XFM DAB Radio review

XFM DAB radio Review

Reviewed by: Chris Stevens

Reviewed on: 30 September 2005

Setup
Our initial impression of the XFM was thwarted momentarily by utter confusion over how to actually turn the thing on. The power button is enigmatic in that it's not labelled with any conventional power symbol and, at first, looks like it's a record button. It's a small criticism, but it's worth noting that the the power button is on the far right of the transport controls on the top of the radio. Once the radio is powered up, you extend the aerial, plug it in and turn it on. Within a few seconds it autotunes to a selection of DAB stations. If you hold down the preset buttons for a few seconds, they lock to that particular station -- as expected. Tuning in FM stations is more fiddly, but presets are set in the same straightforward way.

Features
One of the better features of the XFM is the LCD screen. It's exceptionally easy to read even from some distance away. Sleepy heads resting on pillows should be able to discern what station is playing without needing to sit up. It's perfect for those tragically hung-over Sunday mornings.

The XFM can record live radio. Although it doesn't make a song and dance about it, the radio is invisibly storing the last 10 minutes of radio you've been listening to. This means that you can nip out of the room to tend to a screaming child or shoo a cat out of the chrysanthemums, and on your return press the replay button to catch up on what you've missed.

If you'd like to keep a recording for posterity, you can store it in the XFM's internal memory, or use a removable SD card to transfer it to a portable medium. Once you've done this, it's possible to play the stored MP3 file back on a home computer equipped with an SD slot.

Playing back recorded radio is relatively straightforward. There are buttons across the top of the radio that will be familiar to anyone who's used a tape recorder. When you're listening to normal radio, these buttons double as station presets -- recalling stations you've assigned to them. If you like to boogie old-school, then FM radio transmissions can also be received on the XFM. Switching bands is fairly intuitive, achieved by navigating a menu system on the LCD.

Performance
Tone on the XFM lacks low-end definition, but otherwise is no worse than most bedside alarm/radio combos and certainly better than some. Because this is so obviously not a device aimed at the audiophile, it's essentially meaningless to level detailed criticism at the clarity of audio it produces. Sure, it has a tendency to overemphasise the shriller frequencies and sound extremely tinny at high volume, but this has been staple behaviour of all-in-one radios since time began. When you're singing along to Will Young, blow-drying your hair, the sonic fidelity of your bedside radio is unlikely to weigh heavily on your mind.

Largely thanks to the big telescopic aerial on the XFM, radio signals are held well. We didn't have significant problems tuning in stations or keeping the radio tuned to them. You may need to retune the radio when changing location, but apart from this, the XFM stays locked to a transmission as tight as a laser-guided missile streaking towards a nuclear facility. If you use the XFM as a portable radio, battery life is entirely dependent on the volume you're listening to music at -- adding the five batteries required contributes a whopping 750g to the overall weight, so we find this feature hard to recommend.

Big fans of XFM will enjoy the station's prominent endorsement of this radio, but others may find it grating that the brand should be slapped so enthusiastically across the speaker grilles. Despite a few usability shortcomings, the XFM DAB is an attractive-looking radio that will certainly appeal to 20-somethings who need a radio to wake them up with a daily dose of saccharine pop. Older listeners or audiophiles, on the other hand, will find the control system on the XFM convoluted and the sound quality underwhelming for focused listening.