Roberts Revival Petite Black Digital Radio
Roberts Revival Petite Black Digital Radio
| Dimensions: | 7.6 x 12.4 x 7.3 cm; 720 Grams |
| Model: | REV-PETITEBK |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Roberts |
| Dimensions: | 7.6 x 12.4 x 7.3 cm; 720 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
What a lovely little radio it sounds so much bigger than it is
Well made a good sound, purchased 2 one for a prese
I would have given it 5 stars if it had a socket for earphones.
Brilliant for the kitchen, portable Bluetooth device with a long lasting charge.
Can’t have toast and coffee without it.
Smart and stylish.
I love these radios so much that I now have three of them in different rooms around the house. They can also be paired with a smart device for listening to music and podcasts etc. The sound quality is excellent.
I love this little radio. The sound is loud enough for my poor level of hearing — I can place it close by. It is simple to operate and I can easy change channels via the wheel. I found the supplied wire antenna is sufficient and is not too annoying. The only disappointment is that to use Bluetooth I would need to purchase a separate Bluetooth transmitter.
I use the radio and speaker whilst away and it’s been an excellent travel companion. The sound is great for its size and the battery life is proving excellent. The layout as others have mentioned is really odd with what should be the natural volume dial being for station changing which feels very counter intuitive but apart from that it’s highly recommended
Very small, exactly what I was looking for for my kitchen. Amazingly good and clear sound and great colour range.
The only drawback to this Radio is that unfortunately you can’t use any kind of headphones with it! Otherwise everything else is excellent – sound quality, ease of tuning, portability & colour (I purchased the Blue one).
This is just a great little radio. Easy to use, simple to tune and with crystal clear sound – far louder than you’d expect. Works like a treat on DAB, FM and on bluetooth. Added to this, it is simply a beautifully designed item. Highly recommended.
Nice little good sounding radio but didn’t realise you can’t replace the battery
It really looks and feels great. A lovely smaller than expected size and a good build quality
– It has a 0 – 15 scale for the volume, and I have found the speaker sounds like it is clipping at the higher levels
– Sound quality below 14-15 is great
– It is not rated water resistant
– The DAB and FM Reception is more or less useless in a city without the aerial plugged and not amazing plugged in
– Included aerial is 3.5mm wire rather than a metal freestanding one
– Uses Micro USB for charging
It has an optional purchasable soft pouch from Roberts, but I can’t imagine this offers much protection.
There are third party metal aerials with mixed reviews for this radio.
It is not water resistant on any level which means it’s really not the best risk-free on the go radio.
The max volume isn’t particularly loud and not the most helpful when sound distorts so heavily.
This makes the radio sadly quite niche. It’s not the best at being a radio and isn’t the best at being a speaker. It’s not that useful outside of the house if you worry about it getting wet.
Marshall produce speakers that look equally retro which are water resistant and louder with comparable sound quality, use USB C and have a comparable battery life.
The JBL Tuner 2 is water resistant and more durable, has a better antennae built in, is louder, better reception, cheaper, uses USB C to charge unlike the Petite’s Micro USB, but has a lower battery life and doesn’t sound quite as nice.
So who is this for? Somebody who doesn’t mind taking it out with minimal protection or is just going to use it around the house, and is willing to get a better antennae. Which is a shame, as this is a really nice radio.
Was wondering if I was going to be disappointed with the sound quality given the size of the product.
Pleasantly surprised when taking item out of box at the sturdy feeling and weight.
Very impressed at the volume and depth of sound for such a little piece of kit.
So far my reception has been amazing with the little wire aerial and after charging, whilst I listened to it, am now enjoying the 20 hours before needing to recharge.
It’s a 5 out of 5 for me.
You can’t go wrong with this – really nice sound, bluetooth + DAB, and hardly takes up any space. It’s on in our kitchen pretty much constantly. Not the loudest given the size, but unless you’re planning on this being your main speaker at house parties you’ll be fine for kitchen disco.
One teeny tiny complaint is that the dial really seems like it should control volume but it only does tuning, which to me seems less intuitive. But this gets 5* regardless.
One gripe which stops it getting 5 stars – the supplied aerial is a flimsy piece of wire so is effectively useless and looks incredibly cheap. Horribly cynical piece of cost cutting by Roberts, but there are plenty of aftermarket aerials with 3.5mm sockets on Amazon so we’ve corrected this faux pas.
So my requirements was something with excellent battery life, good sound quality for a medium sized room and would be nice to be able to play podcasts over Bluetooth when I fancy a wallow in the bath.
