VQ Retro Mini DAB Radio with Bluetooth, Radio Alarm Clock with FM supportability. Mains and Battery Powered Portable DAB/DAB+ Digital Radio

Bought this radio for a bedroom compact, easy to use, mains or batteries 4xAA and good sound quality to replace an old radio. Previously bought a VQ radio and was impressed with it, its still going after 5 years!!

I bought this as a gift, which is really beautiful but when the gift was opened my the recipient the radio was scratched this is very disappointing as apart from this it’s lovely

I was really looking forward to having this radio. From its functionality and design, as well as all the positive reviews, it seemed like the perfect product and exactly what I was looking for.It was with much anticipation that I unpacked it when it arrived, keen to get it switched on and in use in my kitchen. I couldn't fault the delivery or packaging, as it arrived quickly and was well wrapped in protective packaging inside the box. At first glance after I had unwrapped it, I loved it - the size, the look, the design. It was superbly easy to set up too! So far so good.It was after I had set it up and I was looking at all the other different modes and searching for DAB stations that I found the design flaw. Pressing the buttons on the radio didn't seem to do anything at first, or took long amounts of time to register. So I pressed again, and again, each time waiting what felt like ages for the mode to change, or the station to switch. I thought maybe it was me not pressing the buttons hard enough. I read the instructions to check I was operating it correctly and tried again with firmer presses, but unfortunately I still had the same problem. It was taking ages, sometimes not even registering a button press at all, before changing modes or stations. The only button that was responsive quickly was the volume button. Even turning the radio on and off sometimes resulted in two or three button presses and a few seconds wait before anything happened. I noted that the buttons felt a little cheap and "plasticky", the depress on them is so shallow that at times I wasn't sure if I had pressed it or not. There is only the faintest of "clicking" feelings when the button presses.On top of this, I couldn't get as many DAB stations (I can only get BBC ones) as I wanted. I am new to this DAB radio malarkey, so I wasn't sure if this was due to signal in my area being poor or something to do with the radio. The other disappointment I had with it was the level of volume on the bluetooth function. The Bluetooth function doesn't give as powerful volume as radio, so I have to turn it up quite a few notches on my radio and ensure the volume is at max on my phone or tablet. However overall, it's not bad just for the kitchen.I wasn't sure whether to send the radio back or keep it, as I was so disappointed and frustrated with the button delay and the limited choice of DAB stations. I still really liked the look, functionality and portability of it. In the end I kept it, mostly because I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of return after a couple of weeks and then trying to find something else.I wanted to love this radio and rave about it - I really did. Unfortunately the issue with poor button response lets it down, as does the volume when using it via Bluetooth (but then again I don't know much about how Bluetooth sound works so maybe in the scheme of things it isn't so bad). For the price (I got it on sale for around £45 in January) I think its a little on the expensive side given the issues I think it has, I certainly wouldn't have paid full price for it given the issue with the buttons. It was interesting to note in the reviews that a couple of other people had button issues, so maybe I ended up with a faulty product and should have returned it!

I am writing this review from the perspective of a vision impaired user, which does slant my view of this radio a little.I bought a digital radio last year and struggled with it for all the time I had it. Hoping that this experience would be a better one I did allot of thinking before choosing this model. The first plus of this radio is that their are many colour options to choose from. As I think a radio can easily be considered as a part of the furniture giving those options is a nice touch. As far as build goes, it has a smooth front and back with a leather all around the top, bottom and sides. It is a good table top size with the option to move it around with the handle that is attached. You can either plug it in or use four double A batteries to run the radio. It has a large speaker on the front and a decent sized screen. There are allot of buttons on the front of the radio and I do like the ports at the back, they can come in very handy.Pluses: I think for it's size the Retro mini has a nice room filling sound. It is a little muddy sounding which makes the crisper sounds like spoken "S's" a little muffled but it's still a decent sound. I do tend to prefer a crisper sound but I still think the clarity and the room filling ability of the sound puts it in the pluses section. I like the design and build of the radio, it really does look nice and I have had comments from people saying it looks nice. Once it's set up it's fairly easy to use. The favourite presets aren't difficult to navigate but I think it could have been slightly easier. Drawbacks:I don't like the buttons on the Retro mini. They don't make a click when they are pressed and sometimes I think I have pressed the button but nothing has happened. The layout of the buttons is a bit odd too, they are clumped together and some of the choices of buttons are strange in my view. I would have preferred a sleep button instead of the alarm button. That way you wouldn't have to go into the menus to set the sleep timer. It would have been nice to have physical preset buttons too I think. You can set up to thirty favourites. I am not saying there should have been thirty favourite buttons but perhaps five with a couple more so you could select from the next five favourites.Over all:Is this the perfect radio? I wouldn't say so, the buttons and presets are still a bit of an issue but are easier than my previous radio. Has it solved my problems? To a degree yes and once set up I can use this radio comfortably. The sound is decent and the option to take it out and about is nice. I haven't found my perfect radio but I could do far worse than the Retro mini.Sadly I have to edit this review. This radio ended up being difficult to use. in fact too difficult. So I had to replace it. I regret giving it such a glowing review now. The buttons became a real issue I mentioned that above but they just proved to be more difficult than I first believed. One final thing this radio does which I find odd is that it cuts out from time to time. It only lasts a second but it can be annoying. I have never known any other digital radio to do this.

Great sound