Digital Radio goes SMALL – BUSH “Walker”

I’m assuming the people at BUSH knew the play on words they were hitting when they named this new mini DAB+ radio the “Walker” – Good fun I say..

This has to be the fastest review I’ve ever written.  I received this at 10.15am, and am writing this at 10.40am.  That’s more an indication of how amazing this unit is than anything else.

The only thing I can’t write yet (but will add later as an update) is the Battery life, the people at BUSH are confident in 8hours + with Alkaline batteries which is better than i’d have hoped to be honest (the official chart shows 10hours)

UPDATE: I got just over 11 hours of continual play from the standard batteries that came with the unit.  SBS Chill tuned and playing continuously.

For my full thoughts, read on…So, it weigh’s just 48grams – it’s hard to notice it’s in your hand let alone your pocket.

At just 7cm x 4.5cm and a little over 2cm thick, this really is tiny.

For the user, it is simplicity re-defined.  One problem is the Centre Button (unlike the image above) has no image on it, and it is actually the POWER and MUTE button.

Once I looked that up, added the 2 AAA batteries, and pressed the centre button.  On it came, and it scanned and found the 42 Digital Radio Stations in Sydney.

Don’t forget – the earphones are your antenna – so without them you’ll see no signal (which isn’t an issue because with no in-built speaker you won’t hear anything even if there was signal!).

Now here’s the best part, and I’ve seen this on one other model about to hit the market (more on that soon) – to TUNE to a different station – you just click the left or right shuffle,  and it not only shows the station name, but tunes to that station.    I cannot – for the life of me – work out why Digital radio’s seem to all want to make you choose THEN select your station.  This is logical and will be real hit feature which clock and other DAB+ radio’s should adopt.

The little HEART is your favourite station helper.  Press and HOLD to give the station you are listening to a TICK – it becomes a favourite.  Do this with one or more stations and then, while listening to a favourite, just press the Heart – and when scanning left and right through stations, you’ll only be tuned to your favourites.  So easy to use and a much needed feature on a portable (let alone any) radio with over 40 stations already in the market and more coming.

Volume is up and down on the main toggles, and mute is a quick press of the centre button.  Volume goes up to “24” on tis own scale, and isn’t going to set your ears on fire.

Audio quality through the supplied headphones isn’t the best i’ve ever heard, but really, for a portable radio, out in the garden, or on the walk or commute to work, it’s just fine.

At $129 today, and frankly, likely to be at $100 by Christmas I’d like to bet, this is one of the best value DAB+ radio’s available.