I purchased my Mpio FL100 Multi Format 128 mg player 6 months ago. This player was worth every penny. Although the users manual was often hard to understand the device and the manager were simple to learn. The internet site for the gadget was worth visiting for software updates. If your looking for a player to use at the gym this is the one. It's case, weight and HOLD feature keep the music coming. You'll definitely need to upgrade memory (500mg or 1Gg) and buy rechargeable batteries.

What a jewel. The MPIO FL100 shines like a gem--literally. With a mirrored face and a bright blue backlit screen, this delicate, lightweight MP3 player looks eerily like a buff Zippo lighter from the future. It's no wonder this beautiful gadgetry won design awards in 2003.

Of course, it's not all a matter of looks. The FL100 has terrific sound, a voice recorder (also records .wavs from its FM receiver, good lord), and features an option totally foreign to me, called "Study Mode," which plays mp3s slowly so that one may learn the words to a song at his or her own pace. Sounds like I'll be performing a karaoke "Die Da" for my friends at last!

Perhaps what sold me most of all on the MPIO FL100--besides the capability of taking an SD memory card in addition to the memory already internally stored--is its utter smallness. While I realize some listeners like a buff, durable, hard-to-lose MP3 player that doubles as an external hard drive (which the FL100 might or might not actually do; I should double-check as to its status as a potential storage device), I frankly want an MP3 player to be tiny, flashy, and only for MP3s. The MPIO FL100 suits all this and more. It can be worn "necklace style" or on the arm, or frankly left in your pocket, and you'll never know it's there. That's awesome.

The bad: the user's manual is, at times, very difficult to make sense of. Fortunately, the FL100's menu navigation is extraordinarily comprehensive, and the manual, when not used for reference, makes a cute conversation piece.

The MPIO is also not a gadget you want to throw at walls. Given its size and light weight, you might think it will float to the earth like a feather. It will not. It will break.

In short, the MPIO FL100 is not really a child's MP3 player, or even an active adult's MP3 player. But I've always been an indoors girl, and I like my electronics shiny. Which means I personally give the FL100 my highest recommendation.

(As of Jan 2004, the 256 MB player was priced about US$180.)

New for 2003, the mpio FL100 is simply beautiful! 128MB or 256MB; MP3 & WMA support; FM radio with encoding and voice recording; SD/MMC expansion; use as data storage; the features just go on & on
Bought from http://www.procellmedia.co.uk go and get it