Sony XDR-P1DBP Pocket DAB/DAB+ Radio - Black

I purchased a Sony XDR-P1DBP DAB/FM radio from Amazon following positive reviews on the Amazon site and on review sites. I was looking for a small, portable radio with the latest DAB features which was well designed and small, to complement a DAB radio I already own which lives in the bathroom. The XDR comes in a surprisingly small package, most of which is the multi-language handbooks Sony's products ship with - which went straight in the recycling bin. The radio took up less than half of the packaging which seems a bit of a waste when it comes to shipping around the world. It comes with a micro-USB lead but no charger - not an issue for me as I seem to have hundreds of them, but some people might not have one - however it will charge from a computer USB socket. The radio is tiny - smaller than I expected but with typical Sony design style and simplicity. Once powered up it automatically started scanning for DAB stations and within 45 seconds was playing the first station. The sound is surprisingly loud, clear and with an amount of bass I wasn't expecting from such a small unit. Reception is not as good as my other DAB radio, I experience the occasional "burble" where my Pure DAB radio is rock-solid. This unit provides DAB+ reception which will be used for some stations on the new national multiplex, plus is widely used in Europe - useful for holidays. The screen is clear but just as unattractive as most DAB radios with quite blocky text. Operation is very simple, apart from when saving favourite stations - there is some confusion as there are three favourite buttons on top numbered 1-3, plus another ten favourites hidden away via menus numbered 1-10. I thought I was programming the top buttons when in fact I was programming the "hidden" favourites - I should have read the manual first! Battery life seems good though I've not needed to charge it much yet. It has a (presumably small) internal lithium battery which cannot be replaced, which could be an issue once the unit is a few years old. In all - it's an excellent radio, especially if you travel a lot thanks to its small size but powerful sound. Reception could be better, but with the ariel extended fully (to a size bigger than the radio) it improves a lot. At £60 it's very good value for money.

This is an excellent little device, and the issues mentioned below are all minor in my opinion. Pros * Big sound for such a small device; it's a richer sound than I'd expect from such a small speaker * Long battery life, and recharges quickly * With the telescopic aerial, I can get better reception than my previous Pure Move 2500 * Build quality is excellent, and seems to be much better than my previous Pure Move 2500 * 'Favourite buttons' is a really nice feature. I like that they automatically set to the stations you listen to most (and can be manually set too). It took me a little while to figure out that these were separate to the presets, and that they were for both DAB and FM. * Auto tune is speedy (I'm assuming it does a full band III scan) * Looks great. It's a mix of classic Sony design, with modern aesthetics. Cons * When using the headphones as an aerial, sensitivity does not seem to be quite as good as my previous Pure Move 2500; but as it's broken I can't do comparisons, so I'm only going by memory. From previous hotspots when walking, I seem to recall my Pure Move 2500 performed better. Without investigating reception in the areas I use this, and having my old receiver for comparison, I decided I can't knock off a star really. * If the scrolling text being broadcast changes before the previous message has had a chance to finish scrolling, then you will not see all of the message (even if it's still in the first iteration). Also, unlike other receivers I have used, the scrolling text does not pause when it reaches the end; so you do not get much of a chance to take in the last letters. Another issue is that occasionally the last letter may be chopped off (this doesn't always happen due to character width and message length being variable). As most people don't particularly care about (or use) the scrolling text service, this is a minor issue. Funnily enough, my old Sony DAB had a similar problem. C'mon Sony: write a better scrolling text algorithm please! It's not a big problem, but I feel that a lack of thought/testing has gone into this feature. * I have accidentally flicked the hold switch when putting the radio in my pocket. Either moving the switch location, or using an extended button press would solve this. Very minor issue. * When pressing the preset button, you can sometimes accidentally push it downwards/upwards and activate the full station list instead. Slightly frustrating at first, but then you get used to it, so not a huge problem. Nice-to-haves (ultra-picky stuff that mainly comes down to personal preference) * It would have been nice to have an auxiliary in: as this has such a powerful speaker, it would have been great for hooking up your phone or other device when on the move. To save space, the headphone socket could have even doubled up as an auxiliary in. * A display mode with vertically scrolling text would have been quite nice; perhaps with the display mode changing after a time out (which my Pure Evoke Flow does) * It would be nice if auto tune did not wipe multiplexes that were previously picked up. For example, if you did an auto tune when RF conditions were particularly poor, you may lose a multiplex that you can sometimes pick up. This is by design, so I haven't mentioned it as a con. I prefer how Pure devices handle this (with a marker to show stations that were not available in the last tune, and an option to trim stations). I haven't had a chance to try already saved presets/favourites, for stations in multiplexes that were not picked up in the last auto tune, but it would be interesting to see how that works. * It would have been nice to have a way to see how much time is left on the sleep timer

