The Pure Move is to DAB radio what the Tranny was to FM. Its form factor is perfect measuring 150 mm  x 85 mm x 27 mm and with an internal battery promising 40 hours of replay time this is the first serious challenger we have seen. Making a DAB radio suitable for this particular segment of the market is not as easy as it first seems, sure the unit has to be the right size but that imposes problems with the housing for the speaker. Then there is the battery life of previous DAB radios that has been as short lived as a banana at the chimps tea party.

Picking up our Pure Move for the first time was a surprise in many respects, the styling is a more modern silvered design taking the best features of other Pure models. The side and back of the Move are coated in a rubberised material that manages to give great grip and sturdiness, while conveying a sense of solid build quality. 280 grams sounds heavy but when holding the Move it feels perfectly balanced, the rounded edges while great to feel did worry us, after all how would we stand the unit upright? Simple a small kick stand (again very sturdy) hinges out from the rear and supports the unit at the ideal angle for operating the buttons and reading the LCD screen.

Time to power up the Pure Move for the first time using the small recessed power button on the left hand edge where the is also a hold (or lock button). It proved necessary to extend the aerial to its full height in order for the radio to scan the DAB spectrum and find all the stations available. The process took around a minute after which the message "tuning" appeared briefly on the orange backlit display before bursting into life.

The Move started up on Radio 2 (the builders favourite?) and our first impressions were favourable. Pure explained to us on our visit to the R&D site that they try and get the best sound out of each and very enclosure, clearly this one was a tough customer with a highly compact recess for the speaker. Based on scanning through a few stations it sounded like the guys had done a great job with the move.

You do need to compare apples with apples and think about what an FM transistor radio would sound like (or a small portable) in this respect the Move radio sounds top notch. Despite its size there is a reasonable amount of bass, but it is not a competitor for the kitchen radios which sound much richer and warmer compared to the little Move. Instead the best description of its sound would be punchy.

The controls are simple and effective as we have come to expect of Pure Digital, a central nodule controls the volume up / down and station search left / right, while either side sit the info, preset, menu and dab / fm keys. Using the nodule it is very quick to navigate through the EPG of stations and pressing it selects the one you wish to tune too, you can also store your favourite station as one of 10 DAB (and 10 FM) presets.

Pushing the info button cycles you through current date / time, genre of the station, multiplex, frequency, bit rate and signal strength. The most likely use of line 2 of the 2 line LCD display is to leave the scrolling station info running which may give track listings or news snippets. Pure have equipped the Move with textscan where you can use the nodule to pause and scroll through the text at your own speed. The menu key lets you in to play with EQ settings, station order, display controls and firmware upgrades which are possible via the mini USB jack. Using the hold key you can lock the keys from accidental change ideal for places where the unit is likely to get knocked.

Battery life on DAB radios has until now been very poor and for this market it is key that any transistor radio replacement can run for a few days without needing new batteries. Pure have used their ChargePak technology which provides an internal rechargeable cell (Li-ion 4200 mAh) that promises 40 hours of listening time. That is a huge jump from previous versions and makes portable DAB a reality at last, we spent the whole weekend draining the battery getting 38 hours of entertainment before finally plugging the supplied charger in. The Move is just as happy running from the mains, it also has an earphone jack should you want to listen without disturbing others and also an aux input to take audio from an MP3 player.

A weekend of solid listening showed the Pure Move to be a little stunner with quite impressive audio quality for such a small unit, we have to be honest and say it did struggle with the Craig Charles Funk show on 6 music and some of XFM's output. It seems very well suited to middle of the road stations like Virgin and Heart and to spoken word from 5 live and talksport. The more we tested the more we found little touches that showed the thought that has gone into the design, like the moulding for you to attach a carry loop ideal for hanging from some scaffold.

DAB coverage has reached large swathes of the UK but there are still some areas where reception is patchy and for this reason the Move is equipped with an FM tuner as well. The DAB / FM switch makes the change and you get RDS too which helps make the FM radio feel less like the poor relation.

Priced at a shade under £90, the one thing the could restrict the Pure Move from shifting is the price, we can see that you would pay a premium for this over any FM radio. However £90 may put off a few tradesmen who will worry about having such an expensive radio on site, you do get what you pay for and it is difficult to fault Pure Digital on this latest radio. Everything from the tactile experience of holing it, to the sound of your favourite team hammering in the winner in crystal clear DAB sound makes you want one of these. DAB on the Move is at last a reality and owning one of these will make you the envy of every builder in the land.

Published - 14/01/2007

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