PRUNUS 429 Small Pocket AM FM Radio, USB Charging, Large Button, Neodymium Speaker, Auto Save, USB Flash Drive, SD Card AUX Input MP3, Shortwave for Elderly and Senior (Black)

Remember those transistor radios from Japan in the early sixties? They had a great size but a terrible sound. Well, here you have the same size but a fantastic sound. I love this little radio. It fits in your pocket. You can put it on your window ledge when you're eating breakfast and hear great music immediately. You don't have to subscribe to some overpriced service. It's right there - a real radio. The only problem I have is that it's hard to figure out how to set up memory for each station, the directions are very poorly written. So screw that, I just punch in the frequency numbers for the station and, voila immediate satisfaction. If someone can explain how to work the memory system. I would really appreciate it. But don't let that stop you from getting this radio, the one with the real antenna attached. You won't regret it.

Reception is clear and loud if you wish it too be!Tuning is soeasy and being digital no guessing if you have the correct station. Quality is superb and love the bright color! Very easy to carry with you wherever I use it at work. No batteries needed you just recharge! Can't get any better. I have bought many transistor radios and this is the Best! I would definitely buy another one!!

I bought this for one reason... to play my music on the USB port. But it is not working out very well for me.The music plays in whatever order it wants to. That i could work around. I just coppied the list of MP3's then put the USB into the player. It played # 7 first. I re-numbered all my music to fit what the player decided was the order. Now it played in the order it was numbered in. Kind of capitulating to it's desires. LOL BUT I cannot live with the fact that it will sometimes tend to start in the middle of a tune or even near the end. The replay works, but it is almost impossible to get it off the re-play. And if I request , say, #7, it will happily play #10. Trying to get it to play #1 is very hard. It insists on playing where it left off. Pushing the reverse button will not do anything to help the middle-of-a-tune situation, and will only go back one tune if you insist. Sigh.The other functions of the player work great. The sound is good. And if you are not trying to use it as a boom box and have it heard throughout the house, it will be just fine. It is meant to be with you on your desk or work place. Not in another room. It finds and plays any station that it can pick up in your area. And switching to them works okay, but i don't listen to the radio at all, just tapes, CD's and USB's. So sadly i will have to return it and find another one.

I got this for my daughter so she could listen to music without needing to borrow a phone. Surprisingly sturdy; heavily used by a 3 year old for a few months. The presets are a little hard to understand, but the sound is decent.

The media could not be loaded. Can you say "big black rubber buttons" three times real fast?UsabilityThis is a hard radio to rate with a single number because it can be approached different ways. The product advertising suggests it's useful for the elderly. I'm almost 72, so I can appreciate where they are coming from. There are some radios out there that have very small buttons and tiny button labels. My vision is 20/20 corrected, but I have to get out a magnifying glass for some radios in dim light. That would never be the case with the Prunus (J-429SW). And yes, it is easy to tune -- just press one button and the radio will scan all possible stations in the selected band (AM/FM/SW) and store what it finds so that the user can scan through them with a single button; however, I do not think the radio will help the elderly buy groceries or make friends as the product description suggests.PerformanceThe AM radio section is awful, but that's true with just about any modern portable radio. This is the only radio I've encountered (in over 100 I've owned over the years) that scans the AM band in 1 kHz increments. Stations are separated by 10 kHz in North America and 9 kHz elsewhere, meaning that the radio takes 9-10 times longer than necessary to scan the band AM.FM is fine.ShortwaveThe 10" antenna is useless for shortwave, but you can clip on a long piece of wire and pick up stations, like the strong signal from China Radio International in the attached video. Tuning is strange in that you cannot manually step through the band by frequency. You can scan for the next station, but weak stations would be skipped. Your only option is to key in the frequency manually if you know it, and it cannot be manually added to the memory.DisplayThe red LED display is very readable even outdoors; however, when it is on (automatic shut off after 1 minute), it generates radio noise that the radio picks up particularly in the lower shortwave bands. Generally speaking the 7-segment display is greatly limited in how much information it can display. When the audio cable is plugged in, it says "AUH" as an approximation of "AUX" and it says "PAUS" for "PAUSE" because there are only 4 digits (plus a 0SW and 5SW to tell you the last digit for a shortwave frequency).It's obvious why the radio does not have a clock because the LED readout on all the time would quickly drain the batteries.MP3 player/speakerIt can be used as an external speaker for a computer or phone connected with an audio cable (not included). It cannot work as a USB or Bluetooth speaker; the USB cable (included) is only usable for charging. An attached computer cannot use it to access files on the radio's digital media (TF/Micro SD or USB flash drive up to 32G), as you can with many other modern portables that double as remote speakers. The 429 can play MP3 files stored on media and that's fairly straightforward. You can skip to an arbitrary song by positional number, keying the number in. You can fast forward within an audio track by holding down the >> button.BugsThe manual says that the radio mutes when you unplug the earphones, but it does not. The radio froze one time, I think when I plugged something into the AUX port, and it would not even turn off. I had to remove the battery for a few seconds to get it under control.SummaryA senior who wants to listen to FM will find the sound quality very good (quite loud if you want it)and very easy to see and to operate. A shortwave listening hobbyist will say it's crap. So five stars or one? What I'm saying is that some people would want this radio and others would clearly not. Keep in mind the price point.I bought it because it was red, and a cheap date.

Plays Loud & Easy To Handle