Review A year on from testing the Squeezebox Boom wireless music streamer, Logitech has released its little brother into the wild. Called the Squeezebox Radio, the new device is the transistor radio of the Squeezebox range to the Boom's ghetto blaster.

No DAB, no FM: Logitech's Squeezebox Radio

Rocking up in traditional Squeezebox black – the red case is only an option in the US – the 130 x 220 x 85mm Radio is the smallest all-in-one music streamer we have come across. It’s one of the best looking too, with Logitech having the ditched the Boom's partly matte finish for a more classy all over deep gloss. Physically, the Radio bears a strong family resemblance to the Boom, albeit one with the right hand speaker hacked off and with rounded corners.

The most obvious external change is the Radio's 2.4in colour screen, which is a major step forward over the Boom's green screen. It’s easier on the eye and allows for the display of ‘Now Playing’ album art and other colour images. The screen also has a handy ambient light detector that dims the screen when the lights go out making it ideal for bedside use.

The Radio's controls will be instantly familiar to anyone who has used a Squeezebox Boom. Carried over are the six Internet radio pre-sets and the soft, rubberised buttons all set around a large turn and push knob. As with the Boom, the big knob is for menu navigation and selection rather than volume control, which still feels just a bit counter-intuitive.

Packaged without a remote control, users have no choice but to make do with the fascia controls, but at least navigating around the menus is a swift and simple affair. Scrolling down a list of several hundred albums took less than 30 seconds.

Ethernet is available as an alternative to Wi-Fi

Ports and jacks are limited to a power socket, 3.5mm audio-in for hooking up an MP3 player and an Ethernet port for anyone who wants to plonk their Radio next to their router. Round the back you will find a handle recess, which its far too shallow to be of any use - all you can do is slide the tips of your fingers into it which makes carrying it a highly risky venture.

As with all Squeezebox music streamers accessing music from your PC hard drive or network storage involves downloading the Squeezebox Server software, formerly known as Squeezecentre. Now at version 7.4.1 the server software is available for Windows, Mac, Debian/Ubuntu, vanilla Linux and Netgear Ready Nas or you can download the Perl source code.

Now playing: album art puts you in the picture

We have always found Squeezebox Server to be pretty reliable and robust, but some may quite reasonably ask why Squeezebox devices aren't set up with the option to look for any old DNLA or UPnP server system or iTunes. Roku's kit is, and it's all the better for it.

When importing the iTunes music library from a Windows PC, the Server and Radio combo made a reasonable, but not perfect fist of things. Over the course of a week we found about half a dozen tracks or albums in the 'wrong' place either on the Server or the Radio or both. On the up side, it managed to import our iTunes and Windows Media Player playlists in good order and recognized gapless albums.

Like the Squeezebox Duet and Boom, the Radio hooks into your 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi network to access stored music or Internet feeds. The wireless card in the Radio is only 'g' spec though, so don't expect the extra range of true 802.11n. Once up and running our Radio didn't prove quite as reliable at keeping hold of a Wi-Fi signal as the other Squeezebox devices we have tested in the past and in the same surroundings.

Every now and again the Radio would seem to lose connection and then replay the current song from its buffer, only to stop again and replay at the same point. We couldn't find any rhyme or reason for this and it certainly wasn't a distance-from-router issue. However, after a couple of days, the problem largely – though not entirely – vanished.

Sounding off: hooks up with your MP3 player

Format support is typical for Logitech, so the Radio will happily stream DRM-free MP3, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, AAC and Apple Lossless files. The Radio can also stream MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC and WMA formatted radio directly from the Internet.

Rummage about in the Squeezebox Server's settings and you can now download a third party iPlayer plug-in that gives you access to all the BBC's Listen Again content. This feature does require that you have your PC or NAS box running, but it’s still better than a slap in the chops.

The Facebook app on this model shows others what you're listening to

Logitech is coy about the Radio's power output, but does reveal that under the fixed speaker grille lurks a 2cm soft-dome tweeter and a 7.6cm woofer. While the Radio lacks quite the same degree of wallop and musical ability as the Boom, it still doesn't sound at all bad for something of its size. You can easily crank the volume up to a room-filling 11 without things going sonically titsup.

Like seemingly every other connected gadget in this day and age, the Radio comes with an application store, which Logitech calls the Apps Gallery. Currently, the gallery holds 26 free apps including direct links on-line radio networks such as Shoutcast, a selection of music-on-demand services, custom radio including Last.fm, podcast aggregators like Mediafly and the inevitable Facebook and Flickr. You can find a complete list here.

With such a small screen we are not wholly convinced about the value of the Facebook app but we can see why Logitech has included it. Send a 'What I'm listening to' update to your Facebook page and a small icon of the Radio appears by the update. Click on it and you get taken to Logitech's web site. Now that's viral marketing.

Sadly some of the shine is knocked off the Radio by an act of frankly shocking tight-fistedness. Logitech doesn't supply the Radio with either a remote control or a battery –both of which are rather sold together as an ‘accessory pack’.

An Apps Gallery also exists to further enhance the Radio

To make matters worse the pack won't be available until February of 2010, and that's in the USA, so who knows when we will get it on this side of the Atlantic.

According to Logitech's US site the pack will set you back $50 or just under £35, which seems a bit pricey for a basic remote – the same one that ships with the Boom by the looks of things – and a rechargeable battery.

US-centric: accessories and colour options not yet available in the UK

As it stands the Squeezebox Radio will set you back £159 which makes it a fairly solid purchase alongside the larger Boom which will now costs £249 - £50 more than when we tested it back in November 2008. Yes, the Boom is the more powerful and better sounding of the two, but the difference is frankly pretty marginal - at the end of the day we are talking about portable audio here rather than Hi-Fi.

Verdict

As a small, convenient, tuneful portable music streamer the Radio has a lot going for it and the new applications gallery, while less than essential, is more than a gimmick. But charging extra for a remote control and battery is frankly a disgrace, since both are pretty essential if you want to use the Radio about the house or in the garden, which surely is the very point of it. ®

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