SIRIUS Stiletto SL100 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver
See it at Amazon.com for $328.99Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(4 out of 5)Received my Sirius Stiletto from Circuit City yesterday: My review
I have a feeling I'm one of the lucky few who has actually received and tested the new Sirius Stiletto. Circuit City delivered my unit on 9/29/06. They might have prematurely shipped the radio to me since the reported release date is listed as 10/4/06. There doesn't appear to be any hands on reviews of this product to date. Please check satellite radio sites Orbitcast and SiriusBackstage for more info. Consider this an amateur review with only about a day and a half's use of the new device. With that said, I can truly say that I really enjoy using the Stiletto. It picks up the signal very well while inside my apt in NYC. When walking outdoors the unit stayed tuned while inside my jeans pocket. During a four mile walk throughout the city my signal was completely uninterrupted. As expected, when going deeper inside of buildings the device lost its signal. Switching to the WiFi connection to get the stations worked great on my apartment wifi, but I had some problems linking up with various other wifi hot spots. You'll want to record and store various programs for use with the device indoors, when without a signal, and for way longer battery life. The slim battery I used lasted only about 2hrs while listening to continuous live satellite radio. The extended battery which comes standard should last much longer but you will definately want to keep this unit charged while at home. It's very easy to use the Stiletto and I like that the device resumes playback to it's previous spot when you power it on and off. The previous S50 did not. The screen is large and bright and the resolution of the fonts and logos is sharp. It's very cool to have all this programming at your fingertips while on the move, though I found myself listening to Howard most of the time. The Stiletto's live feed is fun to surf and really makes you yearn for more battery life. Overall, I'll say this radio is a must have for Sirius fans. Though I wish it were a touch smaller and lighter, it does has a suprisingly solid feel and works well. It's loaded with other features I haven't used. I really recommend this device, but stay tuned for more in-depth reviews of the Stiletto when it finally ships.
(3 out of 5)Sirius potential
You all know what the Stiletto 100 can do, I just got mine from Circuit City and will let you know how well it does it. The good news is everything looks great, everything feels great. Great navigation too, the S100 is as good as the S50 was bad. WIFI works great.
Why 3 stars?
First, the headphones. The earbuds have zero bass, but thats expected. However, the over-the-head antenna headphones are designed like the letter "C" - instead of an ear piece that goes ON your ear, they poke INTO your ear, sideways, and there is no foam covering for them. They hurt just wearing them, and worse than that, if you hit your head into anything while wearing them, youre gonna bust an ear drum.
Then theres the battery charging. Is it charging? I don't know. The AC adapter is plugged in, and its also attached to the unit. But there is no indicator light, anywhere. My electric toothbrush has an indicator light. My electric shaver has an indicator light. The Sirius Stiletto is dark.
Last, to put the unit in sleep mode, you push a slide down 1 second. But to turn the unit off, you push it down for 5 seconds. The problem is when you want to power off, there is no indication, after the "sleep mode" display comes on after 1 second, that it is now NOT going into sleep mode.
Bottom line: I will test it for the next few weeks to see if it gets the Satellite reception I want, outdoors, in apartments, with the headphones I want. If it does, I will use it every day. If not, its useless.
(2 out of 5)Cool Radio; Disappointment as a Portable
I have been a satellite radio customer for four years. I started with XM and moved to Sirius about a year ago (no, Howard Stern had nothing to do with my move). I mention this so that you will understand that I am familiar with satellite radio and its occasional downsides.
There is no doubt that the Stiletto is a really cool satellite receiver. Its interface, while not as intuitive as the iPod, is about as close as you can get. Some serious (pun intended) thought went into the hardware and software design on this unit and the graphics are top-notch.
Using the Stiletto in a car or home (with the home or car kits) is a dream. The sound is great and it works just like a satellite radio should.
It also works well over an 802.11b WiFi network, even connecting to a WEP-protected wireless router. On the downside, Sirius really should have included 802.11g so that the Stiletto doesn't bring down the speed of the rest of the network (in case you don't know, if you have a 802.11g network and put a 802.11b device onto it, everything else on the network slows down to 802.11b speeds). Some people have complained that you have to spend more ($1.99 per month) for higher quality internet audio. What bothered me the most is the fact that only some of the channels are available via internet radio.
Where the Stiletto really falls flat on its face is as a portable radio. I'm a cyclist and so I purchased it to use on my daily training rides. I took it yesterday on a short 25-mile ride and was extremely disappointed with its performance. I was able to receive a consistent signal for about 1/4 of the ride, a choppy signal for about 1/4 of the ride, and no signal for 1/2 the ride. I live in the Los Angeles area where there should be plenty of terrestrial repeaters and I was riding in areas where there were no buildings or where the majority of the buildings were single-story homes. Curiously, I had the best reception on some tree-lined streets, but I suspect that's just because I was closer to the repeaters.
Of course, for the best portable reception Sirius will tell you to use the included antenna headphones. Who are they kidding? Not only do these things
look like something from a bad sci-fi movie, they are also the least comfortable headphones I have ever tried. No wait, let me rephrase that . . . these things must have been designed by Torquemada as some sort of torture device. They will make your head and ears hurt after about 5 seconds.
Oh, and by the way, Sirius must not think that Mac users would want this radio since it only comes with Windows software. Duh!
Bottom line: While I really like the design, features, software and graphics of the Stiletto, I will be heading back to Best Buy to return it and the car kit. Since I can't really use it as a portable radio, I might as well spend WAY less on a StarMate 4. If, however, you don't care about consistent portable reception, you want the best satellite receiver I've seen, AND you want to spend 3-4 times more for it than other devices that can capably be used in your home or car, then this might just be the radio for you.
(5 out of 5)Review the PRODUCT!
I guess some people don't understand that these reviews are for the PRODUCT, not their inability to receive a signal at their location, not the poor shipping they experienced, not the terrible customer service they received, and not the way the FCC crippled the FM transmitters on all these newer devices...
I'm not a fan of Sirius customer service (I've had my share of problems with them), nor am I a fan of their poor product support, but my review is of the Stiletto SL100.... which is great!!!
It's easy to set up, easy to understand (1 week later, and I still haven't referred to the instruction book), and the batteries (2 of them are included) lasted much longer than I expected. The Wi-Fi Internet reception is an outstanding step-up from my old S50.
All-in-all, the SL100 is the best portable satellite radio on the market, for the best satellite radio programming available!
(1 out of 5)Unusable - returned after 1 day
I was waiting for this product to be released for months.. I finally received it, only to be utterly dissapointed. I returned it after owning for less than 24 hours.
On a good note, the construction of the Stilletto is very nice.. it looks good, is small, and is easy to navigate.
The problem is RECEPTION. I live in Boston.. right in the city.. and the thing was useless. I didn'y try it with a home or car dock because I bought it to use as a portable. So with the [completely stupid looking] antenna/headphones, it got no reception. I could never go more than 10 secs without buffering and sound dropping out.
On an even more dissapointing note, the Wifi only works with 802.11B (can someone nominate the person that made that decsision for a Darwin Award?). 802.11B is several years old. My home and work wireless networks both use 802.11G, and the Stilleto will not work with this. It should have been designed to work on both B and G networks.
So.. as far as I am concerned, it is completely unusable for my needs.