Roberts Revival RD60 DAB/FM Radio Review

The Roberts Revival RD60 is a retro 1950s-style DAB radio that can be used with batteries as a portable radio or plugged into the mains. The first Roberts Revival radios were designed in the 1950s, and this radio has the same design but with modern features such as digital radio.

Features

Dimensions: 25 cm wide x 15.5 cm high x 10 cm deep
Power: Four LR20 D-size batteries (not included) or mains powered
Warranty: 12 months when bought new
Weight: 1.49 kg without batteries; 1.8 kg with batteries

Performance and design

Ease of use

This radio has an auto-tune feature for automatically finding and tuning into FM and DAB radio stations. To choose a station, you just rotate the rotary knob like you would on an old-fashioned radio. This is easier than on many other DAB radios where you have to go through a menu and press several buttons.

Power and battery life

You can use the Roberts Revival RD60 plugged into the mains or with four D-size batteries. Roberts claim the radio offers 120 hours of battery life, but in practice this is likely to be a bit less.

Sound quality

While the Roberts Revival RD60 looks incredible, the sound quality doesn’t quite meet its looks. It sounds decent for a radio of its size, but lacks treble meaning speech programmes can sound a little muffled. Unfortunately you can’t adjust the EQ yourself, so there’s no way to change the bass and treble levels. While most people are more than satisfied with the Revival RD60’s sound quality, we feel a radio at this price point should sound better.

Connectivity

This radio doesn’t have Bluetooth or WiFi, but you can connect a phone or other device into the line-in port using a cable. This will let you play music from your phone or the internet through the speakers, but it’s not as convenient as having Bluetooth and/or WiFi built into the radio itself.

Design

The Revival RD60 looks stunning. It has the original 1950s Roberts Revival design with a wooden cabinet, a large metal grille and gold-plated fittings.  It would look great in a 1950s-style kitchen.

One big flaw with the design though is that the coverings on the leather models tear and peel very easily, so you might be better of getting one that doesn’t use leather.

This radio comes in a large choice of colours: black, blue, pink, red, burgundy, cobalt blue, dove grey, duck egg, fuchsia pink, green, leaf, pastel cream, piano gloss black and purple.

Verdict

The main reason to get the Roberts Revival RD60 is for its stunning vintage design. It would make a great addition to a retro kitchen or living room.

If you’re more interested in sound quality and features, you can get something better for a similar price. This radio lacks basic features such as an alarm and the ability to save preset radio stations, which most other DAB radios offer. It also doesn’t have more advanced features such as Bluetooth, which many radios in this price range do.

Similar radios

If you like the Revival RD60’s design but would like a radio with Bluetooth, you the Roberts Revival iStream2 could be the radio for you. It has the same design as the RD60 but has WiFi and Bluetooth, letting you stream music wirelessly from the internet or a Bluetooth device.

A cheaper alternative to the Revival RD60 is the Roberts Revival Mini, which looks a lot like the RD60 but is smaller and just has one speaker.

Roberts radios tend to be relatively expensive, and you can get similar-looking radios from other brand for less. One example is the Goodmans Oxford 1960’s style digital and FM radio, which has a similar kind of design but at a much lower price.