Pure Sensia radio September 2009

Pure Sensia

The Pure Sensia comes with a matching remote control, and an external dock is available to connect the Sensia to your Apple iPod

Pure has unveiled the Pure Sensia radio, and we were on hand to try out one of the first models.

Pure reckons that the Pure Sensia offers far more features than a regular radio - and it sports a 5.7-inch touchscreen that allows you to control a host of additional features, such as internet radio and social networking feed such as Twitter.

The Pure Sensia can connect to the internet using Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. It lacks an Ethernet port, although Pure tell us that this is a feature that will become available soon in the form of a USB adaptor. The Pure Sensia also features a DAB tuner and an FM tuner.

We found that the bright 5.7-inch screen displays menus and station information clearly. The touchscreen seems to work reasonably well, and we had no trouble navigating menus and options, though we found the interface a little unresponsive. Pure says that the model we gave a first look test to was a pre-production version, and that the interface will be snappier in the final production version.

It features a similar touchscreen interface to Apple's iPod Touch, meaning that if you are scrolling through a long menu and remove your finger from the screen, the list will continue to scroll until 'momentum' is lost.

Pure Sensia internet radios

The Pure Sensia is a touchscreen device and features a full, virtual Qwerty keyboard

We've seen internet radios before but not with a screen of this size and quality - and the interaction that is created thanks to the large screen really lifts the Sensia. Digital radios have long supported RDS - which shows information about the radio station, such as song title being played - but the Sensia takes this further when listening to internet radio stations.

It has the ability to show more visual information such as album artwork and radio station slide shows, which can either fill a small window on the 640x480 screen, or be set to fill the full screen.

Along the bottom of the screen is a series of icons, or widgets, that when touched offer further touch or slide control - like the sliding volume control, which can be tapped to mute. A full, virtual Qwerty keypad can be displayed if you need to enter text, such as when searching for a radio station by name.

Pure Lounge

Available internet radio stations can be found through Pure's Lounge portal. This portal categorises stations and makes them easier to find. There are more than 12,000 radio stations catalogued, according to Pure, but if you find one that you're interested in that isn't available through Pure's Lounge, then you can let Pure know and they will consider adding it to the service.

Sensia's screen and interface means that it can do more than play internet radio, and it comes packaged with several interactive programs - called 'apps', with more that can be added later. These apps provide access to visual and textual news feeds, weather updates and sports scores.

Other apps will be able to let you keep an eye on your favourite social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, and a Google Picasa app will let you play a slide show of your digital photos on the screen.

Social network apps

The Pure Sensia allows for application development, so you can monitor news feeds and keep on top of your favourite social network sites

The Pure Sensia also offers a selection of alarm, snooze and sleep functions, so it can wake you up, or switch off at predetermined times. There's also a timer to aid cooking if you keep the device in the kitchen.

It allows you to pause and rewind live radio, but not record. Furthermore, it can't play MP3 files or show digital photos direct from a USB or memory card connection.

It is possible to connect the Sensia to a separate sound system, however, and there is a micro USB connection - although this will be mainly used for software updates, according to Pure.

It's also possible to stream music wirelessly from your laptop or desktop computer.

The screen has an ambient sensor, so it dims accordingly depending on the light, and the screen can also switched off to save power. There are several screen modes, so the media controls can always appear on the screen overlaying any artwork.

Portable radio

The Pure Sensia doesn't support full web-browsing and it doesn't have an EPG.

A battery pack and carry case will be available making it a portable radio, however there's no handle to carry the Sensia by.

It comes with a matching remote control and will launch in red, yellow, black and white versions. The remote control is an RF type, rather than an infra-red type, meaning that it doesn't have to be in the same room, or pointing at the device for it to work.

It will be available for around £250 at the end of October in John Lewis and other high-street and online stores.

Digital radio reviews

We'll be looking to fully lab-test this product soon, when we shall add it to our digital radio reviews.

Pros: Great interface, bright screen, exciting and innovative product

Cons: Can't play MP3 or image files from a memory source

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