Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to say, when this radio arrived I was initially excited. Having gone through Irma, and scrambling to find a radio that was battery operated, I was determined to be better prepared for the next time. I saw this radio, and was intrigued. Five-way power, *including* solar?? Shut up and take my money! Well, the reality was like being slapped in the face with a big wet fish. The delivery arrived on time, so it had that going for it. But a sharp curve is coming up, and the disappoints are just around the bend! (Yes, I typed disappoints) Unpacking: Unpacking it revealed a bright yellow radio in bubble wrap. Also in the box, was a smaller box containing a set of cheap ear phones, and micro USB cable. (Wall wart sold separately.) For $50 (okay, $49.99), I would expect a wall plug if the unit is capable. But alas, there were none to be found. (Again, sold separately.) The Top: The top of the unit has a sliding switch to control which light is on in the unit. The reading light, SOS light, or the dial/side flash light. The SOS light is a misnomer, as it actually does not flash an SOS, but continuously flashes a red light on the right side of the unit. While it isn’t that bright, it just might help your rescuers find you in the dark. YMMV, but I wouldn’t depend on it unless I had to. If you need that functionality, actually purchase a rescue beacon. Your life (and rescuers) will thank you. The Front: On the front of the unit you’ll find the name of the product, the speaker output, radio tuning dial, and three rotary switches. The left switch controls which NOAA weather band to tune in to for weather broadcasts, the middle one controls which radio band to tune in to (FM, AM, SW, Weather), and right controls which source to draw power from (Battery, Solar/Crank DC, and NOAA Alert). The power switch does not properly line up with the text on the front, so you can’t tell which source you are using unless you count the clicks as you turn the dial. The tuning display is mounted crooked, which lead me to search for other quality control issues. I was greatly rewarded for my search. The tuning dial is equipped with a light so you can see what you’re tuning into. It can be switched off and on, to help conserve your battery power. Sliding the top switch all the way to the right turned on the dial light, and an LED on the right side of the unit. While the dial was adequately illuminated, the light on the side is dim, and generally a waste of battery power. You can see the light **through** the case of the radio, which leads me to believe that the case itself is thin and flimsy. This is disturbing in a product you may come to depend on in an emergency. I’m already getting goose bumps thinking of what other shortcuts have been taken in the manufacture of this device. The Right Side: The right side of the unit has the LED flash light on the top, the radio tuning knob in the middle, and on the bottom, the volume control knob. When looking directly at the right side of the unit, the volume control binds when turned all the way to the left, but becomes easier to turn as you turn it to the right. The tuning knob is a little hard to turn. While this will help prevent you losing your station if you have to move the radio, it gave me concern about something breaking as I am tuning the radio. The Left Side: On the left side is the hand crank for the dynamo. You unfold it from the radio body, and turn (or crank) it to charge the battery. This gives you the ability to use it without any AC power. The hand crank seems “flimsy”, for lack of a better word. You definitely want to go slow and easy on this, as it seems to be held in place by two plastic pins where the handle meets the dynamo. Breaking these pins or breaking the crank will ensure that you spend more time than you thought you would charging the radio. The Back: On the back is the battery door. Opening the battery door revealed a battery pack in its own compartment, with a connector on the end. You connect this into the provided jack to provide power to the radio. The battery pack is 600 maH 3.6v and is NiMH. Also in this compartment is room to install three AA batteries. The battery door is permanently attached to the radio, so you don’t have to worry about losing it. Above the compartment is the fold out solar panel. This is to charge the battery when you don’t want to use the crank. Even the manual states that using the solar panel to charge the battery will charge it slowly. This was my WTF moment. It’s like they added the solar panel just so they can say that it’s equipped with such, but don’t actually expect you to use it. On the other side of the fold out solar panel are located the reading lights. These may be good for a quick look, but there are better options in regard to illumination. To the right of the compartment is a “protective” rubber flap. Under this flap, you’ll find the earphone jack, a micro USB jack (great for charging from an external battery pack, like you would an Android phone), the AC power supply jack (adapter sold separately), and the USB jack. There is also a micro switch to turn on/off power to the USB jack. The USB jack is not reinforced by the surrounding case of the radio, so this can be moved from side to side, up and down. This seems like a great oversight, as anyone with gorilla hands (even non-gorilla hands, just takes more effort) can seriously damage this from normal use. You’re counting on how securely it is attached to the circuit board underneath (Didn’t open the unit, some things are like sausage. You’re better off not knowing how they’re made). There’s a reason why there are no pictures of what’s behind the flap. Now you know. TLDR The designers of this radio did not make this overly complicated. There is quite a lot of functionality built into this. The design and placement of things seems to be very well thought out. A quick overview of the radio manual will tell you everything you need to know to operate it affectively. The execution of the design is another matter. If I paid $20 for this, I would accept it. Truth be told, I would expect it. The radio is very cheaply constructed. You do **not** want to depend on this in an emergency. Things will be going on around you, and your adrenalin will be pumping. The last thing you need is a device you have to treat with kid gloves for fear of breaking it, and making it inoperable.