The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds
  • print
  • alert

What you need to know about cloud backup

Sound, Ergonomics and Extras

Although it's a humble mono system, it pumps out a decent room-filling sound from its 10W speaker. That's largely down to the deep bass reflex tube at the rear, looking ominously like an exhaust pipe. It does such a good job you might consider the output a little bass-heavy when placed against wall.

The Music centre has a dedicated power switch. The front panel power switch will activate the standby display - a fairly bright affair which can't be dimmed, with a large clock.

Nokia Home Music

The very useful History list remembers your choices

It's one of the best outputs considering the price and output power on offer here. It's no match for, say, the 50W of bass and 50W of tweeters you'll find in Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin - but that's three times the price, and you get what you pay for. I was astonished, and chuffed, to find RCA and digital S-video outputs though.

Overall the sound is considerably better than the DAB kitchen top radio many of us have in the corner.

However, this is very much a 1.0 product, with the sort of rough edges one would expect to be improved in a version 2.0. The biggest culprit is the sluggish scrolling while streaming net radio, which should have been addressed in the lab, but it isn't a show stopper. Turn off the streaming, and it scrolls quickly or at an acceptable speed.

Nokia Home Music

The media player features artwork

The discovery of net radio stations and podcasts is also very much 1.0-ish and could also have been improved. A little storage for podcasts would have helped, along with a few touches such as a backlit remote.

Nokia Home Music

Cloud based data management

Next page: Net Gain?

Networking

Humm UPnP and DLNA supported...are these two protocols OS supported by the nowadays Apple products? No!? So, why blaming Nokia for not supporting Apple products and not blaming Apple for lack of support for two widespread protocols, uh Mr Orlowski?

4
0
Anonymous Coward

Backend support

A persistent issue I have with internet radio devices is their reliance on a web server somewhere to keep running and providing the routing information for each channel. Does this radio need to talk to Nokia to work properly? I guess they should be around for many years to come, but who knows if this service will be something they continue to value? Looks interesting though...

2
0

The cult of "i"

What a nightmare having to spend all that time reading an article when you could have been fiddling with your "i" devices which have a reputation for *hite sound quality.

1
0

More from The Register

 breaking news
Curtain drops on Apple Store ahead of WWDC: What lies behind?
Steve Jobs watching from on high. No pressure, lads
 breaking news
Cold, dead hands of Steve Jobs slip from iPhones: The Cult of Ive is upon us
Billionaire biz baron's death clears way for uber-shiny iOS 7
Airbus imagines suitcases that find themselves
Point your mobe at your smalls to track their every move
Surprise! Intel smartphone trounces ARM in power trials
Tests show equal performance while sipping significantly less juice
Apple said to be 'exploring' 5.7-inch iPhone
Who's the copycat this time, Mr. Cook?
First look: iOS 7 for iPad
No, Apple hasn't released it yet, but that doesn't stop intrepid devs
Review: Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock
Missing Mac ports reunited, for a price
 breaking news
Australian 'Apple tax' repealed for MacBook Air
But the new MacPro is priced at a premium