We've just finished a three day trial with the Rio Cali sport to see if its can stand up to the punishment of Lordpercy's fitness regime and keep playing some funky tunes at the same time. For those of you who know LP the thought of his fitness regime may have you wondering just how rigorous a test this will be, perhaps the Cali has to survive a drive to work at breakneck speeds or a slow walk across the car park, heaven forbid it has to make the long trip to get a coffee mid morning!

But we start our review with the bright yellow Rio Cali 128mb device topped up to its maximum with a couple of albums, of course normally we'd comment on how miserly 128mb is but the Cali has an expansion slot for SD or MMC memory allowing expansion to a 1gb device. You can easily see why the Cali is so robust the yellow shell is protected by large rubber grips and bumpers with the controls and screen well recessed from the outside of the unit it feels very solid yet only weighs 51 grams.

Our first test was to simulate use in the gym, now of course we could have hit the running machine for 30mins but that would have been the end of LP so instead the Cali was left on top of the washing machine, shaken violently and generally thrown around during which time it still played back the hits of James Brown without a stutter. To test the extremes of what a Rio Cali could expect was more of a risky affair, firstly we decided to drop it, off of a fire escape, the result was a big bounce and a Rio still in full playback with a slight indent in one of the rubber bumpers.

For other forms of abuse we tried leaving it in a cold fridge all day and on top of the oven, but nothing pashed or even marked the little Cali, you are supposed to use the supplied arm band to secure the Rio while jogging, but LP instead gave it a through testing while carrying two cappuccinos back to the office (a most strenuous test).

Over our 3 days we couldn't stop the Rio Cali playing, the single AAA battery lasted for the whole time and is reported to enable around 16hrs of continuous play, despite a diminutive size the Cali can be operated by someone with big thumbs, the simple joystick controls the playback options and there is a play lock button on the top of the unit, plus a very big and easy to use volume control.

Getting MP3 files onto the Cali can be a slow process as Rio have endowed it with USB 1.1 rather than the speedier 2.0 standard, but at least you can plug the Cali into any USB port and move files around. Should you exhaust the 128mb (not that tricky) and even use up any storage you add via plug in cards then there is an FM tuner onboard to provide musical entertainment. However as most workouts are under an hour it seems unlikely that you would get through the 30 mp3 storage capability provided by the 128mb memory.

The 128mb version we had on test retails for £89.99 and offers the best value in this sector, there is a 256mb version but its cheaper to buy this one and add the MMC or SD card for extra capacity as memory cards are tumbling in price. Normally we'd have laughed at a 128mb player but there is a niche for an indestructible MP3 player for the gym or mountain biking or perhaps even fetching coffee and the Rio Cali is more than up to the task.

More MP3 players Under 1 Gb-

[ Up ] [ BenQ Joybee 120 ] [ Creative Muvo TX ] [ Diva Gem MP3 Player ] [ MPIO FY200 MP3 Player ] [ Creative Muvo TX FM ] [ MPIO FY300 ] [ Rio Cali Sport ] [ iRiver N10 Review ] [ Samsung YP-T6Z ] [ Oregon Scientific MP3 Player ] [ Yakumo Hypersound XR ] [ Xen EMP-500 ] [ Sony NW-E107 Review ] [ MobiBlue Cube DAH ] [ Sony Bean NW ] [ Qoolgee X Sports ] [ Mcody M20 Review ] [ Sony EWS 703 Review ] [ Netac A200 Review ] [ Mobiblu Cube 2 ] [ New iPod Shuffle Review ] [ Cowon iAudio 5 ] [ Datasafe oomi ] [ JVC XA-MP51 ] [ Nike PSA610 ] [ Ipod Shuffle MP3 Player ] [ Sony NW-E407 ] [ Rio Forge ] [ MPIO FD100 MP3 Player ] [ MPIO One ] [ iAudio G3 Review ] [ iRiver iFP-390T MP3 player ] [ Creative Labs Rhomba Mp3 player ] [ Cowon iAudio U2 ] [ Xen EMP 200 ] [ Cowon IAudio 4 512mb ]