The Rio Forge Sport's combination of rugged design, skip-free operation and impressive battery life will be lapped up by fitness fanatics. But its relatively basic features, under-performing FM tuner and annoying USB port cover will frustrate power users. If you're looking for a gym-friendly player that will survive sporty knocks and bumps, the Rio Forge Sport will more than fit the bill. Commuters looking an audio player simply to listen to high-quality audio files and FM broadcasts should look elsewhere.
Pros: Good battery life; robust design; SD/MMC slot; arm band
Cons: Basic features; tiny screen; lousy FM tuner; annoying USB cover
The Rio Forge Sport is a fitness-friendly digital audio player from Rio Audio, a D&M Holdings company who pioneered portable digital audio technology in 1998 with the Rio 300. Maintaining the company's tradition of creating new and innovative MP3 players, the Rio Forge looks and functions like no other player on the market, which is both good and bad.
The Rio Forge Sport is available with either 512MB (£133 ex. VAT, reviewed here), 256MB (£85.54 ex. VAT) or 128MB (£68.43 ex. VAT) of memory, which you can further expand upon using the built-in SD/MMC memory card slot (no card supplied). Unfortunately, you've got to remove the single AAA battery in order to access the card slot, which is tucked away inconspicuously behind a protective rubber cover.
Whereas most companies are typing to emulate Apple's highly popular iPod format, the Rio Forge Sport is a newly designed digital audio player that builds on the company's most popular selling flash-based player, the Rio Cali. The player was engineered with the athlete in mind, hence its rugged and durable design optimised for indoor and outdoor activities, and the inclusion of a nylon sports armband and sport clip earphones. It also uses Flash-based memory rather than a hard disk drive, so you can be sure of skip-free playback.
With its grippable black rubber and chromelike metal accents, the Rio Forge Sport is unlike most other players. At 64x58x18mm, the Rio Forge Sport is just a tad smaller than the Cali, but it weighs the same (62.36g with battery) and features a similar right-hand-centric control layout.
However, rather than using a joystick navigation device, the Rio Forge Sport integrates a four-way pad and select button, allowing you to operate it with a single hand. Similar to most mobile phones, the player's buttons illuminate (red) so you can operate the device in poor light. The tiny 1in. monochrome screen also lights up when you press a button.
The power button, hold switch and volume rocker, are all located along the top edge of the player. Unlike the navigation pad, these elements are made of plastic and have a rather cheap feel. The USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack are positioned at the bottom of the player, rounding off the Rio Forge Sport's hardware features.
These too, are not without their faults: the headphone jack can interfere with a comfortable grip, and the USB port is covered with an easy-to-lose plastic piece. In fact, the port cover came off almost every time we removed the player from our pockets.
