Pure Élan Portable Stereo DAB/FM Digital Radio review – “If Not for the Speakers, This Unit Could Have Been Perfect”

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 6:54 am

The Pure Élan portable DAB has a great sleek hi-tech look and feel to it. The buttons are well laid out and are very convenient to use. Being a DAB radio, the reception is by far way ahead of an FM radio. I only have problems in areas where DAB is a dead spot. Nonetheless, if ever I do get into a DAB dead spot, I can always opt for the regular FM mode. Although the FM is prone to interference, it still has wider coverage as compared to the DAB. The telescopic antenna attached to an inconspicuous place in its body probably aids it.

The built-in speakers considering that it’s a stereo, can be a let down. I would rather opt to using headphones to get the stereo effect, I want. Some stations sound muffled just because of the speakers. In addition to other cool features, it has a class-leading battery life, which can last really long, although the 30 hours for DAB and 80 hours for FM, is not something I’d keep track on.

Some functions like the sixteen preset stations are a plus factor for me. From there, I can set eight FM stations and eight DAB stations. This way searching your favorite station will not be a hassle. The nice LCD screen provides a readable scrolling information about track and artists, news and sports updates.

This Pure Élan Portable Stereo also has a clock synchronized with DAB stations so you won’t have to worry if your time setting is right. It also has this neat sleep function so you can variably set the time for it to shut off automatically. It would have been better if it had an alarm function along with the sleep function.

Pure Élan Portable Stereo DAB/FM Digital Radio is convenient and quite easy to use. The speakers are merely for aesthetic effects and really don’t affect the capability of the Stereo DAB/FM Digital Radio unit as a stand alone radio; I think they only threw in the speakers so the radio set could be quoted at a higher price. If not for the mediocre speaker, Pure Élan Portable Stereo DAB radio is worth its price.