Radio Reviews

TEAC has a winner with this nostalgia radio. How I remember listening to the radio in my youth before going off to sleep. Styling is classic and functions are effortless.

This is a good buy for the price. Had no problems with the clock.Even the recorder works great. Would definitely recommend it.

We used these radios split between vehicles on a one month road trip. While in the vehicles the range is short (only line of sight), it is a viable option as the vehicles we used didn't have CBs or HF radios. We used a small 75W inverter to charge them up (no in-car charger available, unfortunately).

Outside of the vehicles the range was longer, ideal for setting up photo and video shoots.

And at this price, if they break, buy some more!

After having bad experience with my old Motorola TalkAbout 250 radios, I decided to give these a try (I didn't want to reward Motorola with another sale, many of the Motorola radios were receiving mixed reviews here on Amazon, and I really like my Uniden cordless telephones).

These are really good radios. Audio quality is very good, and their communication range far exceeds that of my Motorolas, even when they were working correctly (which wasn't very often). I was able to communicate clearly through flat, wooded terrain with the radios 2 miles apart. I also like that the PTT button is where it belongs on the side of the radio, not in the middle of the front as on the Motorolas.

The Unidens have some nice features like weather radio, selectable call tones, a nice big display, VOX when you use the radios with the included headset/microphone (a feature that I don't like to use, but might be useful to some people), water-resistant construction, channel scan, etc. But the main feature I was looking for was long communication range, and I got that with these radios.

I have some issues that keep this from being the perfect (5-star) radio; you decide if they are show-stoppers for you:

1) Volume Control--These radios don't have a continuously variable volume knob; instead they have +/- push buttons to select 8 different volume levels (one of which is fully off). The problem is that the lowest volume level that isn't fully off is too loud if you're in a really quiet environment. It's fine if you're outside or in a noisy mall or something. But if you need to set the audio whisper quiet, you can't do it with these radios.

2) Size & Weight: These radios are bigger and heavier than many on the market. This is a natural side effect of buying a radio with more transmit power than most of the competition. These radios run on 4 AA batteries vs. 3 AA batteries in my Motorolas. To give you a sense of the difference, the Uniden's dimensions (not including the antenna or belt clip) is 5.25" long X 2.25" wide X 1.375" thick. The Motorola TalkAbout 250's dimensions are 4.5" long X 2.5" wide X 1" thick. I don't have a scale, so I can't tell you how much heavier the Uniden is, but I can tell that it does weigh more.

Other than those two complaints, these radios are perfect. It's up to you to decide, based on how you'll be using the radios, whether these issues are show-stoppers for you or not. They aren't for me; I'm delighted with the performance of these Uniden radios.

I recently bought one of these radios for my semi tractor. I immediately fell in love with the backlit controls. Years ago, I owned the Cobra version of this radio, but I didn't like it as much as this one. The controls are laid out very logically and have a nice feel. The Delta tune has a center detent for "eyes free" operation as you drive. The weather channels are a welcome addition to a long drive, keeping you informed of changing and/or severe weather ahead. The only things I didn't care that much for are the Dynamic Squelch feature and the front mic connector. DSC doesn't seem to work too well, but I drive with the squelch off (to hear distant signals), so this doesn't detract from an otherwise great radio. Having owned various Cobras, Galaxies, and other "big" radios, I can honestly say I like the Uniden PC78LTW the best.

This one's got more bass than others in its price range. Good sound and looks! ...!!

I like the style of this flashlight,especially it's color. And you can also use it as an AM/FM radio.I want to buy this kind of stuff a long time ago, and today I finally find it in Amazon.

Bought this Zenith for a friend, who took it to his office. Definitely a conversation piece. Radio works great indoors. Good buy for the price

After the warranty period expired I noticed that the device starts "losing" memory -- where you may have started with 15 minutes available for messages it would go down to four minutes, 3 minutes, and now, my machine thinks it is full all the time. I erase all the mailboxes, clear the greeting, all to no avail. I called Panasonic and they give you a reset procedure that simply does not work (hold down mute, hold, and transfer buttons while plugging in then press #3). It has been a horrible experience.

FEATURES, FEATURES, FEATURES. You should give this a try. I have waited for a great phone and it's now here. I got a great price. Going to buy another handset. I Like using belt clip (which is very secure on phone)and speaker phone on the handset when I'm on hold. I just clip it to my shirt and continue my life. You can adjust volume on handset, on base, for ringer and volume for Monitoring answering machine. Which I forgot to turn on.
LOL

Love the NOT TO SHORT phone. I can put it on my shoulder again. Love the light up display. Love the easy menu's. Really love the one touch dial of last 5 calls. Love the Add to phone book.

