Gadgetoid

gadg-et-oid [gaj-it-oid]

-adjective

1. having the characteristics or form of a gadget;
resembling a mechanical contrivance or device.

Roberts solarDAB

After receiving three DAB radios from Roberts to give the Gadgetoid once over I never expected the smallest and most humble of the three to be the most impressive.

But it was. The Roberts solarDAB is both a remarkably simple and seemingly obvious product but it doesn’t seem to have an equal.

Indeed, it seems that the Roberts solarDAB Radio is, in fact, the first and only solar powered DAB radio currently on the market. For those of us who are too lazy to wind a wind up radio it’s a truly fantastic creation. For an eco-fanatic, or just someone who hates wasting money on batteries or constantly juggling rechargeable ones, it’s quite possibly the single best portable DAB radio on the market.

It’s just as good indoors, too; Over the last couple of days the solarDAB seems to have found its place on the window sills of the office where, ironically, it gets both the best DAB reception (office buildings play absolute havoc with it) and the best sunlight. It can be moved around the office in a pinch, never needs tested for electrical safety and is economically friendly by not consuming any additional power- not that it would make a dent in the average office power usage anyway.

“But what happens when the sun sets, or it’s a particularly dreary day?” I hear you ask. Well Roberts have covered off that little eventuality with a built-in rechargeable battery good for up to 27 hours. And if you can’t get any sun for 27 hours you can always resort to plugging it in to the mains with the supplied adaptor.

It’s a perfect picnic radio, too, and the auxiliary input really rounds off the deal- it can be a solar powered, portable speaker for your mp3 player too!

The solarDAB has a telescopic aerial, but when it’s sitting in the sun on a window sill where there’s good reception it works fine and looks tidy with the aerial at its minimum extension.

Friday, September 26th, 2008, Blog.