Panasonic - Portable AM / FM Radio - Silver

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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Radio like in the old days!

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  It has been a long time since I had a portable radio and the truth is that it has been a pleasant experience. I really like to listen to music while I do my work, but what happens sometimes when I play music on my phone is that I get distracted selecting and changing songs, but with a radio like this it's just a matter of plugging it in, tuning in a station and letting the radio do its thing. I just let the programming of the selected radio station run its course and I'm on my own. In the box comes the radio, the power cord and a user manual. In addition to being able to plug it directly into the power outlet, it is possible to use the radio with 4 AA batteries in case you can't connect it to the mains. Despite being a relatively compact device, it has a 10 cm speaker that sounds very good, in fact better than I expected. At the top is located the extendable antenna that although it fulfills its function, it can only be moved from left to right (looking at the device from the front). It also has a handle to carry the radio and can be rotated to position it on the back so it does not get in the way of the antenna. On the right side is located the station change knob, volume dial and a headphone jack. Tuning between radio stations is easy and there is a small red light that illuminates when the station is tuned correctly. Increasing the volume to maximum levels sometimes distorts the sound but it depends on how well the station is tuned. The 3.5 jack input is for monaural earphones only. On the front is the power button which in turn serves to switch from FM to AM, it is clear that the Frequency Modulation has better audio quality, although the Amplitude Modulation reaches more coverage, both work as they should. At the bottom of the power button is the panel that shows the range of frequencies available for tuning stations. This panel has a white strip in the middle that glows in the dark, this is relatively useful since it has no illumination in case of use in places with poor lighting. When tuning to a station, the orange indicator on the front panel moves up/down to let you know which frequencies you are tuning to. In summary, this compact radio meets the basic functions of a conventional radio, can be connected to the outlet or can be used with batteries, can be transported easily, you can tune FM or AM stations, the speaker gives a good volume, and has a tuner knob and a volume dial, it is really very intuitive and easy to use, for its price it is certainly a great option, I can clearly recommend it.

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  Posted 1 year ago by Serv

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Decent sound but still bad reception

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I don't listen to the radio at all for music. Even in my car, I use a USB stick for music. The radio I listen to is AM talk radio. And I listen to it daily at work. The problem is that the few AM/FM radios I've tried in the past for the office have been horrible. Small portable things that had useless reception. So I had hoped this one, being a larger size than those tiny little portable ones, may do better. At the office, I'm stuck streaming the station either over the Amazon Echo device or the iHeartRadio website, and both are barely worth the effort because of the annoying ads they spam you with. I like the size - this has a large speaker, so during my testing I was actually playing music and FM stations, and it sounds better than any other radio I had tested for the music. Not nearly as tinny, since the speaker itself is larger than many of the radios out there. It can produce a better sound. At my home, it worked fine. On the AM side of things, at home I've got decent reception for the station I want to listen to. It's playing right now. No static, no interference. But that's common at home even with the smaller ones. I grabbed this radio for work, so we'll have to see if the larger size makes any difference there. I like that it can run on four AA batteries, OR off the power cord. I'll use the power cord for my normal daily use at the office, but the battery option could be handy when I'm out and about if I want to bring it along. The power button is simple to operate, slide left for off, middle position is FM, right position is AM. Volume is a standard rotating dial with just the edge sticking out of the side, easy to adjust. What I'm not much of a fan of is the tuning knob. For me, it is too close to the mounting point of the handle, so if I want to use the part of the knob with the raised edges for grip, my positioning is limited for my hand and fingers. The knob does come out from the radio with a tapered part as well, but that's smooth, smaller, and not nearly as easy to precisely adjust on the smaller part of the knob as it is on the larger part closer to the radio. But it's only an annoyance that the first time I tuned things in, since usually this will sit on the one station. But I'm going to dislike it any time I need to change the tuning. I've added a photo of the knob in question. There is a handle for secure carrying, that folds down behind it out of the way. It's solid, the handle feels secure. The power cord though I wish was more flexible, some more standard type of power cord for smaller electronics now. It's the older style thick, not very flexible two wire cable. The end that plugs in is shaped so it only fits in one way, and the prongs on the plug are keyed so it can only go into the outlet one way. But the disappointment was felt when I got it to my office. Now, my office is pretty much the same distance from the radio station that's north of me in Milwaukee, since my home is just three blocks south of one of the major highways running through the city, and the office is about a block north of it, just a few miles down the road. Distance hasn't changed, and in both spots I'm on the northernmost wall of the building. I'm guessing that this wall at the office has a different composition than the one at the house, since now, at my office, this sounds every bit as bad as every other smaller radio I've ever tried did. Even when I have it sitting right in the window so there's nothing but a little bit of glass between it and the open air to the broadcasting antenna in Milwaukee, it's all but useless. The fact that this larger one didn't do any better than a radio barely bigger than my iPhone could, is a disappointment. Look at this as any other radio as far as reception goes. Don't buy it to IMPROVE reception, since it likely won't be any better than anything else out there. But for sound, if you have a good signal with something else, then this will likely be an upgrade for the quality of the speaker alone. But if that's all you're going for there are many options besides this as well.

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  Posted 1 year ago by JDThird

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  The forgotten but necessary home safety device.

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  A battery-operated AM/FM radio is a basic home safety necessity in this internet dependent world. I’ve had more than one occasion where I lost power and cell service wasn’t available, and after the 1st time I dug an old transistor radio out of storage. Times have changed and tech has improved, and that is evident in this radio. The biggest issued with older radios was being able to find a station and lock it in. This radio has a built-in retractable antenna and adds a digital (not digital display) tuner. The tuner has an Auto Frequency Control that assists with keeping the radio tuned to the station selection. The tuner dial is not backlit, but the frequency indicator is fluorescent for better visibility. There’s a red light on the front that indicates this feature is active. The radio is powered by a detachable AC cord, so no more having to wind up a cord and try to fit it in the back of the radio and 4 AA batteries. The power switch is located on the front of the unit and functions as a band selector, which is separate from the volume dial. I use the radio regularly and appreciate being able to turn it on at the same volume level it was at when I turned it off. The top handle folds for easy storage and the tuning knob is responsive. There’s also a 3.5 mm standard headphone jack and the built in speaker is about 4”. The sound quality is very good for a mono unit but doesn’t approach stereo quality.

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  Posted 1 year ago by IndyTechGuy