This is my perfect radio. My brilliant Roberts Sports DAB finally gave up on me after years of nightly use and many trips away. As this is an item that gets a lot of use I did more than the usual amount of research over and above Amazon and all the positives I found supported the positive Amazon Reviews. Whilst the Roberts was "portrait" the Sony is about the same size but in "landscape". It is solidly built and feels like a good product - but then it is Sony and having used their audio visual equipment and laptops in the past this is only to be expected. I love the fact that the ambient display light goes off after a few seconds (the Roberts didn't) as I am often listening in the early hours. Add to this a sleep feature that provides options of 30mins, 45mins, etc. for an automatic switch off and you have the perfect bedside radio. It has three preset buttons on the top of the radio and easily found sound level controls on the side. It also has a small fold out stand on the rear that provides additional stability - that level of small detail deserves praise. So simple to set up - it does it itself really. Sound quality is better than the Roberts but that radio was about 7 years old. It would have been nice if Sony had supplied a case for the radio to travel in but that was easily rectified. One perfect small radio.

The Sony XDR-P1 is an excellent little DAB radio. There are definitely cheaper alternatives out there even by Sony (such as the S40/S41) but the P1 has the smallest form factor and an excellent build quality. Despite the small size, the built-in speaker is remarkably loud and without distortion, and easily loud enough to fill a room if desired. It is of course only a mono speaker, but a lot of DAB stations are only broadcast in mono anyway. Using headphones will give a stereo output if the station supports it. The built in aerial is quite good, I can generally get good reception on FM or DAB even with it folded away (or only partly extended). If listening through headphones, the headphone wire is used as an antenna and this seems to work fine too. The menus are easy to navigate and contain all the features and settings you could expect, including the ability to set presets (and assign 3 favourites to the buttons on top). The only flaw I've found with this radio is that occasionally whilst off it will fail to turn back on with the power switch. To everyone who says the switch is 'broken', I suspect they likely have the same problem and it is easily fixed by pressing the small 'reset' button on the underside with a paperclip or pin. The presets and settings are still retained and so far this has always managed to fix the problem for me so it was not serious enough for me to return, but still a minor annoyance so minus one star for that.

UPDATE at six months: still love this to death after six months' use. In fact, I love it so much, I just bought another one, this time in black. But now I'm thinking maybe I really need more of them dotted around the house so I can get rid of my old DAB radios that seem like clunky dinosaurs compared to this slick little beast. ORIGINAL REVIEW:This radio is ridiculously small and light, even compared to other small radios I have. And yet Sony has crammed in more useful controls and a better display than most radios four times the size. It’s outstandingly nice to use, beautifully made, and sounds good for its size. It even has a set of truly clear instructions. What’s not to like? Perhaps only the price, but the more you use it, the more acceptable the price seems. I really like the three instant-access favourite-station buttons on the top panel. Setting them is virtually instant too, though I wish the smooth buttons were easier to distinguish by touch. Setting presets with the silver ‘jog’ lever is easy and a pleasure. Tuning FM stations and setting them as presets is almost as easy as with DAB. The big display shows several lines at once so you can navigate the list of stations better. It has space to show lots of info simultaneously, like the time, the station and programme descriptions. It even tells you which multiplex you're tuned to, not that you really need to know. It's a clear display, though the orange backlight tends to cut out before the programme info has finished scrolling, and with the backlight off, it's harder to see, though if you press the ‘Back’ button, the display lights up without changing any settings. The delicate seven-segment aerial extends so high that you'll be glad of the neat fold-out stabilising ‘foot’. For most stations (DAB+ stations are the exceptions) one segment seems to be enough though, and it even works fine with it folded flat sometimes. When you use the radio with headphones (or connect it to an external speaker with a cable), the Sony uses the headphone cable as the aerial instead of the extending aerial, so reception may be compromised. Battery life seems well up to the claim if not a bit better. The radio beeps a warning when the battery is about to run out. The sound is very good for the size of speaker but better for speech than music. Listen to Radio 4 and it can sound uncannily clean, clear and crisp. The human voice sounds remarkably realistic. Simpler music sounds quite nice too. But heavy rock or classical symphonies reveal the limitations of a tiny speaker, and the more you increase the volume beyond just over half way, the harsher and harder it sounds. If I listened to music mostly and didn't want such a small radio, I'd probably go for one with a bigger speaker. But for Radio 4, it's great. Easy to see why this radio gets so many five star reviews.

