Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ICF-SW12S Compact World Band Travel Radio

As I travel a lot and like to listen to world service I was looking for a small portable radio, with a built in alarm clock but which also received short wave. Thats easier said than done as radios seem to have gone out of fashion and everyone seems to sell gadgets with too many features. This radio fitted my requirements perfectly, its lightweight, tiny, folds in 2 so is more resistant to falling on the floor, has a little snooze light so you can check the time in the dark and gets excellent short wave reception. You don't even have to change the time as you tell it the time zone and the time adujsts automatically.

What I really liked is that everything is manual, no annoying electronic features that take you 4 hours reading the manual. The sound quality is also very good for such a small device and certainly sufficent for world service, though probably not for someone who really wants to focus on music. I bought this for a studying holiday in Rome and it really served its purpose of allowing me to listen to the local radio and foreign stations, it now travels with me everywhere. The only negative point I can think of is that the noise of the alarm is very irritating but then perhaps its supposed to be.

This radio / alarm is simple and intuitive to operate, is very small and light for travelling and, being Sony, sounds full and clear (for a tiny speaker).

having had a mini sony world band travel radio for absolutely years (but sadly it couldnt survive further years of hard floors), I was absolutely and completely disappointed to find that the newest model ICF-SW12S no longer turns itslf off after a certain amount of time. I use it most as an aid to sleep. This results in my waking up at any time of the night , having gone to sleep with it playing, to still have it playing. worse still, it will even wake me up itself by still being on. I was relying on what had been one of my most useful gadgets, now I am at a loss to imagine why it has had one of its best features removed - a sore loss.