So as is traditional, I’ll lead with my Pros:
1) I knew it was ‘small’, but I was quite taken aback by how small it actually was. It’s exceptionally cute and feels very well made. Feels like a small pleather brick in your hand.
2) Sounds amazing. Rich, but balanced. That “Bass radiator” isn’t just marketing – sounds way better than the Sony its replaced, despite that having a speaker at least twice the diameter.
3) Battery life is indeed great.
My Cons (not deal-breakers, but every possible annoyance I could think of):
1) As has been mentioned by others, “the controls are wrong”. I’d have liked the wheel click to turn on/off and turning it to adjust the volume (or cycle through pre-sets). Then leave the buttons around it to secondary uses like changing the station, saving pre-sets etc.
Instead volume and power are on the buttons around the dial. I’m never going to use the part of the UI that actually feels nice and tactile.
2) But maybe I’m not the target user, maybe they were targeting the user that likes flicking between their favourite radio stations?
Again – they failed. Spinning the dial does let you choose radio stations, but presents a long list of *all* stations. You can set presets for the stations that you like, but to find them you have to hold (not push) the dial button down, then click again to choose preset option, then scroll through your preset and click to select it. My best guess is that they designed the UI to get people listening as simply as possible (labelled buttons for power & volume, and traditional tuning knob to change station) – but surely presets, along with volume and power should be the quickest things to get to. Feels like this was designed to be given to your aged grandmother who likes the Roberts name, and doesn’t like menus.
Just clicking the button just changes the display info for the station (something you’re surely going to do less often than switching between presets)
3) You need to select bluetooth mode, to connect using bluetooth.
Minor annoyance, but I’m used to a Pure clock radio which when I connect my phone to it, guesses I might want to listen to bluetooth (and when I disconnect, goes back to whatever it was doing before).
The Roberts makes you click to choose a bluetooth input first, and then allows the connection.
i.e. If I’m wallowing in the bath with my phone, and The Archers comes on, I need to click a button on the radio to play a podcast, and then cycle through the inputs again to get it back to playing the radio afterwards.
4) Radio doesn’t get that loud. 70% volume is perfect for my bathroom – but this isn’t a “large room filling” bluetooth speaker (not that it ever pretended to me).
5) The external aerial is a piece of wire that plugs in on a phono-jack. I don’t need an aerial at all as I’ve got decent DAB reception – but I can’t think of a good reason they didn’t go with a telescoping metal aerial. If I leave the wire attached, it looks a bit messy. If I remove it, I’m worried I’m going to lose it. Would have much prefered to just have a metal aerial tidily tucked and attached on the back, which I could extend many years later if I need to.
6) Micro-USB recharge socket and it takes 6 hours to recharge. USB-C could have been faster and is what anything I’ve bought recently uses.
7) Doesn’t have any sound output, apart from the speaker (can’t listen on BT earbuds or plug it into external speakers). It does have an aux-in jack, but I’m bemused as to what this might be used for (unless you’re still rocking a cassette walkman)
8) Can’t get time displayed full-screen (it just sits in little type in the top corner). Would have been a nice option for me as a bathroom radio, as I know what I’m listening to.
9) Text scrolls *very* slowly, and no option to speed this up in settings (surely that wouldn’t have been too hard?)
Please don’t let the far longer list of cons put you off – I gave this 5 stars and love it.
I bought it as it topped a lot of “which portable DAB+ to buy” lists, and it’s rightly there at #1.
But, thought it best to focus on the reasons why this might not be the best radio “for you”.
Cons: tiny display, doesn’t display time immediately after switching on (like some Sony units do), brightness could go a little lower but it’s not a deal breaker.
Love the style, colour options (I went for the blue), low power use, genuinely musical delivery either via FM, DAB or Bluetooth. It’s does have a bass radiator but it is not Bose Soundlink Mini 1 or 2 levels of volume or quality but it’s very balanced and natural all the same. I think I’d prefer the control knob to adjust the volume instead of station scrolling but that’s just personal preference.
The external antenna included is a thin black wire, but you can purchase a non Roberts telescopic one if yo don’t like the wire. Hopefully Roberts will launch their own telescopic one with a stabiliser so it stays put at the required angle.
No regrets, great design and sound. Highly recommended!
