Pure One DAB/FM Portable Radio - White

I received my Pure One DAB radio this morning and in a matter of minutes I was tuning it to my favourite stations and setting pre-sets. I'm pretty good with gadgets anyway but this model is easy to operate even if you're a technophobe. The reception is fabulous, I won't be going back to MW again if I can help it! So far it's been as good as listening to radio on broadband or on digital tv.

If you're new to DAB broadcasting, first go to this site and type in your post code to make sure you are covered by DAB transmission: http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalradio/. It will also tell you what stations will be (albeit an approximation) available in your area.

Overall I give this Pure One DAB radio 10/10. If you're looking for your first inexpensive and good quality DAB radio, buy this one.

This is my first DAB radio. Had been looking at the options for a while but couldn't resist this from a top manufacturer at under £50.

It does what you would expect. The sound quality is perfect and the volume is more than adequate for my use. It is really easy to use, even in the dark when you can't see the buttons (am using it as a bedside radio as well as in kitchen, garden, study, camping, picnics, everywhere!). I think the controls are really intuitive, you turn it on and it tunes and works perfectly.

I really like the design - I've got the white one. It is light and easily portable and the blue glow from the backlit screen is lovely. It has a USB port for upgrades (there have been two, and you can sign up for email notification of these).

I went for this budget choice to see if I liked DAB - I do, I love it, but have one problem - the battery pak. I use my radio "out and about" a lot and it is eating 6 x C batteries regularly. When I bought it in July I was promised chargepak would be available late in July, then August and now its September and its still not out. And Pure have gone suspiciously quiet.... Cost of the radio plus the battery pack brings it up to £80; if I'd known how much trouble it would be to get the batterypak I would have just bought an oasis for £90 with the chargepak in and saved myself the hassle and expense of constantly buying batteries.

My verdict... Buy it, but not til they've sorted the battery pak (or if you only intend to use it near a plugpoint)

I have resisted the temptation to buy DAB since I live in an area where it is very difficult to receive FM and television signals, side of a hill and everything. Also put off by the generally over £100 price tags of decent makes - eg PURE which always gets excellent reviews. When I saw the One advertised I went for it - and I am NOT DISAPPOINTED. It picks up a vast number of stations, all the main BBC ones no trouble, in fact I think only three or four stations in this area can't be received. And the FM reception is vastly superior to any other radios in the house.

This is an attractive radio - I have the white one, I think the black one looks a bit cheaply plastic, whereas the white is cool - though my daughter preferred the pink one. Huge extending aerial seems the reason for the good station pickup. Good sound, with reasonable bass. Although there's only one speaker it picks up stereo and has a stereo headphone jack to plug in your hi-fi if you need it. 20 presets, which you access by pushing the preset button and turning the big dial to choose your favourite - pushing the dial acts like an enter key. You get to choose options for what appears on the display, you can update its software through a USB port (obviously not needed to do this yet) and its even got sleep and wake-up timers on it. A great boys toy...

As I have pointed out, I have never had a DAB radio so can't do a comparison, but the sound and looks are great, its intuitive to use, and the price is a killer for a PURE radio. Excellent. Quibbles? None really, except that if you want to be able to make it portable its looks like the best bet is to buy a chargePAK, which recharges when you plug the radio in the mains and then powers it when you unplug, and they seem expensive to me at thirty quid.

In short - if you've dallied and delayed in dabbling with DAB - this is The ONE - groan...