Freecom MusicPal review

While other Internet radios cost £150 or more, Freecom's new MusicPal is much more affordable.

Although it doesn't have an FM tuner, it can stream more than 5000 Internet stations, and it's hard to find any other corners cut to meet the price. There's a built-in speaker, wired and WiFi connections to connect to the Internet via your home network, headphone and line outputs, and a control system that means you don't need a remote handset that you're always using.

Two dials are cleverly used for navigation and volume. They can be pushed as well as turned, so it's easy to select menu options. You can backtrack using the menu button, just like on an iPod. A Fav button gives you access to your favourite stations.

While the mono screen is a little dim and slow to update, its six lines of text provide plenty of information, and the Internet station listing is better designed than on other radios we've seen. The first option is UK, letting you select British stations quickly. You can also choose by genre, location or from your web favourites list.

The MusicPal is the first Internet radio we've seen to provide a web interface, allowing you to change all settings from a PC, including station lists, setting a password, enabling the alarm clock and altering network settings. You can also change the RSS feed of news headlines displayed (along with the time and date) when the player is idle.

You can also use the MusicPal to listen to MP3s or WAV files from a computer on your network. But there's no WMA or Real Audio support, which means certain stations don't appear. These include the main BBC stations, and there's no listen again function or podcast listings. Freecom is working on a firmware update to add WMA, but it's unlikely the on-demand service will be included.

For the price, the MusicPal is a great Internet radio, but you might want to wait until WMA support is added before buying one.

Author: Jim Martin