A radio that can fit on the palm of your hand, that oozes Robert’s quality. Nothing small about the sound – It delivers a room filling sound. If you want a radio, not a bedside alarm, this is the radio for you. Indoor and outdoor this radio delivers. I use it my office as a background listen or in my garden – it’s 20 hours claimed battery life is more than what I need. The charging cable is a USB. Robert’s warmth and clarity of sound is delivered in spades – won’t disappoint traditional Robert’s fans. For big bass thumping sound – this is not the radio but for you but a warm balanced sound where treble is not to peaky and bass just enough One quirk, what looks like a volume button and makes this radio interesting and different from other radios. For streaming, the Bluetooth pairing offers that possibility. This has all the makings of future Robert’s classic. A perfect little gem – without too many bells and whistles – which delivers what a radio should be – great sound.
Had purchased another 2 DAB radios both of which had promised the world! Both sent back, first one couldn’t program favourites and second one looked great on line but when delivered I couldn’t get it in the door. Didn’t particularly want to spend circa 100 but as an avid radio listener and long time luddite. Love the compactness, love the sound and colour. Reason for not 5 stars is the aerial is a loose wire which dangles wistfully in the wind. However another bonus is the recharge, so no batteries, just need to remember where I put the charging cable!
However, if you want to use headphones with the radio, you will not be able to. Wired or wireless ones
And the main problem is the antenna?.?? Considering its a ‘Roberts’ radio I expected a metal antenna rather than that black snakey looking one that is flopping around, so you will need to get a metal antenna, which from Amazon is only 7.99 pounds, so this radio will cost you 106 pounds rather than 98.99, if you do want to use the radio then you will need the metal antenna regardless to get the best use. Other than that, it is beautiful, is it worth it? Yes, considering how long it will last, accessibility and portability with its amazing sound! But, antenna
This sounds shockingly good for a small radio – but do not think it’s pocket size. From the front it is, but it’s very thick.
The reception is good – but if you need a bit extra, the easy to lose and ugly wire external antenna will disappoint. It’s also not much better than the built-in antenna in my area.
The sound is warm and gentle – nice for a background music in a quiet room. Better than the pocket radio I bought and well-suited to the intended audience looking something with a vintage feel.
There are a couple anachronisms in the design that detract from it – and I’m not referring to the fact it’s DAB+ and Bluetooth. Those are technical features to make a vintage design useful in the modern world. I’m referring to design anachronisms.
First, and most visible most of the time is the monochrome OLED display. This is a relatively modern display tech and feels very cold. While for DAB a display is clearly essential, the other pocket radio I bought has an amber-backlit monochrome LCD display. Still 1980s-esque, and an anachronism for the radio’s design, but not nearly so harsh and obvious as the OLED display.
Second is the blue LED for Bluetooth. Monochromatic blue LEDs are modern, cold, harsh and go against the rest of the design aesthetic. A warm white LED with a blue filter over it would look much more like a classic indicator lamp and allow “blue” to be portrayed with a much warmer feeling.
Oh, and one usability thing – a back button would be nice 🙂
It sounds amazing in the van and also in my office (although I hadn’t planned to use it there). It’s so much better than I’d have imagined for such a small thing and gives a nice sound even in a fairly large room. I’m delighted with it.
Some reviews have complained about the aerial wire, but I find that it works really well – I’ve used a bit of washi tape to stick it onto the window frame (can be easily moved) and it gets a great DAB signal.
I gave 5 stars for the sound quality – not because it’s the best sound in the world, but because, in relation to its size I think it does an amazing job and sounds rich and clear. Even though there are many cheaper options, the balance of sound, style, size and battery life makes this the perfect combination for me.
the FM stations in the Boston area all come in with a strong signal and very clear. I did however upgrade the antenna from the wire that is included to a small telescopic antenna which plugs directly into the antenna’s 3.5 mm jack on the back. There’s plenty of compact antenna’s for sale on Amazon. It’s a lot more convenient to use instead of the wire and the reception is just as good. The Bluetooth function performs very well. one thing to note is that it has 5.0 version which is the latest Bluetooth codec standard. I tested it using my high definition music player which also supports Bluetooth 5.0 Hi-Res and the sound quality was exceptionally clear and crisp with decent amounts of warm bass from the built-in radiator. The radio works exceptionally well in a corner to enhance the bass. The one feature that is missing from this unit is a headphone jack or Line out Jack to stream music to an external larger or stereo. This radio is built very well and looks like it could take abuse from daily use for a long time. I’ve had the petite for a week now and have used it on and off a few hours every day and the battery life is very good I only had to charge it once when I first got it. I also have a Roberts revival istream3 that is the big brother to this little radio and I have been enjoying for the past three years as well. Roberts radios are known for their warm sound signature and the petite does not disappoint in that department. Just buy it you won’t regret it.