There are dozens of good reviews here and elsewhere but this radio is even better than I expected. Even in a poor reception area, stations are clearly received in mono on both FM and on DAB. There are a few shortcomings of course. STEREO If you use headphones, it automatically switches to stereo which is not quite so praiseworthy. In a poor signal area the signal breaks down far more but you can't turn it to mono to get rid of the problem. In a good reception area the 'hifi' quality via headphones is perfectly acceptable on FM; surprisingly good actually BUT it is severely volume limited to comply with Euro reg. IP/09/1364 so it probably won't go a loud as you want with good quality headphones. It is nothing like as good 'hifi' on DAB as the audio quality is plenty good enough to reveal the inherent shortcomings of DAB transmissions. Anyone with decent hearing will switch back to FM to get the subtlety that our awful DAB system destroys. You can't blame the radio for that of course and the Sony is DAB+ ready so if and when we get a decent digital service in the UK, the radio is ready for it. Because it is DAB+ ready, it should also pick up digital radio when in other countries. I have not tried that yet. Highly recommended for talk radio but not really suitable for music via its 1.5" speaker nor on headphones with DAB. Until our wonderful FM service gets gets turned off, you can get excellent 'hifi' sound via headphones and FM - as long as you don't want it up loud of course. The ON/OFF switch!!!!! Do be aware that it has an unusual ON/OFF switch that some people have broken. Unfortunately, it is not a normal latching ON/OFF switch. It does different things depending on mode and direction. From the central switch position, marked by a dot, if you move it LEFT, it locks in that position but if you move it RIGHT it springs back to the central position. It takes only a gentle touch to the RIGHT to turn it either ON or OFF. If you slide it to the LEFT it locks either ON or OFF to reduce the chance of inadvertent actuation. If you lock it 'ON' then moving the slide switch back to the central dot 'unlock' position does not stop it playing BUT if you lock it 'OFF' and then unlock it by moving the switch to the central dot position, it turns on straight away without having to move it to the RIGHT as you normally would to turn it on. Thus you have two different ways of turning it ON but only one way of turning it OFF. The logic of that is flawed and is bound to cause confusion. Maybe it has fooled some people into pushing the switch harder than they need to but a gentle touch is all it should need. It would be far better if Sony dispensed with the lock and had a simple, intuitive ON/OFF switch. The favourite's buttons Just three favourites buttons are perhaps all they had room for, so I will forgive that, BUT they are the same texture as the radio and are dead flush with the top of the radio so you can't feel them in the dark. Given that many of us will keep this radio by our bedside, that is a thoughtless bit of design. How about some braille style dots or a slight indentation Mr Sony? Bizarrely, the buttons on the front and side are deliberately tactile even though they are far less likely to be needed in the dark. A few shortcomings but it is still an excellent little radio which will go in my suitcase as often as my toothbrush. P.S. In case anyone scoffs at my use of the term 'hifi', it does actually meet the original 'High Fidelity' specification. Not on DAB of course.

I am delighted with this. It is so incredibly easy to use and the sound is amazing for its size. It is very well made. Every part of it screams quality. The battery lasts a good 20 hours in use. The flick-out stand is robust and very useful. The aerial is really long and strong, so it picks up DAB far better than any other DAB radio I have. The three favourite buttons on the top are great as I tend to listen mainly to 3 stations but of course you can preset many more. It has a Sleep mode too. I particularly love the way it changes station instantly when you press the buttons on the top - no lag whatsoever. It is light enough to carry in a pocket on long dog walks and the speaker is very good as I can't stand earphones and no wi-fi for miles. A couple of reviewers have expressed concern about the slide on/off and hold button. This actually works really well, and given how well-made the radio is, I would relax about this. If you ever have a problem (as a couple of reviewers have) try the reset button at the base, and failing that, contact Amazon, not Sony. I've bought several more of these and have them dotted around the house. All reliable, used every day for over two years and could not be happier with them. Highly recommended.