SPEAKER PHONE IS CLEAR! But callers can still tell its a speaker phone. Haven't needed to use Booster yet. Manual is big help and clear. It's a very attractive phone. I've seen some reviews here that knock the volume. No real problem here. Use it by my computer all the time. No interference.

I wish it could set ring tones for specific callers. That would be very convienient. Especially if it could be set to ring differently for Out of Area or Anonymous calls. Darn telesellers.

I also wish it would learn to fix dinner. Still waiting for that feature too.

...

I bought and tried three different 5.8GHZ phones available on the market... Uniden, VTech, and the Panasonic. The following is what I found:

Uniden
The Uniden looks good, but only performs decently. The handset is a bit big and clunky, and fairly heavy too. The worse feature of the phone is the ear piece. It sounds very tinny and not really that impressive for a phone of this quality and price. It's like talking to someone with a tin can up to your ear... all treble and no bass... doesn't sound natural. Probably the worse sounding ear piece I've ever heard on a phone.

VTech
First of all, it doesn't truly utilize 5.8GHZ technology... it's 2.4 one way and 5.8 the other... so this still can cause problems with outside interference and computer networks. The phone performs fairly well, but there was nothing that special about it's performance or features. A 2.4GHZ phone for more than $50 less would perform the same.

Panasonic
WOW! BY FAR THE BEST PHONE ON THE MARKET. I honestly found no flaws with this phone. Great range (further than the other two), never experienced static once, great sound and clarity from the ear piece, really nice answering machine and caller id features, very clear displays,.. the lists goes on. Just an all around great phone. I'm glad I tested them all out to see what was the best bang for my buck... the Panasonic 5.8GHZ phone blows the other 5.8ghz phones out of the water... it's not even close. If I hadn't tried them all, I may have been satisified with the other 2, but having tried the Panasonic, I wouldn't even consider the Uniden or VTech phones... they are mediocre in comparison to the Pansonic... yet cost the same price.

Go with the Panasonic... I love it. Best phone I've ever owned.

While this CD/radio/clock has some very attractive features, the sound is absolutely awful. It sounds as if the speakers are under water, or, if you've ever had one of those old 9-volt transistor radios, like the bass is turned all the way up and the treble turned off. CDs and FM radio sound muddy and distorted and AM news/talk is mostly unintelligible.

Since there's no way to tweak any settings to make it listen-able, i've returned the Philips and replaced it with a Sony Dream Machine. The Sony takes up more space and looks like a dopey version of a flying saucer, but it sounds terrific. The Phillips has some features i really like that the Sony doesn't, but ultimately, if it doesn't sound good it's not useable. You'd think that if you were making something to play music, the sound would be a primary concern, but apparently not in this case. That's regrettable.

This very compact CD clock radio has some great attributes. The display is large and readable from reasonable angles and is not too bright. The FM tuner is very sensitive, and AM is good as well. The alarms (two) can be customised for CD (with the track you want), radio, or buzzer AND the volume can be varied with a gradual increase to your personal taste/needs.Has a "weekend sleeper" feature, too. The CD will play CD/R/RW and has a quiet transport.
For myself, the lack of a digital tuner and the difficulty using this analog one with it's tiny dial and difficult to access tuning knob was a big drawback. The sound is quite bass heavy (how they managed that with the little speakers!) and rather muffled sounding on FM and CD (I only listen to classical music).
If you listen to pop/lite jazz, AM music and don't change radio stations, this offers great value and flexible alarms.

We've had this unit for almost 2 years now. The brightness of the display is adjustable, and the dimmest setting is plenty dim enough, contrary to reviews that I've read here. The brightest setting gives the room about the same illumination as an Indiglo-style night light.

The sound quality is quite good for a clock radio.

Two problems:
1) As has been mentioned before, there's no battery backup.
2) I haven't seen this mentioned, and it's super-annoying... regardless of the volume setting or mode of the alarm, when you push the button that cancels the alarm, you're treated to a non-adjustable, full-volume BEEP. Want to wake up to a nice, soft alarm an hour before your wife needs to? Fine. Just don't try to turn it off, though, because doing so will wake the household with the alarm-cancel beep. Really, truly stupid.

Other than that, it's a great alarm clock.