Pure Move Portable DAB Radio Review
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Pure Move, portable DAB and FM radio.
UK price: £79.95.
Pros: Portable digital radio at last…
Cons: ...It's not quite as good as static sets.
Verdict: I'll still be taking this on my travels.
Rating: 
Available from: Amazon
Product Review
Digital radio is brilliant, right? I was converted to the better sound, stronger tuning and more interesting array of station years ago. I have DAB sets all over my house now - including the shower.
But DAB seems to have taken ages to get mobile. One of the problems is that it is very power hungry and previous attempted portable DAB radios needed huge heavy batteries. The sound quality also justifies bigger heavier speakers than a normal little FM radio. And they still seem to be struggling to make DAB radios work properly in cars. I've not tried a car transmitter system yet that works well. You know it'll happen soon but I wish they'd get on with it.
So is this the first decent portable radio with DAB for travellers? Previous ones I've tested either had no speaker, just headphones which also acted as the aerial, or a battery big enough to power a lawnmower.
But this new DAB radio is promising - it's from one of the leading manufacturers of the DAB revolution - Pure.
The hardware is a neat little unit that will fit in a jacket pocket or bag. It measures 15x8x2.5cm - not quite the 'palm size' they boast, unless you are a gorilla or Premiership goalkeeper. And to make it work you have to pull out the aerial which adds 40cm of course. It weighs 300g, enough to pull your jacket out of shape. But it's a nice design with rugged black rubberised back and sides.
Best of all the Pure Move portable radio seems to have cracked the battery problem. This one is a normal size and weight yet has a life approaching 40 hours before needing recharge with the mains cable supplied.
If you use it with headphones or a portable speaker system like Edifier (also reviewed on Kitmaster) you don't need to extend the aerial - the cable does the job for you. I found it works even better like this. Weird. You can even use the Pure Move as a DAB tuner and plug it into your stereo. But that would be rather daft as the whole point is that it is portable radio.
Anyway, the Move has simple controls including a lock switch to keep you stuck on the station of your choice, an orange digital display that includes track names and a clock, and a very simple EQ tone control. An integral stand folds out to help the Move stay upright at a relaxed 70-degree slouch.
The speaker is a bit small and tinny so you might get the tuning clarity of a DAB radio but not the full sound quality. To get top quality sound use headphones or plug into a portable speaker system like the excellent Edifier that I review elsewhere on the Kitmaster.
The Pure Move also offers FM if you are in areas of the world without DAB (there are still plenty of those).
There's a headphone/line-out socket, 20 presets (10 DAB/10 FM), mini USB socket (for downloading any future product upgrades), and a line-in socket, though I can't see why you'd want to put anything else through the Move's puny speaker. Maybe you could use it for an mp3-player with no speaker I suppose.
By the way, you know you are supposed to get dozens of special new stations on digital. I get about 50 on my home-based radios. This one only picked up 27 stations though… at least I got Planet Rock, BBC Radio 6 and Absolute.
Also read The Kitmaster's review of the Roberts Solar Powered Portable DAB Radio.
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