This is a great little DAB radio: super-tiny; very reasonable sound for its size, particularly for talking, but not too bad for music. Three "favourite" buttons that can be assigned to either DAB or FM, plus 10 DAB and 10 FM presets that need a few more button presses. Intuitive to use, and the integral rechargeable battery will last a long working day, as long as the volume's not on too loud. As other reviewers have mentioned, the power switch is fragile. With this in mind, I treated it very gently (rather than chucking it in my tool box, which my 10 year old "Pure Move" has coped with perfectly, but sadly doesn't receive DAB+ stations) and it's been fine for a couple of weeks... until the wind blew it onto the floor. Fair cop, that sort of thing isn't covered by the warranty. But it's disappointing that the thing that failed is the same thing that's reportedly failed on several other purchaser's radios. In my case, it wasn't that the actual switch came off the circuit board, it was the plastic mount that kept the circuit board in position relative to the plastic switch sheared off, which meant the board moved relative to the lever... and the have to be *exactly* aligned for them to work together. I've sort of bodged a repair, and hopefully I'll be able to nurse it to keep it going. But it is so, so disappointing that there's such a fundamentally weak link in an otherwise really good product. It's possible to make these things more robust, it's just poor design. It's put me off the Sony brand a bit, and if there was a reasonable alternative by another manufacturer then I'd buy it.

Compact, geluid valt tegen

Radio compacta con batería recargable y sonido excelente. Fue un regalo para mi madre y la usa por toda la casa. Asienta perfectamente sobre superficies estables sin necesidad de sacar la "patilla" trasera. Con un uso normal de varias horas al día la batería aguanta perfectamente una semana. La suelo poner a cargar cuando le queda una "rallita", no he llegado a probar cuanto aguanta con una sola "rallita". Muy contento con la compra. Totalmente recomendable como segunda radio para usar por toda la casa. Para tener por ejemplo en la cocina recomiendo mejor una radio algo más grande que podemos tener enchufada constantemente a la corriente, como pueda ser por ejemplo la Sony ICF-M780SL. Esta radio compacta puede parecer algo cara, pero la calidad se paga. En mi caso llevaba tiempo buscando una radio con cierta calidad y bateria de litio para olvidarnos de estar cambiando las pilas cada dos por tres. Esta radio la cargas una vez a la semana con un cargador de móvil y te olvidas. En la caja viene un cable usb, bastante aparatoso. Supuestamente es para evitar interferencias mientras esta cargando. En mi caso la solemos cargar estando apagada, por lo que uso un cable simple de usb y un cargador de movil normal.

Enkele jaren geleden kocht ik de Sony Pocket DAB/DAB+ radio XDR-P1DBP. In eerste instantie functioneerde de radio naar tevredenheid en was ik blij met mijn aankoop. Helaas is de duurzaamheid van de radio erg tegengevallen. Na een paar jaar gebruik is de aan/uit-schakelaar defect geraakt, waardoor ik de radio niet meer kan gebruiken. Een storing die je niet zou mogen verwachten bij een kwalitatief product. Het grootste minpunt is dat de schakelaar niet te repareren of vervangen is, waardoor de radio als verloren moet worden beschouwd. Dit is erg teleurstellend, aangezien je bij een radio van dit prijsniveau een levensduur van minimaal 10 jaar mag verwachten. Helaas is de levensduur in mijn geval dus een stuk korter gebleken. Sony zou beter moeten nadenken over de duurzaamheid en repareerbaarheid van hun producten. Ik kan deze radio vanwege de tegenvallende levensduur dan ook niet van harte aanbevelen.

Dac does not work in UAE and many other countries

La DAB étant déjà présente un peu partout en Belgique (et va continuer à se développer) j'était à la recherche d'un petit poste compact pouvant recevoir la DAB, DAB+ et FM. Mon choix s'est porté sur ce Sony XDR-P1DPB (mais quelle drôle de référence, on dirait presque un numéro de châssis de voiture...) Bonne surprise au déballage, le boîtier est ultra compact et d'excellente facture. Excellentes qualités de réception (sensibilité et sélectivité) et son de qualité exceptionnelle eut égard à la taille minuscule de ce bel objet. Bonne autonomie et rechargeable via usb ! Via la sortie écouteurs on a droit à la stéréo. Ce récepteur est une petite merveille, il m'accompagnera partout. Un gros regret tout de même, pourquoi n'y a t-il pas une fonction réveil ? Il aurait été parfait. Autre (petit) regret, pas d'étui de protection. Je lui donne tout de même 5 étoiles bien méritées. Bravo à Sony