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Rio CE2100
Price: £149 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 07/07/2005
Featured in magazine:
Issue 113
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Rio
Tel: 01753 680022
Web Address: www.rioaudio.com


We tend to think of digital music players in three broad groups. High-end players like the classic Apple iPod have monster hard disks up to 60GB in size for storing your entire CD collection. Medium-sized players like the iPod Mini come in smaller packages with smaller hard disks around 5GB in size, for those happy to carry just the music they've bought over the last few months and some favourite classic albums. Lastly, there's the Flash memory players like the iPod Shuffle, which are small enough to get lost in a pocket and have up to 1GB of room for your very latest or greatest tunes. But wait, what's this? A 2.5GB player? Where does that fit in?

Features
You can think of the Rio CE2100 as a budget 'Mini' player. Its 2.5GB memory is hard disk-based, putting it in an identical case to the 5GB Rio Carbon, so there's no pocket space saved over its larger capacity sibling. That doesn't stop it being a lovely case though – flat, black, shiny and it glows when you fiddle with it. It also has a stopwatch for exercise freaks but lacks any line-in or recording ability.

Performance
It's a nice little player. There are only a handful of equaliser presets but they do a decent enough job of altering the sound of whatever you're listening to. The supplied earphones are reasonable quality for earbuds, and the battery life is also good, with around 20 hours of listening time available.

Ease of use
There are two ways of synchronising your music with your device, either with Rio's own software or by using Windows Media Player. Rio's software is marginally easier to use as it's been designed specifically for the job, but it isn't a very sophisticated music player. Audiophiles will inevitably turn to Media Player, but it's nice to have the option. Navigating the device itself is also easy and can be done using either the scroll wheel or the buttons, depending on your whim.

Value for money
We were most surprised by the lack of difference in price between the CE2100 (£149) and its Carbon cousin (£159 - link below). For just £10 more you can double your music capacity, leaving no real reason why you shouldn't plump for the Carbon instead.

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