Raidsonic Icy Box IB-MP101 review

Raidsonic is better known for its hard disk enclosures, so this foray into portable TVs is a new direction for the company. The IB-MP101 can receive DVB-T TV and radio broadcasts, as well as playing a range of media file formats.

The case is made of black plastic with a rubberised strip round the edge where the ports and controls are situated. It has a combined on/off slider switch with a hold function to stop you accidentally pressing the controls. There’s also an AV port and a supplied cable for connecting the device to a TV. There’s no supplied adaptor for the tiny RF port, though, and it uses the rare MMCX standard. Despite looking online, we couldn’t find an appropriate RF adaptor for sale in the UK.

The IB-MP101’s navigation buttons are flush with the case and consist of a single circular button for navigation and a central play/pause button. We preferred the design of the myTV Player. To make matters worse, button presses didn’t always register. This, combined with sluggish menus, meant we quickly found ourselves mashing the buttons in frustration. What’s more, the telescopic aerial requires some force to pull it from its slot, and the SD card slot is too deep, so you’ll need long fingernails to be able to push your card in until it clicks.

The IB-MP101 isn’t as well designed as the myTV Player. If it were significantly cheaper, we could forgive this, but it costs only £8 less. It may be a little lighter, but the myTV is far less frustrating to use.