Freeplay Devo DAB Radio review

This portable radio receives both FM and DAB broadcasts.

It comes with a mains adapter for when you're in reach of a socket, but when you're not, it has an interesting trick up its sleeve. Unclip the handle on the back and you can charge the internal battery just by winding it up. It's not easy, but with a bit of elbow grease you can have environmentally sustainable tunes wherever you are.

When listening to DAB radio, we got about as much time as we'd spent winding it up. Charging from the mains is far less strenuous, so if you want to pop into the garden rather than, say, to a three-day festival, there's no need to tire your arm. FM reception doesn't require the power-hungry decoding chips and LCD screen, so we got much longer.

Once you have the unit powered up, by whatever means you prefer, audio quality is good. With only one small speaker built in, it can't rival more expensive models, but it's fine for a kitchen or study, and on the plus side it's easily portable. At full volume it can fill a room, but there's a lot of distortion and hiss as the speaker is driven too hard. Still, it's not bad for a compact mono unit.

The user interface on the LCD screen will be familiar to anyone who's used one of Pure's Evoke DAB radios, as the layout is identical. The two line display doesn't fit in as much text as some DAB models, but is easy to read, with a blue backlight.

The case is a mix of silver coated plastic and an inexplicable carbon fibre effect vinyl, and the buttons are plasticky. But at least everything's straightforward to use, with a proper rotating dial for tuning, one for volume, and five radio presets.

Considering that the Freeplay includes a mains charger, internal battery and wind-up charger, £30 is an attractively low price. For a DAB radio alone, this would be reasonable, but the innovative features and ease of use make it a bargain. It's just a shame Devo couldn't make it look classier.

Author: Matthew Sparkes