Home > Consumer Reviews > Roberts SOLARDAB-W SolarDAB Solar Powered DAB Radio wth Rechargeable Battery Pack - White

The way to get the best out of this radio is to (1) give it a full mains charge as per the instructions, and (2) keep it on a window ledge to keep it topped up. The battery tops up a treat in sunshine whether the radio is on or off, meaning you can pretty much leave it alone once you've done the first full mains charge. There is a handy little indicator which tells you the strength of the sun - not strictly necessary but a nice thought indeed. What it comes down to though is the sound, and this actually has a great output - decent rich bass, good mid-tones and a nice, not overly-done treble - far better in fact than what you might expect from a "novelty" radio. The display is clear and has a nice white backlight. You can also plug in your iPod if you want. Essentially this is Roberts quality through and through, just with slightly different styling. The design by the way I love, there's something childlike about it but to my mind it combines function with enough style to carry it off.

Really nice - and practical - piece of kit from Roberts, and highly recommended.

It's frustrating to see how happy most people are with this radio. It has several fine features but I've had to return two of these SolarDabs before giving up on it because the reception has been so poor. I found the signal was frequently dropping out so that there were short silent spaces in the programmes I was listening to. This was particularly annoying when listening to someone speaking on BBC Radio 4 and I would often lose the end of a sentence.

I followed all the advice given to me by Roberts' technical support line but nothing helped. I'm in a good area for DAB and I have other DAB radios that work fine (including another Roberts), but these SolarDabs gave very poor quality reception. It's puzzling but that's the way it was.

We bought this in January and charged it up for 24 hours as advised. We keep it in on the windowsill of the (south facing) bathroom - we have the radio on for about half an hour each in the morning and evening and occasionally at other times. Our DAB signal is reasonably good, and we have other DAB radios in the house.

POSITIVE points
Have only had to use the mains charger ONCE since its initial charge in Jan.
Sound quality perfectly adequate (we mainly listen to speech radio - BBC 4, 5 & 7).
Relatively easy to select stations, and to change information displayed.
Seems to work fine without aerial (see below...)

NEGATIVE points
The aerial screws in/out which can be a bit awkward, e.g.:-
- if you want to fit the radio in a small place
- if you stand it on one end to allow the solar panel to point more directly to the sun
- easy to mislay the detached aerial (if you forget to put it in its carry slot at the back!)

OVERALL
We are very happy indeed with this radio.

This radio is ace ,excellent reception without the need for replacing batteries,use in garden ,bathroom and picnics.Very compact and portable to take on your travels.Reception good witout fully extending the aerial.I would recommend this radio to all my friends.

Bought this as a previous model I tried (can't remember the make) with a flimsy wire aerial had rubbish reception. I thought the stubby solid aerial would be better.
First few times I tried it, reception was still rubbish (I live in a weak signal area) then suddenly realised the aerial could be extended!!!!! Doh!
Reception now excellent!
Running it outside in the sun and it keeps going for ever. Need to see if the solar panel is good enough to charge the whole battery up.

So far though I'm really happy with it.