16 August 2007 9:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The Roberts Terrain is a rugged three-band radio with a water and impact resistant casing, but is it any good? We get tough to find out.

When it comes to design, there is no mistaking the Terrain is out there on its own. While it looks very cool, oh and very yellow, we think someone must have missed the meeting where they announced that radios "can" be small enough to fit in your ear.

It's massive.

Bigger than small beer fridge (it measures 250 x 380 x 265mm), the FM, MW and LW radio certainly isn't something you are going to be sneaking in your pocket anytime soon.

Carrying it around is via the heavy-duty carry handle that looks more like a bullbar on a 4x4 and everything is controlled via the two large knobs on the top and the even bigger tuning dial on the front.

Finding radio stations is incredibly easy and the dial is good enough to be able to fine tune into the station you are after.

However before you laugh at its size, it's not all bad.

For starters you get a 160mm diameter loudspeaker that can produce 7 watts of power output. The resulting sound is very good, with good base and treble on all the radio stations we listened to and certainly good enough to blast out your favourite tracks around the garden or the pool.

Failing the radio, you can also plug in an Aux source like your MP3 player, and there is also a mic-in socket for those who want to double up the Terrain as a PA around the pool - "Oi, you no running!".

We aren't sure why, but there is also a headphone socket on the side. It's a standard feature but when you see the size of this thing you won't want to worry about headphones.

Those who like to worry about the possibility of a blackout, are serviced by an in-built LED light. While it doesn't really do much, it does give you that rugged "emergency" feel to the whole experience.

As for power, the Terrain includes a rechargeable battery that is charged either via the in-built 3-pin plug conveniently hidden inside behind a splash proof casing or via a DC-in socket suitable for caravan and boat owners.

Verdict

If you can get past the size of the Roberts Terrain it's a very good radio that will give you plenty of scope for listening in your garden or around the pool.

The tough water resistant makes it ideal for more rougher environments where you know that its going to get knocked about, but if you are looking for something to take travelling this will take up a lot of valueable space.

Score

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Made by

Robe

Price as reviewed

£100

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The good

Rugged, signal strength, sound, Aux and Mic in sockets

The bad

Size, no DAB radio

Quick verdict

If you can get past the size of the Roberts Terrain it's a very good radio that will give you plenty of scope for listening in your garden

Score

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