Undeterred by the unpredictable nature of the great British summer, Roberts has released a radio that it can power itself purely by the light of the sun. Firstly, let's look at the other functions on the radio, which are pretty good. There's the detachable aerial, for instance. This can be clipped into a recess on the back of …

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Monday 21st July 2008 12:31 GMT Anonymous Coward

Prepare to rebel borders

I suspect we're moments away from the tiresome "DAB sounds terrible - I'm more interested in the music fidelity than the content" brigade, followed by tireless "Oi Scamps, get on Yahoo. I need to talk to you about Stu" campaign.

Angel Bill because Vista is better than Linux.

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Monday 21st July 2008 13:58 GMT Anonymous Coward

Nice idea, but too expensive

One Pure Evoke DAB radio (mine was £30 from the local Tesco) and about £20 worth of parts from Maplin (solar cell, dummy load etc.) and you've got an interesting little project for the DIYer. No need to pay 'green' premiums either.

Where I live, analogue reception sucks but digital comes through loud and clear so I like DAB, a lot. Roberts make some fine kit but I like neither to the extent that I'll fork out 80+ clams for a radio with a solar panel glued to the top.

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Monday 21st July 2008 13:58 GMT Kit Temple

Solar Indicator

I really like the way they have integrated a solar indicator in there to show the strength of the sunlight. A lot of solar charged items require a lot of guess work about whether they are getting any benefits from their location. Hopefully we'll see these sort of indicators appearing more regularly on solar products.

Nice job Roberts.

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Monday 21st July 2008 15:17 GMT Martin Huizing

Are we just plain dumb...

To allow another useless gadget into our midst? The novelty will wear off as any other gadget and instead of trying to safe the planet it will only provide more rubbish during planning, production, use and as a waste(d) product. Don't we already have phones that provide this radio reception? TV now even? Granted they are not solar powered, but I've seen solar powered mobile phone chargers.

I remember my first transistor radio and it was small, sleek and provided great value while riding my bicycle to work. Come to think of it, I miss my old portable radio and the nostalgic notion of being able to ride and listen to music at the same time, a luxury not many people had at that time. Will people be amazed at me still while carrying a solar powered portable device that let people enjoy good radio come rain nor shine?

Screw the environment. I want to get one too!

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Monday 21st July 2008 15:17 GMT Joe K

Birdsong channel

Where is this? I want it. As long as its constant, and not broken up by adverts, ugh.

As for this radio, i like, very nice idea.

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Monday 21st July 2008 15:17 GMT Anonymous Coward

Could be an expensive brick

If not firmware upgradeable, as DAB+ will replace DAB relatively soon.

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Monday 21st July 2008 15:52 GMT Anonymous Coward

Could be useful ...

... when the oil runs out and the electricity stops. A week next Wednesday?

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Tuesday 22nd July 2008 05:35 GMT Fergus Pitt

DAB+ Consumes More Power

It'll be a while before this radio is firmware upgradeable; the DAB+ chips consume more power than DAB by quite a margin.

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Tuesday 22nd July 2008 08:39 GMT David Morris

Birdsong

I've just put it on on my Genus DAB radio that's plugged in to the line-in on my PC. The birdsong channel is called 'Birdsong'. There's a pigeon on there at the moment. Where's my 12-bore?

Paris, 'cos she can chirp in my ear any time she likes...

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Tuesday 22nd July 2008 10:27 GMT Mage

Style

Pity it looks like it was designed for someone that thought it was FisherPrice ? Tomy?

Aerial:

Detachable like a Security Radio "Rubber Duck"! Why not retractable. Stupid.

If it's for the outdoors, is there a shoulder strap? (Too big for a belt clip). Is it shower proof?

Solar power a lot of the time for a bedside / kitchen / indoor radio makes not much sense.

Poor Ergonomics and Package Design.

Stick a solar panel using foam sticky pads on a non-Solar one.

There are better value, better styled radios. Roberts used to do nice solid table top radios. But this isn't one of them.

I'd go for one with MP3, SD card Recording, DRM (the Radio system, not the Rights) and DAB with Analogue. Amazinly Alba does one.

Do they own Roberts now as Marque to sell higher priced stuff?

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Tuesday 22nd July 2008 12:03 GMT Dave

Great for the bathroom

I bought this to put in the bathroom. My current battery operated radio is ok until the batteries start to get low, when it strays from the channel - annoying if you're in the bath, The great thing about dab is that you get a spot on channel or no channel at all.

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