Hockey_Cop

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $200.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I have had the extreme pleasure of owning the Rio Niturus and have had not a single problem with it. After a firmware upgrade, there is no popping of the tracks when I play it in the car and the hard drive has never frozen, crashed or skipped once. I have taken it running and the car I use it in primarly is a government service car that is driven for 12+ hours a day. It won't skip going over train tracks or cracked and bumpy road surfaces. It hasn't once skipped while running. Overall,I am very satisified with this product and am considering the 20gb Karma for my next mp3 player purchase.

Strengths:
- Ease of loading tracks - Small, slim design fits in a pocket - Doesn't skip during hard usage - Long battery life- 10 hours out of mine

Weaknesses:
- No carrying case

wallstreet_jim

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $189.00 from E-Bay

Summary:
STAY AWAY! What looked like a good contender to other Cornice-based drive units turned out to be a FLOP. I purchased two units as Christmas gifts for my kids. One unit crapped out within 3 months of the purchase. Sadly, the warranty period was ONLY 90 DAYS. I could get no help from Rio, and their call center is based in India, so good luck winding through that maze of confusion. You cannot easily contact their U.S. offices on the West Coast, as they have put up just about every barrier they could. I ended up lying about an emergency to talk with someone in their building, but was summarily hung up on once they realized I was after, Heaven forbid, CUSTOMER SERVICE. I HIGHLY recommend staying away from Rio units in general, and the Nitrus in particular.

Strengths:
Can hold a bunch of songs. Interface is straightforward. Size is very small.

Weaknesses:
Piss-poor reliability. Very hard to troubleshoot. Extremely poor customer service support - correction, NON-EXISTENT customer service support.

Similar Products Used:
None.