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The Bar Hill is a budget-priced DAB clock radio with a dual alarm clock and a USB port for charging your phone. It’s made by British brand Majority, who sell a large range of inexpensive digital radios. Is the Bar Hill a good buy or should you look elsewhere? Find out in this review…
Features
- FM/DAB/DAB+
- Saves 20 preset stations (10 on FM and 10 on DAB/DAB+)
- Dual alarm clock with snooze
- Sleep timer
- Dimmable LCD screen
- Mains or battery powered (4 x AA)
- USB port for charging a phone or other device
- Headphone jack
- Telescopic aerial
Dimensions: 14 cm wide x 14 cm deep x 4 cm high
Performance and use
Learning how to save and recall preset stations can be a bit tricky, like on many DAB radios. However, the instructions manual (available online here) is clearly written and all of the features are explained.
As you’d expect given its small size and low price, the Bar Hill doesn’t have amazing sound quality, but it’s good enough for a clock radio. The sound is quite thin without much bass, but this is standard for radios of this size and price.
The Bar Hill’s compact design and alarm features could make it a good choice for a bedside table. It lets you set two separate alarms, so you could have one alarm for weekdays and another for weekends. You can also dim the screen, which has 4 levels of brightness, so it shouldn’t keep you awake at night.
The alarm clock features a snooze function and lets you wake up to either a buzzer sound or the radio. There’s also a sleep timer so you can listen to the radio while drifting off to sleep. You can set the sleep timer to switch the radio off after 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes.
One downside to this radio is that the display is quite small and can be difficult to read if your eyesight isn’t the best. The display can be especially difficult to read at night, and many users find they need to put their glasses on to read the time.
This radio features a USB port that lets you charge your phone or other device. The USB port is only for charging, not playback, and the radio doesn’t have Bluetooth, so you can’t stream songs from your phone through the radio’s speaker.
You can power this radio by the mains or with four AA batteries, though we’d recommend relying on the mains as much as possible since the Bar Hill gets through batteries quite quickly. The batteries don’t really work as a backup in case of a power cut as the radio will only run off batteries when the power lead is disconnected.
Pros
- Very cheap
- Decent sound quality for the price
- Instructions manual is clearly written
- Compact design—perfect for a bedside table
Cons
- Display is small and can be hard to read
- Sound lacks bass
- Batteries don’t last very long
Verdict
The Majority Bar Hill isn’t the flashiest or most feature-packed radio on the market, but it offers very good value for money and is ideal if you want a cheap, compact and functional clock radio. However, bear in mind that the LCD display is small so it can be difficult to read the time at night.
Similar radios
One popular alternative to the Majority Bar Hill is the AZATOM Horizon. The Horizon is more expensive than the Bar Hill, but still offers good value for money. Like the Bar Hill, it features a USB port for charging devices, but it also has some extra features including Bluetooth for streaming music from your phone.
One alternative from a more established brand is the Pure Siesta Rise, which is a clock radio with a large clock display that should be easier to read at night. Another bonus with the Siesta Rise is that it comes with a 3-year guarantee.
For some more options, see our roundup of the best clock radios.