Pure Oasis Flow September 2010

The Pure Oasis Flow radio is a rugged digital radio that we think lives up to its weatherproof claims - continuing to play despite a good soaking. Take a look at the Oasis Flow and Pure's FlowSongs music service in this video review.

On first listen, we think the Pure Oasis Flow radio sounds a little woolly as you increase the volume, so it may not be clear enough for the most discerning listener - but for a kitchen, bathroom or outdoor radio, the sound is acceptable. We’ll have to wait until we get the results from our lab before we can judge how the sound really measures up against other models we've tested.

Portable radio

You can run it off the mains, but for portability it has a built-in ChargePak – a rechargeable battery that Pure say will provide around 10 hours of DAB listening. The ChargePak is sealed inside the unit to help keep it weatherproof. It recharges when you plug in to the mains.

It's not the lightest radio, but the handle is easy to grab and it's light enough if you're just taking it outside to listen in the garden, or by the pool.

You can search for other portable radios in the compare features section of our digital radio reviews.

Internet radio and Pure FlowSongs

Internet radio provides access to a world of radio stations but because there are so many, switching between stations takes more than the press of a button. The ability to search by station helps, but even if you save stations as favourites you’ll have to press a fair few buttons to access them later.

DAB and FM stations are far easier to access, especially if you save them as presets, which is really easy to do. There are 30 DAB and 10 FM presets available.

Because the Oasis Flow has internet radio, you can use it to buy tracks using Pure's FlowSongs music service. It's free to register for the service for a trial period of 90 days, after which you'll need to pay an annual subscription of £2.99. Watch our video for more information on how this works.

You can't pause or rewind radio with this model, but because it's internet connected it has access to listen again programmes. 

Using the Oasis Flow

The Oasis Flow has an LCD screen and the bottom part of the display is touch sensitive. The functions of the three touch-sensitive ‘buttons’ differ depending on whether you’re listening to FM, DAB or internet broadcasts.

The instructions in the box are basic – they don’t cover everything, so you’ll learn a lot by playing about with the radio. Fortunately there’s a back button to the right of the screen that you’ll find useful while you’re getting to grips with how the radio works. There are dials for the volume and a ‘select’ control dial for scrolling though stations and make selections.

The radio has a headphone socket and also an auxiliary input so you can hook up your MP3 player.

Clock radio

The Oasis Flow is better suited to the kitchen or use outside rather than as a bedside clock radio, but you could use it for this if you really wanted to - the clock displays in standby and it includes two alarms and a sleep timer. 

There are plenty of alarm options - you can set alarms to go off daily, weekdays, weekends, even specifically on a Saturday or Sunday. You can also choose to wake up to a specific station or tone and select the volume - so it won't shock you awake if you were listening to loud rock the last time you used the radio. When the alarm goes off, one of the touch sensitive buttons on the screen becomes a snooze button - it's quite small, so you may not be able to find it easily without opening your eyes.

The display doesn't dim automatically when the room is dark, but you can manually adjust and save the brightness of the display separately for when the radio is in standby and for when it's switched on.

The Oasis Flow might be a little large for your bedside table, but the radio is quite sturdy so even though the controls are all on the front of the unit - rather then on top as with many dedicated bedside radios - you'd have to be pretty heavy-handed to knock the radio over as you push the buttons when you're half asleep.

Pros: Weatherproof, sturdy, can be used away from the mains

Cons: No bass or treble controls, screen is a bit small for navigating around internet radio stations and Listen Again

Check out our digital radio reviews to find out how other Pure DAB radios measure up against brands including Roberts radio.