Roberts Elise DAB FM RDS Digital Radio - Black

We were looking for a DAB radio for my mother who is a 90 year old technophobe. Most of the models we looked at had small control buttons - particularly the station pre-set buttons, or in some cases the pre-set facility required two actions. The Elise has very simple, well laid out controls with the added advantage of a large, tactile volume control. It was very easy to set-up and the sound is really quite good for a single speaker radio. We have not yet tried it on FM stations as the digital reception is excellent for all her favourite stations. Her verdict is 'absolutely marvellous'.
The only criticism is that battery life appears to be quite limited (even though the display does dim when battery power is used) - it would help if Roberts were to incorporate their 'Ecologic' functionality into the Elise.

As other reviewers have said, this is functional, no nonsense mains-operated radio.
It has an inclined top, which means that the buttons are easy to see and operate from a chair. The presets are clearly marked and in a row. Also the on/off button is obvious and a little red light says whether it is "on" or not.
I have tested it and found the reception (in Central London) to be fine on all the main stations.

My only concern is that when the radio is switched off, the transformer makes a continuous high-pitched hum. I can hear it now and it could get quite irritating. This hum ceases when the radio is turned on.

There is an italicised paragraph in the instructions: "The mains socket used for the radio must remain accessible during normal use. In order to disconnect the radio from the mains completely the mains adaptor should be removed from the mains socket outlet completely". So, as others have said, I guess it is using electricity when switched off. I don't know if this is true of other radios too. Where I want to install it, I can't get at the mains socket easily to switch it off, so this is a problem. The transformer is also quite big - 4cm deep by 8cm long, about the size of a large three way adapter.

One of the things I find very helpful when I'm ordering from Amazon are the reviews and I thought I should follow up and do the same thing after receiving the Roberts Elise.

My main criteria for ordering a DAB radio was that it should look and sound good and most importantly be easy to operate. I was buying this for my elderly mother and it had to be straightforward. I carefully read a few reviews of different radios and overall this seemed the best.

I chose the right one! It's very nice to look at and has a good sound (ok, it's never going to compete with a stereo radio, but is nonetheless clear to listen too) and it is so easy to operate. I thought I should plug it in and tune it for my mum and all I needed to do was plug it in, switch it on and off it went, finding 54 radio stations very quickly. I saved four pre-sets for her and on the button marked with a heart as her favourite she now has Radio 2. My mum loves it. Nicely placed buttons not too near each other and a good sized and tactile volume button.

Any downsides? Well apart from the radio, it doesn't have any extra features. No pausing of live radio for instance. It's no worse for it though because its main thing is simplicity and at the price it's not going to have much in the way of fancy stuff. The other thing that would be nice is if the display remained showing the last info item selected on the display. You can scroll through various info items including signal strength, bps etc, but once you switch the unit off it goes back to the first info item which is the "now playing" feature. It would be nice if it remained on time of day for instance.

Aside from those little things there is nothing to fault this unit and as I said my mum loves it. Thanks to the other reviewers for the recommendation