Pure Siesta Flow DAB radio review

All singing, all dancing?

9 December 2009 9:00 GMT / By Chris Brennan

The Siesta Flow is a bedside radio alarm clock with DAB digital radio, internet radio and wireless connectivity built-in, it even has FM too. At around £99 it's on the pricey side for an alarm clock radio, but there are plenty of features included in that price. As with lots of new products recently the radio comes with a touchscreen interface. 

Through the Siesta Flow's touchscreen interface you can log on to the Pure Lounge which lets you sort and organise all your favourite online content quickly. All you have to do is register your radio to use Pure's online service.

Essentially The Lounge is an online tool for organising your favourite stations, Podcasts and other content. It allows you to search by station, language, country, genre or quality. If you've got more than one Pure radio you can manage multiple radios too. You can also use The Lounge service to listen to your favourite radio stations online. It's a nice extra and if you listen to a lot of radio over a number of stations it's a great way to manage your content.

There are 30 DAB memory slots and 10 FM positions on the Siesta Flow. It automatically updates its firmware itself when connected to the Internet too. In addition, there are 4 different alarm settings and should you need a different alarm every day, you can utilise one of the 365 alarm sounds available online. 

The radio itself looks much like any other alarm clock radio you've ever seen. The buttons along to the top of the Siesta Flow are decent and, importantly, the snooze button is by far the largest one.

The touchscreen is another story. We found it to be frustratingly slow and unresponsive; it's really not conducive to a pleasant radio experience. Entering a Wi-Fi password was a real chore and navigating the hundreds of Internet radio stations, podcasts and listen again options just too fiddly.

The audio is fine, but nothing special it's unlikely make you sit up to admire the sonic quality, but then it's not so bad that you have to turn it off instantly. However, most people probably aren't looking for spectacular audio from their alarm clock and by this measure the Flow is more than adequate. Build quality is good and though the screen is fiddly to use it it's bright and clear. 



Verdict

The Pure Lounge is a great way of organising your podcasts and Internet radio and being able to stream music from your PC or Mac is compelling. However, the finicky touchscreen is our major complaint about the Siesta Flow if that were better we'd be much happier to recommend it. As it stands, however it's a little bit too expensive to get our full backing. Especially when there are similarly priced, and cheaper radio alarm clocks that do just as good a job. 

 

Score

3.0
share print story pdf email story

Review Recap

Made by
Pure
Price as reviewed
£99.99
The good
Nice design, Access to The Lounge service included
The bad
Touchscreen is fiddly and unresponsive
Quick verdict
A combined DAB digital and Internet radio that sounds fine, but at £99 it's a touch expensive
Key specs
DAB radio, Optical, Touchscreen
Score
3.0

Recommended articles


Full tags
Audio, Radio, Pure, Pure Siesta Flow, DAB Radios
Loading

Best iPad 2 apps

We detail the best iPad 2 and iPad apps in the app store Which iPad app should you download?

Best new iPad apps

We detail the best iPad apps in the app store for your new Retina Display Which iPad app should you download?

Windows 8

First Look: Windows 8 Consumer Preview reviewed

The new iPad

The new iPad: Everything you need to know

Pocket-lint poll

Q. Does the Samsung Galaxy S III deliver what you hoped for?

Vote YES Vote NO

» LAST TIME
When asked Would you switch from iOS to Android? 54% said yes and 46% said no