Pure Sensia
The basics
Making DAB sexy is no mean feat, but this touchscreen, social-networking Sensia manages to do just that.
With a gorgeous 5.7in high-res colour touchscreen and touchscreen controls, choosing DAB options is all about sweeping and stroking. Which is nice.
There's also over 12,000 internet radio options too.
The good
The Pure Sensia isn’t like any other DAB radio on the market – its large colour touchscreen and ability to connect to the Internet make it equipped for tasks for which you’d normally require a computer or smartphone.
We’re talking iPhone-style web apps that let you browse Twitter and Facebook (or view your Picasa photos), widgets that tell you what the weather’s going to be like and the ability to access podcasts and web radio stations.
You can also stream music from your computer’s hard disk, viewing album artwork on the screen as you do so. The 30W digital amp and stereo speakers serve up decent sound: clear, crisp and capable of filling most rooms. It’s certainly on a par with the average web radio/DAB. Finally, the Sensia is also a great-looking piece of design: curvy, high-grade and available in black, white, red and yellow finishes.
The bad
The Sensia’s uncommon talents come at a fairly premium price point, and if it’s audio quality you’re most interested in you can do much better for the money – the Sensia’s speakers can’t go as loud or as hard-hitting as some similarly priced alternatives. It’d also be useful to have an Ethernet port (Wi-Fi is the only networking option), and coming from using an iPhone, the touchscreen can come across as a little unresponsive.
The bottom line
Kudos goes to Pure for producing a genuinely innovative take on the DAB/Internet radio. The Pure Sensia’s touchscreen tech adds a whole new dimension of social networking and interactivity to what is already a solid radio.
User comments (7)
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andyanimation07 December 2009
Pure's sensia is a little special among the current generation of DAB/WiFi gizmos as it fails at everything which is meant to make it special! That gorgeous 5.7" of capacitive touch-screen real-estate and its iPod inspired interface make the device oo-so tempting to gadget nuts. And desperate to like it myself and a colleague at work wasted no time in getting this set up. Within few minutes we hit a snag... trying to set up the network key on the shops WiFi was impossible due to the keyboard not containing a hash symbol! Straight away to firmware update - a task which is becoming too frequent in today's rush-released gadget world. 20 minutes later and the keyboard issue had been fixed, yet another complaint which we had, had not had any effort to be address. It's speed and responsiveness! This is in fact the most damning aspect of this otherwise sleek device. It even out weighs the ill thought out menus and frankly rubbish sound. Apple proved to us it was possible to have a touch screen phone/music player which was responsive and intuitive. What's Pure's excuse? Given the size of the Sensia and the potential for beefier hardware I was left astounded at how sluggish this is. I assumed that gone are the days of *tap*.................... response. Maybe I'm being spoilt. Ok the radio isn't a complete pile of rubbish, and yes it is cheaper then smart phones, but what does it do that they don't now? DAB reception? I know from trying to sell DAB radios that signal coverage is abysmal. WiFi Radio? Try 3G internet radio on the go. Speed? Even the HTC Tatoo has one up on the Sensia there. Sound quality? 3.5mm jack lead into hald decent audio system and you're done. Apps... don't get me started.... Pure advertise this as the radio for the facebook generation. Well most of the "facebook generation" are using more capable phones free on contract. Yes it looks nice, and it has the pure lounge (...) but I fail to see exactly who will want to buy this over any number of better alternatives, even if for little less money. Maybe sales figures will prove me wrong... but I doubt it, just by an iPod touch and a £80 iPod dock and you've one-uped this already. 1 G...
Report as inappropriateDave Dolding08 December 2009
Hi guys, great show...thanks The Pure Sensia look amazing,but how does it compare against the Avanti Flow for sound. Regards....Dave
Report as inappropriateandyanimation09 December 2009
Avanti flow has a much higher sound quality but it's interface is much more traditional radio. If you want the Sensia for it's touch screen and apps as a standalone radio is really unmatched. Pure really need to update it's interface before it becomes better suited for its selling point. But incase my review was at all ambiguous, I don't think a lot of the Sensia. I'd really consider waiting for the next generation of these style radios if you need the apps.
Report as inappropriateLeigh McDade27 January 2010
I am looking to buy an Internet radio/WiFi/DAB-DAB+/iPod/media streaming docking device for my iPod 3G 64GB and it seems that it is a two horse race between the Pure Sensia and the Revo Ikon. I was just wondering if a comparison has been done between these two obvious leaders in the field and what the outcome was before I spend the small ransome being asked for both of these units. I know that the Pure Sensia requires you to purchase an external dock for the iPod (not so good) whereas the Revo Ikon has it built in which is very handy. As far as sound goes, I would like to know which one is the better for sound quality if I use it at home for say easy listening and also the odd house party! Obviously there is the future proofing as well, whereas the Pure Sensia has Apps on it, (which from what I have read online are a bit gimmicky at the moment) this could easily be expanded via software updates and become quite useful in the not too distant future, if Revo are to incorporate this feature then it would probably mean a total hardware upgrade. Any help wuold be appreciated. Thanks.
Report as inappropriateJo Merritt03 February 2010
I bought the Pure Sensia for myself as a real treat after seeing this on the gadget show before Xmas. I am chuffed to bits with it. I live in a town where I can't get DAB radio at all so needed another option. On the down side apart from being quite pricey, the touch screen is a little slow in its response and would love some more apps and also the ability to connect to sites such as Spotify, however, I think the sound quality is really good and like the fact that I can pick my favourite stations on my laptop first and then upload the settings to my Sensia. Setup to my network was really easy and also to it picked up all the pc's on my network and I can use the music stored on all of them. This gets top marks from me.
Report as inappropriateba11bag25 July 2010
This is one great looking piece of kit, BUT beware, IT IS a very expensive DAB, and rather unstable too, to the point I am now, today going to return it (or rather return my second one as the first was really bad) and go back to using the old faithful BUG. Its a shame but I've had enough of the 1 alarm not always working, touch screen getting jittery and various other gremlins. One good thing is, I can say I owned one. Sadly Disappointing! Hopped for more from Pure.
Report as inappropriateJonathan Davison17 September 2010
I adore this radio, it looks great, sounds great and it's totally unique. I suspect earlier versions were unreliable and therefore generated some bad reviews. My only concern is the location of the on/off button – as it's on the top of the radio, I keep accidentally touching it without meaning too. On the plus side, it can be taken anywhere as it takes Pure's Chargepack battery unit. Great product, it's the future of radio. I'd rate it at 9 out of 10.
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