Pure Siesta S2 Clock Radio Review

Summary: A well designed clock radio somewhat let down by mediocre sound quality.

Buy it online: See price on Amazon.co.uk

The Pure Siesta S2 is a stylish FM/DAB/DAB+ clock radio from respected British radio brand Pure. It’s essentially a cheaper version of the Pure Siesta Rise, with slightly fewer features.

The Siesta S2 has a quality look and feel to it, and is available in a choice of two colours: white or graphite. Let’s find out what it can do…

Features

Dimensions: 13 cm wide x 5.7 cm high x 13.7 cm deep
Weight: 499 g

Siesta S2 vs. Siesta Rise

The Pure Siesta S2 is very similar in terms of design and features to the Pure Siesta Rise, which has a few extra features and has a higher recommended retail price. Here’s a summary of the differences:

	Siesta S2	Siesta Rise
Number of presets	10	20
USB charging point	No	Yes
Headphone socket	No	Yes
Dimensions	13.7 x 13 x 5.7 cm	14.1 x 13.7 x 6.3 cm

Performance and use

Setting up the Pure Siesta S2 is very straightforward—you basically just switch it on and it will set the correct time and date and find all the digital radio stations available in the area. Setting the alarm is also quite simple with the help of the user manual (available online here), though using some of the other features can be fiddly.

The clock automatically sets the correct time via the radio signal, which means you don’t need to worry about changing it when the clocks change. It will also stay accurate if there’s a powercut, and the alarm and radio presets are stored by the radio’s memory without needing a battery backup.

The Siesta S2 works very well as an alarm clock, which is what it’s primarily designed for. You’re given a lot of control over the alarm and can set daily, weekday or weekend alarms. You can also choose to wake up to FM radio, DAB radio or an alarm buzzer sound.

One of the best things about the Siesta S2 is that you can adjust the display brightness and also choose how long the backlight stays lit for. This is very useful if you use the Siesta S2 as a bedside alarm clock. Many cheaper alarm clock radios have very bright displays, or the display turns itself off too quickly. With the Siesta S2 you can control these settings to find the ideal settings for you.

The only aspect of the Siesta S2 that lets it down is the sound quality. Despite being a relatively expensive clock radio, the speaker is mediocre and the sound lacks depth, especially at quiet volumes (the kind of volumes clock radios are normally listened to at). The Siesta S2 is quite tinny, which is disappointing as Pure produce some great-sounding radios. If you listen through headphones this isn’t a problem, as the Siesta S2 has a stereo headphone jack.

Verdict

The Siesta S2 is designed as a bedside radio, and it has more or less everything you’d want a bedside radio to have: alarm with snooze, sleep timer, headphone socket and adjustable display brightness. It’s a well designed and aesthetically pleasing product with a solid, durable feel to it.

The main reason to think twice about buying this radio is its sound quality, which is quite poor. If you enjoy listening to the radio for a substantial amount of time in the morning or before going to sleep, you might be better off choosing a clock radio with better sound quality.

Similar clock radios

The most similar radio to the Pure Siesta S2 is the Pure Siesta Rise. It has a few extra features such as USB charging for charging a mobile phone overnight. It also lets you save more preset stations, though it comes with a higher RRP. Read our full review of the Siesta Rise here.

One DAB clock radio that offers better sound quality than the Pure Siesta S2 is the Roberts ChronoDAB. It’s in roughly the same price range as the Siesta S2, but has a warmer, more detailed sound.

If you’d like something cheaper, you could go for a clock radio by a less well known brand. One such brand is Majority, who produce a range of affordable DAB clock radios including the Abbey, Milton and Madingley Hall.

For more ideas, check out our reviews of the best clock radios.