The big strength of the Rio 500 MP3 player is that it is very easy to install on your PC.
Plug it into the USB port, and the installation CD will give you an installation wizard that will have you downloading and playing music from the Internet within minutes.
You also get a software pack called the Audio Manager.
This pack gives you loads of additional features, that make using your Rio very simple to use.
It has a transfer wizard that allows you to both transfer and delete songs from your playlist very easily using the in-built playlist editor feature.
It has a browser that allows you to search for MP3’s to download, but the choice isn’t that great.
The player comes in a choice of all sorts of different colours, and is small and not too heavy, so it fits easily into your pocket for carrying around.
It also has a case and belt clip if you want to use this instead.
All the controls are handy and easy to use, and it has a very clear LCD display, with a backlight.
The backlight can drain the single AA battery it uses very quickly though, so you’re better disabling this.
The battery will last you about seven or eight hours in normal use.
It has CD sound quality but you get better quality if you use a good set of stereo headphones.
There are four preset settings for different kinds of music. Rock, jazz, classical and normal. If these don’t suit your own tastes, then you can adjust the bass and treble settings to suit what you prefer.
The Rio has 64 MB of memory, and with good transfer speeds of the Internet via the USB connection, you can download music within minutes rather than hours.
One big drawback of the Rio is that it hasn’t got a FM tuner.
But this is still a good MP3 player. It’s light and portable, with good download speeds, and adequate memory.
It has come down in price recently, and can now be found for sale at about £150.