The Pure Siesta range offers different functions at different price-points and this one seems to be the top of the range at about £130. Pure's CrystalVue edgeless technology is present to ensure you can read the display clearly from wherever you are in the room and that really does seem to work, though the auto-display-dim seems, to me, to be far too dim. I have it set on full and it doesn't disturb. You can of course set it in increments of brightness.
The time figures are huge and fill up the front of the display, which is great for us folk with knackered eyes! The display is a nice shade of blue which is somehow relaxing as a colour. That standard kind of orange colour I've always found to be fairly wishy/washy. There's a signal strength indicator on the display along with Mode in use etc.
There are four alarms which can be set for weekdays, weekend days, working week days etc. for those who need to actually be woken up to get anywhere for anything(!). This feature is convenient for choices over one you have to change/switch off at, say, the weekend. The four alarms are displayed alongside the time very nicely. The alarm sound is a Rising Volume one, to wake you slowly, and there's a good easy-touch Snooze bar on the top/front.
A unique feature seems to be the Siesta function for those who want to 'powernap'. I had to read the book to see how that worked! It allows you to quickly set some music going softly to fall asleep to, with a set time period, say half an hour, at which time it'll wake you up with the buzzer. Powernap. Done!
There's a 3.5mm earphone socket, not always a 'given' for bedside clock/radio units, for those who have to suffer sharing a bedroom with another human being! Bluetooth(4) audio input is present so that you can send sounds to it from other bluetooth enabled devices and make use of the unit's speaker. You can charge a smartphone, incidentally, via the USB-A (1A) power socket on the back so the options for using Apps for audiobooks and so forth, combined with sleep timers etc. are broad.
The backlit buttons on the top of this premium version are very nicely finished and lit. They feel solid to the touch and classy. There's an array of them too! Many clock-radio units these days bury settings in menus but here, there's hardware buttons for many, including all 4 alarms.
The Siesta itself is made of metals and plastic, is very attractive with speaker grille wrapping around the whole of the back two-thirds of the device and controls in front. It has nice styling, feels very cool in the hand and to the touch. The date/time seems to get data from the radio network, so when turned on, knows what's what with no user fiddling.
The sound coming from the device is far better than any bedside clock/radio I've ever had or used, though up against a more expensive boombox or bigger unit with more space for speakers, of course, it won't keep up. Absolutely fine for bedside use though, radio and podcasts, audiobooks, music and spoken word of all types. There's also Bass/Treble controls to adjust and they do seem to make a difference for those who prefer the adjusted output.
There's FM and DAB (and DAB+ for those who can get it) with 40 pre-sets for quick access (via menu, not hardware buttons) and an easy-press Source button to switch over to Bluetooth. Pairing with Bluetooth was simple, fast and easy with various devices here. Scanning for stations is simple and quick, as always, of course, depending on reception in your area, and locking was sound. There's a wire dangling as an aerial - I would really have preferred a telescopic metal pole version, but that isn't available on any of the models through the range.
Some of the cheaper versions in the Siesta range are more plastic in construction and lose some of the features, as I said, so make sure you try and get a look/feel somewhere before deciding on which one you want. I picked up a cheaper plastic one in John Lewis and was really not impressed. It was a million miles from this unit in terms of class and I was happy to pay another £30 for that. Highly recommended for those who have power by their bed and want a clock/radio/DAB/FM/Bluetooth facility with plenty of bells and whistles, sounding great.
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