomic. The menu is a little hard to figure out at first but is easy after after an hour of messing around. The instructions provided are not very good, but does give you the basics and it is pretty simple to install the software and figure it all out. I have downloaded about 75 songs thus far and this baby rocks. The sound quality is AMAZING. The music sounds so pure that you can't tell you are listening to something as much as it feels like it is just playing in your head. Very good ear buds come with it. It has an equalizer that you can customize and it will deliver deep, rich tones and if you want, some serious bass. Battery life might not be a full 20 hours but it is really close. It is so small, thin and light that even if you drop it while listening to it, it will not diconnect from the headphones if they are still in your ears. It has a cool deep red display. I use a tape converter to play it at home and in my car and it sounds great. I would reccommend the Rio Carbon to anyone. It is the best purchase I have made in a long time. Looking forward to taking it snowboarding in Tahoe this winter. Read more Less

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    NO accessory support

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 20, 2005 | 4 out of 4 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: small

    Cons: Can't even clip it to your belt.

    I bought this thing for daily walks. I emailed rio to ask about a belt clip or arm band. Their support people were obnoxious and sent back some auto-response about how the device is not mean for ANY physical activity. This, despite their website spec...ifically recommending it for walking. I tried to get a supervisor, they sent pre-written responses that didn't even address my questions. If you buy this..remember..NO BELT CLIP, NO DECENT HOLDER, NO ARM BAND, NO CAR KIT. AND ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS TO MAKE ANY OF THESE EVER. nO SUPPORT Read more Less

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    Big Bust

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 9, 2005 | 3 out of 3 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: Good playback, display, design, etc.

    Cons: unexplainable failure

    I bought this player in december after my Rio Nitrus stopped working. I thought this was a one-time occurance and that I'd upgrade to the Carbon. I liked the design and the display, however it could have had a FM tuner and a better case, perhaps ...with a clip. Still, I was happy with it, and had put over 4 gigabites of songs on, over 900 total. Then it unexplainably failed in mid-use. Costumer service was poor, and it just so happened that the player failed just after the warranty expired. They wanted me to pay for repairs and shipping and all that, so I told them they could stick it and this was the last time my family would purchase a Rio product. I would not recommend someone to buy this. For a similar price, you could get an Ipod Mini or some other player. Buyer beware, this little device can put you down $200 easily and with no help from rio. What a bust! Read more Less

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    budget mp3 player

    By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 3, 2005 | 2 out of 2 found this Rio Carbon 5GB review helpful

    Pros: good memory, nice features

    Cons: battery life is not 20 hours as reported

    The performance of the player is ok. Although when I got it, the battery died and I had to have it replaced. I got it replaced in a week, but I had to pay for shipping it to Texas for the exchange. If you have enough money to buy a Zen Micro or an Ip...od, I suggest you do that. Read more Less

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