Roberts have been producing high quality radios for as many years as we can remember. While the design may look like a Roberts classic the Gemini RD4 has the latest DAB circuitry inside. Measuring 65 x 110 x 20mm. The Gemini 4 is very portable and fells like a quality item from the first time you touch it, the silver and red leather case may hint at retro but this has probably the most modern styling of the whole Roberts range.

Firing up the Gemini RD-4 at the start of our review reveals the large and clear LCD screen which is backlit by an amber glow. This gives a warmth often lacking from the ice blue displays of many gadgets. Control of the Gemini is via a 4 way joystick and 4 surrounding control buttons, the screen is divided into 3 lines of data, the top line shows battery life, signal strength and the current time. The two lower lines are used to display station name and also the information transmitted by the DAB station either track details or even sport and news feeds on radio 5 live.

Browsing the stations available is much easier with DAB and on the Gemini RD4 as they are all listed alphabetically or by most listened to or even by which multiplex they are on which can be handy if your reception varies by multiplex.

Having stored our 10 favourite DAB station in the Gemini RD4's memory we set about using the little in ear ear buds to see what kind of audio quality Roberts had given to this mini DAB radio. As you would expect this is no hiss, fade or crackle just a very clear sound, testing with both classical music and rock we found the unit to deliver a very punchy sound which did not seem overly compressed.

The Gemini 4 produces a very loud signal and this is more than enough to block out the background noise, however it is also enough to over modulate the little earphones and so we tried with a set of Sennheiser and found that even at full stretch the Roberts is a worthy performer.

Roberts have given into the equalizer trend by providing 6 preset tone settings, we chose to leave these well alone but if you want to make your music sound wrong then they are very good at this. All portable devices live or die by one main feature, battery life and the Gemini 4 which runs from 3 AA batteries can run for approximately 20 hours.

This performance is very good for a DAB portable but the 3 AAA batteries add to the 160 gram weight which is more than most mobile phones and even some MP3 players, we'd have liked to seen a rechargeable battery used here rather than standard units.

Priced at £125 it's at the top end of the portable DAB range, but it does represent a quality piece of work, the best way we can describe it is like a technological hip flask. That leather and metal combination feels great in the hand and it has all the feature we want apart from some form of recording live radio sky+ style.

If you are on the hunt for a small and stylish DAB radio and the Sony offering looks a bit too chav then the Roberts Gemini RD4 is the perfect tonic.

Published - 08/05/2005

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