For such a tiny portable radio, available at this budget-friendly price, the little Blighty (made by radio specialist View Quest) is rather well-featured. It has FM and DAB tuners on board (and DAB+ for the countries that support it), 10 presets to save your favourite stations, and a battery life of up to 10 hours.
A handy, practical design
Mostly, we just really like the design. It’s small and light, with the curved back and edges letting it fit snugly in the palm of your hand. You can easily stash it in your pocket or bag. The finish is nice, with the Blighty available in two colour schemes: red and cream or black and grey.
The display is a 1.6in LCD that manages to pack in plenty of information: time, battery status, tuner, station name and more. It’s clear to read, even from a distance, and doesn’t look too cramped.
Elsewhere, there's a micro USB port for charging, a small on/off switch at the top, and a 3.5mm headphone port. Inside, the 800mAh battery will last you a good 10 hours – which is decent enough to spread over a few days of listening, depending of course on how much you use the Blighty.
Like a Geiger counter
Navigating your way around the small control pad is easy, although you may need to use your nails rather than fingertips to press the small buttons.
Left and right tabs get you tuning or skipping to the next station, and the volume buttons react swiftly as well. The mode button lets you switch between DAB and FM stations, and you get five presets for each tuner. A long press of the OK button sends you to the preset menu, where saving and recalling presets is just another click away.
Under the main station name, you’ll see a snippet of the programme info, or the name of the song and artist playing. Keep pressing the menu button to see that scrolling display change to show the time, date, station frequency, sampling rate and - most usefully, perhaps - the signal strength.
As with all FM/DAB radios, getting the best signal is tricky and is dependent on wherever you happen to be. The VQ Blighty, however, seems to have more trouble than we’d expect in locking onto a stable signal. We end up holding the Blighty out like a Geiger counter and walking around until we reach anywhere between 60 and 100 per cent for the most stable sound quality.
Solid, detailed presentation
But once you hit the right signal strength the Blighty sounds solid and detailed, and the volume goes up fairly loud as well. Voices are heard loud and clear, with enough detail to convey the emotion and inflections in talk radio and comedy programmes.
It has a lively presentation, which breezes through BBC 6 Music’s breakfast programme with snappy timing and a decent level of dynamics. It’s a bit top-heavy, which can make certain songs sound a little bit thin and bright. A smoother and weightier presentation would have made the Blighty a more comfortable listen, but nonetheless it’s a great effort for such an affordable radio.
Make the right connection
We would definitely recommend investing in a good pair of headphones to get the best out of the Blighty. Just don’t use the ones that come bundled with the radio. They sound hollow, unsubtle and don’t show off the full potential of the Blighty. You only get one pair of tips, too, so they won’t fit everyone.
In-ears such as the Beyerdynamic DX 120 iE would be ideal. Just make sure you use the Blighty with headphones that don’t have in-line mic controls, otherwise the plug won’t make the right connection.
There are some caveats with the Blighty, and you might question if there’s a need for a portable radio when you can simply use your smartphone. However, although apps such as the BBC Radio player exist, most phones still aren’t equipped with tuners.
The VQ Blighty bridges that gap, letting you listen to your favourite radio shows when you’re outside or on the move. It’s a lovely design, but its decent sound and budget price alone make it well worth a listen.
VERDICT
View Quest has produced a lovely little portable radio with decent performance at a great price.