Pure One Elite digital radio

The Pure One Elite is a digital radio with a neo-retro design and a very reasonable price tag.

The Pure One Elite digital radio's small size makes it an ideal travel companion — taking six C-cell batteries, the Pure One Elite has a play time of around 70 hours. A rechargeable battery pack can also be purchased. The body of the radio has a smooth, rubberised finish. While this feels nice to touch, you'd better only handle it with clean hands as the rubber has a porous texture and will absorb grease and grime.

Located on the front of the device is a plethora of buttons surrounding a navigatio wheel, which also doubles as a selection button. On top sits the obligatory telescopic aerial — we didn’t need to extend it when tuning in to DAB+ digital radio, but FM stations benefit from its extension. On the right side of the Pure One Elite you can find a headphone jack, an auxiliary audio input port for connecting an MP3 player and a USB port for connecting to a PC and updating the firmware.

While the Pure One Elite isn’t going to set the world on fire with magical mind-blowing new features, but its ReVu function is a great plus. Using this function, the radio stores audio within a 15 minute buffer for either rewinding or fast-forwarding (after you rewind), so you can re-listen to a song or pause it while you answer the phone. The Pure One Elite offers a generous 50 station presets — 25 for FM and 25 for DAB+.

A 3-line, backlit LCD shows information such as volume, time, station ID and 'now playing' information. The screen is easy to read and has a bright backlight, but unfortunately you can only turn the backlight on or off; there are no settings adjust its brightness.

Audio quality is good but not excellent. The Pure One Elite uses two full-range, 3in speakers that can handle high volumes with ease. Like the Pure One Classic and the Pure EVOKE Flow, bass and treble both perform well and can be adjusted using an equaliser. Mid-range sound is also reasonably good although at higher volumes it begins to lose clarity. The Pure One Elite would be best suited to a small room or kitchen, as it performs best at low to moderate volume levels.

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