Pure Evoke Flow review

Internet radios are nothing new, so Pure has had plenty of time to learn from the mistakes of its rivals. Namely, poorly-organised station lists and ugly cases.

The Evoke Flow runs a Linux-based operating system, has a very bright OLED display and looks great. But this is much more than just an Internet radio. It builds on Pure's history as a designer of world-beating digital radios, by also incorporating DAB and FM reception.

Setup is a breeze, but we were disappointed to find there's no bundled remote, as there is with the Terratec Noxon and the Roberts WM-201. Instead, it's controlled using two rotary dials (one devoted solely to volume) and three soft buttons, whose functions vary according to context. That wouldn't be so bad if the menus were better organised, but they're not, and it took us some time to become familiar with their structure. Furthermore, the actual controls are positioned fairly close together and using them can't exactly be described as comfortable.

Learn how they work and they'll open up an unrivalled feature set. The Internet radio is supplemented by podcasts, and listen again streams from the BBC and other broadcasters. These can be searched and set as favourites, saving you from hunting around next time around. There's also a dedicated Pure Sounds channel, which boasts 100 streams of looped background sounds, like jungle noises.

Regular stations can be filtered by geographic region, language and even quality, but the results weren't always what we expected. After specifying that we wanted only English-language stations, we were surprised to find some Flemish streams in the mix.

Neither could we quite reconcile our quality judgements with Pure's. These relate to signal quality and the company deserves credit for simplifying this particular variable with a simple five-point scale, rather than resorting to talk of codecs and bitrates, but it's difficult to work out what will apply where. We expected many local broadcasters to disappear when we switched the rating to five - the maximum - but not the national BBC stations. Yet they did.

These issues aside, these powerful search features are the jewel in the Flow's crown, which receives a further buffing up when paired with Pure's radio site at thelounge.com. Marrying the two lets you search for stations using your browser, keyboard and mouse, and the results show up on the radio. It also provides a repository for any stations you've marked as favourites on the radio itself. Several radios can be synchronised with the same lounge account, allowing your personal tastes to be reflected on each one, regardless of where they're located.

Despite our reservations about the menus, this remains the most impressive Internet radio we have yet used. Further, Pure is able to deliver firmware updates over the air - indeed, one arrived during our tests - so it's quite possible that this confusing multi-level menu structure will be refined over time.

At £149, it's keenly priced, the piano black finish looks great, and the wooden case and high quality speaker work in tandem to deliver a satisfying, rich sound. In all, while not quite perfect, it remains highly recommended.