Customer Reviews

Creative Labs Rhomba 256 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I just received the Rhomba 128M MP3 player and its quite a good value.

Pluses -

Recorder function also with FM radio.
Nice display
Li-on Battery, good life between charges
Windows XP recognizes it as a drive, no need for
special download software like the Rio players.

Negative

Filmsy switching for track forward/backward
No beltclip
Included ear buds are totally useless and built for elephant size ears, you'll need to use another headphone.

No expansion capability

Need a USB charger if you travel (these are about $10)

I have used Rio MP3 players in the past (original MP300 parallel port, RioOne, S35S), but this is more functional.

Being new to MP3s I really had no idea what to get, but after ALOT of research and questions I decided on this player. It has all the features I wanted, like the voice-recorder, and the ability to record from FM tuner (which I like the best). So many times I have heard songs on the radio and wished to record them, now i can with just a simple push of a button. The workings of this player took some time to figure out, but i think i have it down, without the help of a manual or instructions. This player is really VERY easy to use.

The Creative MediaSource software is GREAT!! Makes it super easy to transfer tracks to and from the player. Also nice for converting files to different formats for recording. I've even played my DVD movies on my computer with it (great pic and sound quality).

I have only had this player for about a month but have used it often and tested all of the features more than once. No problems so far (knock on wood).

All-in-all this player is super "user-friendly", even for 'Newbies' like me. It's sleek, small, has a very readable back-lit display (adjustable), nice buttons, and great sound quality (i've hooked it up to external speakers and couldn't believe how loud i put it before any distortion).
There is so much more i could say, could rave for days, but they only give so much room for the review.

I ordered this great little player as a birthday gift to myself. It's outstanding except for one problem - The firmware is the unit as shipped was buggy! In version 1.04.3, any interrupted transfer to the device causes it to malfunction!

I looked up the Creative support forum and dozens of people reported the same problem, namely a complete lockup of the unit and subsequent inability to "boot" it...

My first unit failed after about fifteen minutes of playing with it, loading files, etc. Needless to say, I was distressed. Turns out YOU MUST UPDATE THE FIRMWARE as soon as you get it recharged. Another point I must strongly emphasize is that YOU MUST "EJECT" THE DEVICE under Windows BEFORE DISCONNECTING IT.

I'm happy to report that firmware version 1.05.1 is much better and that I have not "crashed" since updating to it. I'm really enjoying it!

I love this product and would give it 5 stars were it not for the buggy firmware that shipped with it. Cheers!

My daughter received this item as a Christmas gift. About a month ago it just stopped working. We have had several emails and phone calls back and forth to the company, "Creative" is an accurate name for them...they are creative about honoring the 90 day warranty by putting you off until you are out of warranty. They have promised three times to email me the forms to have it fixed or replaced...and nothing yet. I emailed the company again today. They do not have a customer service number that is toll free, and I am about done running up my phone bill.

We were happy with it for the first 60 days or so, but now, I will never buy another "Creative" product again, based on their customer service.

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product.

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players

-Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types.

-If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips.

- Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish.

- Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc...

So, that is my review in a nutshell

The combination of FM radio, Voice Recorder and less importantly WMA/MP3 player in a small form factor appealed to me and, knowing the risks of such a behaviour, I became an early adopter.

Good things first: the device looks nice, isn't too big - barely bigger than the original Muvo - and, the stock earphones sound are relatively decent. But... but... even after setting the FM mode to Europe (why in the world is Creative shipping such a device with inappropriate default local parameters when they do attempt to maintain three different regional web sites for their slightly different product lines?) FM reception remains of very high quality. The signal to noise ratio is reminiscent of an early 80s turntable, tuning isn't very stable, "best" reception seems to be achieved about 0.05 Mhz above the official frequency, the dynamic range seems a bit compressed, the auto-scan misses 90% of the stations a cheap tuner gets, etc... All of this conspire to create an overall disappointing FM listening experience. Radio recording is therefore intrinsically limited.

The battery life is closer to 8 hours than 14. Voice recording is acceptable, no more. MP3 playback is good (but who has bad MP3 sound nowadays?). Creative Media Source is a big improvement over the useless stuff Creative used to ship with its device.

If Creative doesn't address some of the FM issues by a firmware update - if that is possible - the Rhomba will disappoint me.

I have had the Rhomba now for about 8 months and I am very happy with it. There was a problem after about 3 months but after some intense convosations with creative's customer support and online assitance I upgraded the firmware and have had no problems.

It can hold enough wma for my needs. It is small enough to go running with (the reason I chose it in the first place). I have a couple of issues with it which would not have stopped me buying it. but may be of concen.

Power> power display on the screen bares little relation to the power held in the unit. It never appears to go below about 60% power but has run dry several times. I would (in restrospect) have prefered to have a battery powered as if you don' have a PC around with a USB port, you can be kinda stuck. perhaps someone will come up with a power supply cable which goes straight to a USB conector from an AC source (with whatever voltage they need)

radio > when this works it is great.. sadly to get it to work i need to heavily flick the unit a few times. OK not best practace!

But as I said do have a small MP3 player which works with WMA and is easy to use I have been very happy with this unit.

I really liked this little (very little and light) mp3 player. After reading reviews here, I knew to update the firmware, which I did. I liked the software that came with it--very easy to use. The same day I received it, the screen stopped working, but then after an hour or two, I checked it again, and it was working again. Stayed working for almost a week, in which time I filled it up with songs. It was a great little player. Once I got all the songs in, I turned it on and the screen went through some error messages. The "help" documentation on the CD was no help at all. I got a few ideas from the Creative web site, which got me new error screens, but I never could get my computer to recognize it again. Creative was going to have me pay for shipping to return it, but luckily Amazon recognizes that customers should be valued. I'm trying to decide whether I'll order another one or try another brand. I was surprised at how quickly I filled up 256 MB, so maybe I'll look for one with a larger capacity.

256mb of mp3 music, FM tuner and voice recorder all in one compact player! What more can you ask for!

I love using my player when I am working out. There are no moving parts, so I never miss a beat.

When I first got my Rhomba and pluged it in, it locked up on me. So, I reset it and it has worked perfectly ever since(no firmware update required).

I really like the Creative Mediasource software that is included. It is very easy to use.

Overall, I would rate this a 5 out of 5 stars, But the FM tuner could use some improvement. My FM tuner has bad reception most of the time.

This POS started giving "English font only" and "download new firmware from "www.creative.com" within 3 hours of using it after it was fully charger. Creative has NO firmware upgrade for this model since it is so new, and support cannot help. Search for "rhomba firmware" at google and visit Creative's European customer support forum page - there are oodles and oodles of Europeans with this same fatal error that they cannot recover from at all. People are throwing around unreleased firmware in that forum for this thing since Creative still has not released it. *sigh* another bug-ridden thing from Creative. Going back for the iPod 10GB - $100 upgrade, but I am sure I will have NO problems making that thing work since it is an Apple.