Bush Walker (BPR07DAB) digital radio

This handheld digital radio is small and lightweight, but lacks a rechargeable battery

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The Bush Walker (BPR07DAB) is a portable DAB+ digital radio. It is one of the first digital radios on the Australia market that can fit in a pocket, and it will suit metropolitan commuters who want to listen to digital radio stations.

Pros

  • Light and compact, easy to use

Cons

  • Questionable build quality, no internal rechargeable battery

Bottom Line

The Bush Walker is a pocket-friendly DAB+ digital radio that's very easy to use and is conveniently sized for commuter. It doesn't have a built-in rechargeable battery though, and we thought it felt a little fragile.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 129.00 (AUD)

The matchbox-sized Bush Walker digital radio has a dual-line LCD screen for displaying information, and a simple set of buttons for playback, preset stations and menu navigation. The radio uses two AAA batteries, but we would have liked to see a built-in lithium-ion battery to cut down on running costs. The Bush Walker can pick up both digital and FM radio stations depending on reception. Since digital radio is currently only available in metropolitan areas of Sydney's major cities, in regional and rural areas the Bush Walker is an expensive FM-only device.

The Bush Walker is easy to use. Once you turn on the device, you can scan for digital radio channels available in your area in under a minute. Flicking through channels is done with the previous/next buttons. Switching from digital to FM is also simple: just hold down the menu button. Due to the small size of the LCD screen the Bush Walker is limited in the information it can display, but the DAB+ hallmarks of station info, artist and track listings are viewable if you can wait for text to scroll across the screen.

The quoted battery life of the Bush Walker is 10 hours, so we'd invest in a couple of sets of rechargeable AAA batteries. When using the bundled earphones (supplied with two pairs of extra silicone sleeves), sound quality was fair but lacked clarity. Using higher-quality headphones like the a-Jays Two earphones improved the situation considerably. Digital radio reception was excellent in our North Sydney Test Centre, as was FM radio reception. However, DAB+ testing in an outer Sydney suburb did uncover signal loss when listening indoors — the Bush Walker's internal aerial will struggle in patchy reception areas where a tabletop digital radio may have more success.

Unlike some other Bush products like the Bush BR20DAB, the build quality of the Walker Handheld radio is not especially impressive, and it has a flimsy-feeling battery cover. We feel that it would not survive if you dropped it more than a few times.

If you want to listen to DAB+ digital radio while you're out of the house, the Bush Walker is a competent product that's easy to use.

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