Roberts DAB / FM Digital Solar Radio - White

UPDATE:Since I first wrote this review many months ago, a few things have struck me. The sound quality, while acceptable for Radio 4, just isn't good enough for music. And worse, the sound quality is distinctly worse than the previous model. It's very muddy and dull. The other thing is that the supplied batteries aren't holding up as well as the previous model's battery pack. I think I'm going to have to buy a new set. But at least you can buy a new set of AAs easily - with the old model you had to buy a special pack that was expensive. Oh, and the display isn't nearly as good or useful as the old model's. Roberts need to bring out a third model combining the advantages of both.ORIGINAL REVIEW:I've had the first generation SolarDAB for about 18 months now and it's been so perfect that for a while I've been thinking about getting another. The first has survived on light power alone for all that time, even through a dull winter. Bear in mind though that it sits on a south-facing windowsill and I use it less than an hour a day. I think the south-facing window is pretty important.The old one looks like it was made from recycled drinking cups or something, perhaps in an attempt to make it look `green'. It had a slightly crude but cute appearance. SolarDAB2 looks more sophisticated, and it is more sophisticated in many ways.The biggest technical upgrade is the addition of FM reception (with RDS) as well as DAB. This could be useful to you if you can't get DAB in your area, or you take your radio out and about. Interestingly, the instructions warn that FM uses more battery power than DAB.The alpha-numeric display is now twice as big, shows the date as well as the time (or several other things if you prefer) and has a green tint to the backlight. There are a couple of LEDs now too: one shows you that the batteries are charging from the mains, the other from the sun. Roberts suggest you use the latter as a guide to placement since it glows brighter when the sun is brighter. Indeed it does.The aerial is now permanently attached instead of screw in, and there's a neat retractable pivot at its base if you need it.Operation is mostly the same as before (i.e. dead easy) but there's a handy `favourite' button to take you straight back to your fave station if you've been exploring others. Otherwise, you access presets (and you can now have as many as you like) by turning the tuning dial.You can still use the aux input to connect your iPod, which is nice, and there's a new USB socket on the side. Don't get too excited though: it's just in case Roberts decides to update the software, not so you can do anything interesting with your computer.The knobs and buttons, even the shiny silver ones, are Roberts' trademark rubberised type and feel nice, especially the silky-smooth volume knob.SolarDAB2 now uses three standard AA rechargeable batteries instead of the non-standard battery pack the old model used. So when they give up the ghost you can easily replace them. Or you could take a spare set with you. And you no longer need a screwdriver to get into the battery compartment.There's now a rudimentary carrying handle recessed into the back of the radio.If you're getting the impression that Roberts have made a whole bunch of upgrades based on (the relatively few) criticisms users had of the old model, you'd be right I think. Nearly everything that's changed has changed for the better.Still, I miss the `sunshine meter' and especially the proper battery level indicator on the old model's display. You'll only know your radio is getting low on juice now when the charge warning LED lights up. And if you were the type that screwed an external aerial into your old SolarDAB, you can't do that any more. And while the new styling is more sophisticated, and looks really nice, I kind of miss the cute styling of the old one. And the old one is slightly smaller, though insignificantly so.On the whole, the upgrades are worthwhile, and if the solar charging proves as flawless as on the old model, I'll only have one thing to think about: can I justify getting another...

I like it, a great little radio. I mainly listen to speech on it, so I couldn't really comment about its musical performance, but it has a single 2 ish inch speaker, so its a trade off for weight, size cost and portability! But great for me for speech radio. To me it sounds fine, not boxy or tinny at all.Good points:A matter of opinion but it looks nice, better than in the picture, it appears and feels well made. The press buttons also feel good quality (I'm fussy!).It has a proper volume DIAL no stupid pressy buttons for the volume.On DAB it takes a very acceptable 3 seconds to start up.In the pics the solar panel seems to dominate the design, it almost put me off, but again it looks absolutely fine in reality.Reception in my poor recception area is excellent, previous radios failed dismally in the very same spots in my house where this beast works just fine, I occasionally have to pull the aerial out a bit but that is no problem at all.The display is large, bright and clear, it illuminates for a few seconds when you turn the thing on and when you change the stations, a good idea.I use it 10 - 30 minutes a day on speech radio mainly, set fairly loud (its a big room) its never going to deafen anyone but it can go well beyond more than loud enough for me without the sound deteriorating. I put it in the window facing south,and despite the winter daylight it charges from the available daylight just fine, I got it around december, use it everyday, and in mid March I have never had to charge it with the mains charger, the daylight it gets has charged it just fine! Obviously I don't know if I'm using 10% or 99% of the available charge.The sound is nice and clear, some have said its a little bassy, but I haven't noticed that, there is no adjustment for bass and treble but I don't think its necessary on a unit like this.I like the dial you can turn through the available channels on DAB and just press to select, and the autotune setup worked so well I don't even remember pressing it.i PARTICULARLY like the "favourite" button, I have it set to a DAB channel and it always goes to the correct station even if it is on FM and not DAB. - nice touch.I like the addition of the low battery LED. It hasn't gone flat yet but I appreciate the warning!The display shows the station you are listening to and the time and date which i like, or a bit of blurb about the radio station.Its small, light and portable, and I never need to charge it!One major plus with Roberts radios in particular, it might not sound like much but on DAB the 4 I have dotted around the house are all in sync, that is, the audio does not have the irritating few second difference I used to get with other radios in the past.Not so good but not really that bad points:I'm being picky, but the "preset" took a little getting used to, but ok once I got used to it, with preset "off" the tuning dial goes through all the DAB channels, and with preset "on" (A big heart symbol on the display) the tuning dial goes through the stored presets only. After getting used to it it works well, and I suppose you can more easily have lot of presets stored (I don't know how many it can hold, but I have 6 set and thats all I need) and maybe its better than it brisling with preset buttons.Thanks to probably clumsiness occasionally when I pick it up to wander around with it I hit the power button. Always at a crucial moment! Aaagh!I wish they had said more clearly on the amazon writeup it has batteries in the box, on the amazon page it says "Batteries 3 Lithium ion batteries required" so I ordered them separately, and further down the page it said "Uses 3 x LR6 (AA size) batteries or rechargeable equivalent (included)" which I didn't read. Something like "Yes, it comes with batteries, stupid" at the top would have been handy for me.Also if you use rechargeable batteries which I guess almost all will, make sure the switch inside the battery cover is set to the correct type. Not sure exactly what it does but what I know about batteries its important to charge them correctly.I had a black model but wish now I'd been a bit more imaginative and got a brightly coloured red or green one! Oh well, i could always buy another one...