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| Home > MP3 > Rio Remote | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rio Remote control for Rio 300 personal MP3 player
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The Diamond Rio 300 portable MP3 player was the first MP3 player to achieve mainstream, mass appeal. Due to the overwhelming success of the player, Diamond Multimedia's Rio division had a ready-made aftermarket for all sorts of accessories. The Rio Remote is just one of those accessories. The plastic device is straightforward enough. Plug it into the headphone jack on the matching Rio 300, then plug your headphones into the female jack on top of the Remote and it is ready for use. The control's face has a large 2-way rocker switch that activates the Play/Pause and Stop/Power-Off functions. The Fast Forward/Skip and Rewind/Skip functions are assigned their own smaller buttons below the main switch instead of being integrated with the other control functions as they are on the face of the Rio's main unit. A pair of small buttons located above the main switch operate the volume controls. On the side of the remote is a locking Hold switch that prevents accidental activation of any of the controls from either the remote or the main unit. A spring-loaded clothing clip on the back of the light-weight remote grips with enough force to firmly secure the device to your clothing even during vigorous activity. The only drawback is that it is made out of the same plastic as the rest of the Rio which makes it susceptible to potential breakage. The Rio Remote's two-foot-long cable doubles the effective length of the Rio's earphone cord to a total of four feet. This can be unmanageable at times but the additional length is necessary if the Remote is clipped to your hip pocket or a waist-pouch. The primary flaw with the Remote is that it does not mirror the controls on the main unit exactly. Instead of having a four-way rocker switch as the main control, Diamond opted to go with a two-way switch for the Play/Pause and Stop/Off functions, presumably to reduce manufacturing costs. The remaining controls are operated with some minor difficulty due to the exceptionally small size of the individual buttons. This problem is made worse if the user has large hands. The second flaw, which is a more serious one, involves the Hold switch. When the Hold function is activated using the Remote, the LCD display on the Rio 300 does not reflect the HOLD status as it does when using the primary Hold switch on the player. This is an example of poor user interface design. A Rio owner who has inadvertently activated the Hold function via the Remote may think that the Rio's controls are broken. Worse is the discovery that the battery-draining Hold function has sapped your device of the power it needs to play your favorite tunes. It is important to note that this device works only with the Rio 300 and not any of the later Rio models. The Rio 600 and Rio 800 have a different optional remote control. There is no remote control available for Rio 500 owners.
It is unclear if the Rio Remote will work with the Rio One, the newly-released and enhanced model of the Rio 300. What's the bottom line? This device eliminates the hassle of digging the Rio 300 out of your pocket or waist-pouch every time you want to adjust the controls. With the most frequently used controls accessible on the Remote, the device will be most appreciated by owners during inclement weather when exposing yourself to the elements to pump up the volume is uncomfortable at best.
Despite its design flaws, the Rio Remote is a useful device for owners of the Rio 300, if not an essential one. |
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[Read the Rio 300 review]
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