Rio Chiba 256

Advantages: Very cute and tiny, great for a first MP3 player
Disadvantages: Low volume, can get scratched easily

...When I was first scrolling through the list of MP3 players available to me on various websites, I have to say I know very little about them. Sure, I know the basics, but have no desire for it to be the most up to date or ground breaking piece of technology known to man. Because of my technology brain fart, I usually base my decisions on how 'cute' a product looks. You don't need to tell me that's terrible, believe me, I know. Despite some of my mates trying to 'educate' me, it still has little impact; if I think something's cute, and I like it and feel that I need it (again, another terrible thing to say in the world of technology - do we need any of it? I digress...), then that is that. When I set my eyes upon the Rio Carbon Pearl addition I remember the first words coming out of my mouth were 'how cute is that?!'. In danger... Read review

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Advantages: Small, light, faily durable, large capacity considering the size and has an intuitive and easy-to-use menu system
Disadvantages: Danger of screen damage, small screen

...As with all mp3 players with capacities over 5gb, the Rio Carbon will inevitably be compared to its more popular counterpart, the Ipod Mini. Having owned both, i have to say that there is absolutely no doubt as to which player should come out on top. The Carbon is smaller, lighter, more robust, easier to use and in my opinion, contrary to the millions of fashionable accessorizers out there, far more stylish. Not to mention the obvious price difference. Starting with the outward look of the thing, only its relatively unknown brand could possibly be sniffed at. The design is both sleek and practical with a rubber shock absorber around the edge, a volume wheel on the corner (ridiculously useful when the player is in your pocket and can be used to scroll faster through the menus), the headphone and USB connections on the top... Read review

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Advantages: Size, Logos, Bundled Accesories, Durability, FM Radio, Voice Recorder, Microphone, Battery Life
Disadvantages: Limitied Capacity. USB 1.1

...easy to take songs around friends houses and copy songs too and from it. There arent many disadvantages to this player. Perhaps the main one is the capacity. ---------CAPACITY-------- Unfortunatly the capactiy is only 256mb, and flash based drives go up to 2GB or perhaps even 4GB now. As this is only 256mb you can fit around 30 songs on it in normal quality 128kbps, but if you compress them you can get around 80 on there. I have to warn you though, compressed songs played back on this player sound terrible. You really notice the difference in quality. ----------USB 1.1---------- Unfortunatly. the player is USB 1.1, this means that its 40x slower than that of USB 2, so if you're transfering 256mb of data in one go, go away, make a cup of tea and come back, if you're lucky it might be done. If not, go and take a power nap, recharge... Read review

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