Home > Consumer Reviews > Roberts DAB / FM RDS Digital Radio and Remote Control for Ipod

I recently purchased the robi from Roberts and whilst it works fine with my iPod Nano with good DAB reception (in London at least) there is a compatibility problem with the latest iPod Classics (hence the three star rating).

DAB is pretty battery intensive at the best of times. However, when the robi is connected to the iPod Classic and switched to DAB mode, the backlight of the iPod is permanently on. This drains the iPod battery even more and consequently the eight hours of DAB listening time which is stated in the instruction booklet for 5th generation iPods is significantly reduced for iPod Classics.

I have raised this issue with Roberts and I received a prompt but curt response stating that this was a known issue for iPod Classics and there is no solution. I have therefore suggested that this issue is disclosed in the instruction booklet and should perhaps also be mentioned on their website (I note that the FAQ for the robi is currently "under construction").

This is the device I've been waiting for....

So, whats special about it? As a remote, it functions as well as, if not better than the apple marketed item - but to have DAB as well is clincher. Reception for me was crystal clear - i enjoyed listening to test match special on Five Live Xtra - and for me, that was the winning point. No more carrying around a portable digital receiver. The Unit itself is tiny, not much bigger than the apple FM remote. You can recieve DAB stations, FM radio and also control your iPod from this remote.

In short a great item, and worth every penny

With the current versions of iPod Classic and Nano, the backlight on the iPod remains on continually during DAB or FM sessions even if you manually turn it off in iPod settings. Not only does this dramatically reduce the battery life, it can also damage the screen as it has a static "Robi by ROBERTS" text in the centre of the screen which will eventually cause a 'burn' of this image on the screen.

Roberts technical support admitted this is an issue with these iPod versions but have decided not to advertise the fact, rather they simply advise poeple who call them to return it to the supplier and attempt to get your money back. Not very satisfacory.

After the huge disappointment of trying, and failing, to get any decent reception using the Apple radio/remote, I was pleased when I found out Roberts had brought out a DAB alternative.

The device plugs into the ipod and the supplied headphones then plug into the remote. When you plug in the remote the ipod immediately detects it and displays the Robi logo on its LCD. You can then set the remote to scan all the DAB radio stations it can find and store them in your favourites list, allowing you to flick between your favourite channels at a flick of a button on the remote. The remote itself also has an LCD screen that displays what radio station you are listening to.

The remote also has a Mode button that allows you to change between the DAB radio, FM radio (I don't bother using this as DAB reception is so much better), and Remote. The Remote mode allows you to control your ipod's music in the normal way, supporting play/pause, skip, and fast forward/rewind. You can also switch the ipod off and on by pressing the play button down for 2 seconds.

But the most important aspect of this device is the radio reception, which I can report is excellent and vastly superior to the Apple radio/remote. It detects many DAB stations and reception is generally very clear and reliable, though occasionally the channel will 'drop out' whereby reception is momentarily lost, but this doesn't happen often. The remote uses the headphone wire as its aerial and Roberts recommend using the supplied headphones for best reception, but I tried using my own ipod headphones and found reception to be just as good. So if you prefer to use your own headphones and not the Robi ones then this should not be a problem.

The device is not perfect and has a few quirks. For instance, although you can use the remote to switch the ipod on, occasionally this refuses to work and you have to switch the ipod on from the ipod itself. Also, sometimes the remote will lock up completely, causing the radio to stop working and the only way to get it working again is to unplug it from the ipod and reconnect it. The remote also occasionally switches on the ipod at random moments, which is annoying when you've switched the ipod off then find later the remote has turned it back on again, wasting a lot of the battery. But I must stress that these issues happen quite rarely and generally the Robi remote works flawlessly most of the time. I can also report that the issue where the remote keeps switching on the ipod backlight has also now been resolved.

This is without the doubt the best radio for the ipod and is an excellent complementary device for any ipod. The radio reception is excellent, as a remote it does everything the Apple remote does, but with the addition of a handy LCD, and it looks very stylish as well, I definitely recommend it.

To any reading these reviews - there was a compatibility problem between the Robi and the Apple iPod Classic and 3G Nano models which appeared when Apple released version 1.1 of the iPod software for these models. Version 1.1.1 did not solve this. Version 1.1.2 released on 30th April 2008 does solve this, and the Robi now no longer turns off after two minutes. Thanks Apple! I can now listen for hours at at time. One minor new problem replaces that old one. If Robi is in DAB or FM mode and you use Robi to switch off your iPod, then you will generally need to use the iPod controls to switch back on again, and it may require a couple of On-Off cycles. No such problem if you switch off with Robi in Remote Control mode.