PURE ONE Mini DAB/FM Radio – Black
Posted by Notcot on Apr 11, 2010 in Portable Sound & Vision |
- Pause and control scrolling text giving you time to note down web addresses competition phone numbers or song titles
- Add new features as they become available via USB
- RDS support for station name display on FM and RDS scrolling text
- Connect an iPod/MP3 player or portable CD
- For maximum convenience add the optional “Fit and Forget†ChargePAK® for around 20 hours of portable DAB listening
I finally bought a DAB after my analog radio started to crackle almost continually. I wanted something portable that I could easily take from the bathroom to my bedroom. This product does that and works exceptionally well – crystal clear radio and no voice distortion (I listen to radio 4 most of the time.)
My tiny niggle is that the chargepak isn’t included, and that the sound seems to go from too quiet to too loud in one step. It would have been better to have more increments in terms of increasing volume. I should add these are small niggles; I love this product!
Rating: 5 / 5
The basics of this radio – sound, reception, design, display, construction – are all very good, as you might expect from Pure. However it’s let down by poor usability, for example:
- Many functions require you to press the silver knob on the side. This just pushes your radio onto the floor (as it’s so light) unless you hold it with your other hand. So you need 2 hands to operate it. This push button needs a rethink, it’s much too awkward.
- Selecting a preset station involves pressing a button, rotating the knob until you get the station you want, and then pushing it in. This is a fiddly, 2-handed job that quickly becomes irritating if you like switching between 2 or 3 favourite stations regularly. A few preset buttons – or even just the abilty to press the preset button repeatedly to cycle through preset stations – would be better.
- The programme info display scrolls much too slowly and you can’t change the speed (unless you scroll manually using the knob on the side.)
- In standby mode, the clock is very small and dark, too hard to read. It would have been better if they’d used larger digits, and had the option to light the display without switching on the radio.
- Startup time is much better than my 5-year-old Pure Evoke 2, but is still 3-4 seconds, perhaps this is a limitation of all DAB radios though?
- The lack of a battery in such a portable radio is odd, and has proved irritating. I suspect it’s less to do with the environment, and more to do with keeping the price down (this radio probably wouldn’t sell at £60.) Nonetheless, Pure really should work out a way to ship it with a built-in battery or allow it to take regular batteries.
- The line-in and mp3 player connections are gimmicky: how many people will want to play their music through a small, mono loudspeaker? Better to remove these circuits and put the cost savings towards a battery!
So: an OK radio, but the people at Pure really should try out their sets at home for a few days before releasing them. They would quickly spot these basic usabililty problems and, hopefully, fix them before the radio went on sale.
Rating: 3 / 5
The major drawback with this radio is that it only takes a special sort of battery that Pure sell for an extra £20. It doesn’t take normal batteries. Very annoying if you were planning to use it that way and it isn’t clear until you have purchased and opened up the box!
Rating: 3 / 5
Great Radio…
I brought this for my Dad for Christmas and he’s over the moon.
The set up instructions take a bit of interpreting but are ok when you realise it’s only a couple of presses to access most of the features.
The only thing I am not happy with is the availability of the rechargeable battery pack. They are stocked at very few places (Amazon is one) but they seem to be in short supply everywhere.
I would like to have seen this radio with a rechargeable battery pack included.
Rating: 4 / 5
I am very satisfied with this little radio………..eventually!
I wanted a portable DAB radio. It wasn’t made clear from the packaging that it also requires the purchase of a rechargeable insertable battery cell to run away from the mains. When the cell came, I found it was pretty difficult to fit in. It’s a tiny little port awkwardly placed at the bottom edge of the battery compartment. I was at the point of giving up when (hey presto!) suddenly it slipped into place and it has been working very nicely ever since.
I’ve been listening to it most of today and the battery is still going strong, so the claim of 20 hours ‘battery’ life seems justified, this seems very good for a DAB radio. And it is very easy to recharge – you only need to plug the radio back into the mains and it will charge the cell for you. The sound quality is very reasonable for a small radio and it also works well with headphones.
I agree with those reviewers that, because of the problems discussed above, it would have been better for Pure to sell the radio with the battery already inserted. If you are not technically minded or do not have steady hands I would think twice re purchasing this radio with the purchase of the cell combined in mind.
Rating: 4 / 5