Price Paid:  $250.00 from in CDN

Summary:
Well I needed to upgrade my MP3 player to support Napster-to-go. I have the RIO CARBON PEARL 6GB version, as apparently the 5GB version had some glitches (static noise with 3rd party headphones). I have also tried the IPOD Mini and would say that the Pearl offers equivalent performance.

The good? Sound quality is excellent, provided that you chuck the headphones that it comes with. Mind you, that goes for pertty much any MP3 player on the market, as they never offer headphones that make sense. The software bundled with the Rio is excellent, and ease of use is right up there. It allows you to organise music and create playlists that can then be transfered to the device. Note that you cannot creat playlists "on the fly" but must make them with the rio software (or Windows media Player) and then transfer to the device.

The design in my opinion is also equivalent to the Ipod Mini, and though the materials used are far from cheap, the Ipod still has the advantage.

I mainly chose this player because sound quality was an important factor for me, and this device was very well rated at Cnet.com as well as in What Hi-Fi? Magazine. (Again, I was told that most Mp3 players use the same "soundcard", and that the headphones play the most important part in sound quality)

Cons?
None really. Would be nice to have playlists on the fly. The company that makes these players, Rio, was sold recently by the parent company, D&M Holdings, so support in the future is questionnable.

Finally, I just want to comment on the size of the player. 6GB of music is ALOT of music. Even though one might like to have a large variaty of songs, I often find myself scrolling endlessly to find music.

Strengths:
-Nice Design
-Good Sonund Quality
-Better than other Windows Compatible players (micro-drive based ones, that is)

Weaknesses:
-No big flaws, but I must say that navigating the player can be tiresome.

Similar Products Used:
Ipod
Archos AV420
Iriver h120