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| Rio Nitrus 1.5 GB MP3 Jukebox Review |
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The Nitrus  The first thing you’ll immediately notice about the Nitrus is it's incredibly small, even smaller than most the flash-based MP3 players, and much smaller than any hard drive based MP3 player currently on the market even the iPod Mini. I compared it side-by-side to a iPod the other day and the iPod looked like a giant brick next to the Nitrus. It also weighs next to nothing, about the same as 2 AA batteries, which is very important if you're going to exercise with this device strapped to your waist or arm. Even the iPod Mini is twice the weight of the Nitrus. The smooth black plastic shell is wrapped in rubber which has helped it survive several accidental drops unscathed. The display is bright and easy to read, and the battery life is phenomenal, double what the iPod provides. The buttons are intuitive too. I can easily switch songs and adjust the volume from touch without removing the Nitrus from my pocket, which I can't say about many other MP3 players out there.  Now let’s move onto the negative aspects of the Nitrus. The software is rather lacking. It’s hard to point out major flaws, but several minor ones add up. The inability to create play lists on the player itself is one that sticks out. One must create a play list while the Nitrus is connected to the PC by right-clicking a MP3 stored on the device and selecting “Add to play list”. Rio does release updates every few weeks and they've come a long way from the original software, but unless you have a broadband connection you're not going to want to download 30 MB’s every month. One also can’t delete specific songs from the player, everything must be done while connected to the PC.  The “random” feature on the Nitrus is confusing. It'll repeat the same song after playing a few other songs, even if there are a hundred other un-played songs to choose from. I'm also disappointed with the slow access. If I skip to the next song it'll play immediately, but if I skip to the song after that it'll take several seconds to begin playing. Far too slow for my tastes, although perhaps that's a common problem with hard drive MP3 players, but coming from flash-memory based MP3 players I am unaccustomed to waiting. I’m also disappointed the firmware doesn’t provide more music play-back options. For example, it has the option to play new music added within the last day, two days, one week or one month. Choosing one of those options will only play those few songs added within that time period. There’s no way to, for example, play music starting from most recently added to oldest. Those time measurements are also real-time, not actual “ON” time, so if you happen to upload a dozen songs then not use the player for a month you will not be able to play-back only those songs you added most recently. A “play newest to oldest” feature would solve that, or perhaps “play 10 newest”, “play 25 newest”, etc would be helpful too. Like most hard-drive based MP3 players the battery is not replaceable, but neither are iPods so I can't dwell on that minor fact. Besides, by the time it dies in two or three years better hard drive players will probably be less than $100, and perhaps someone will start offering replaceable batteries when Nitrus's start dying.
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