Review on Sangean WFR-28: Gray/White Internet Radio with FM-RBDS, USB, and Color Display - Discover Limitless Music! by Elmito Yeager

I was late to the wonder of Internet radio. Living in a rural area, radio reception is pretty patchy and even my favorite Sangean PR-D5 can't always pick up everything. Incidentally, my mighty CCRadio CCRadio 2e is having trouble with some stations, notably a low-power FM affiliate that broadcasts our local AAA baseball games. What to do? Well, internet radio is the obvious choice, but the Echo Dot isn't exactly portable, and the tablet's tiny tin speakers aren't reliable enough. But a portable internet radio? Like the PR-D5? That would be the perfect choice, right? Well yes actually yes and here's what you have with the WFR-28: * The perfect digital FM tuner when all you need is an FM tuner. * Internet radio player for everything else. * Seemingly endless list of favorites by Frontier Nuvola. * For goodness sake, an MP3 player. Plug in a USB flash drive and play your own songs. * AUX port. Hear different things through your big speaker. *Built-in Spotify if you are a subscriber.* Line-out. Still haven't figured out what to use it for, maybe as a voice recorder?* A UNDOK mobile app that doubles as a remote control for internet radio.* And of course it can double as an alarm clock if you want. It does all of those things and it sounds good. Looks just as good as all Sangean products. As I said, I still love my PR-D5 (on the attached picture the WFR-28 on the left, on the right my PR-D5, which is over ten years old) and will probably continue to use it forever. But I mean internet radio! As Steely Dan says in his song "FM", no noise! This whole new world is opening up. Thousands and thousands of stations from all over the world are loaded with content I couldn't even dream of. In addition, you have the ability to create favorites lists and sublists, just like your radio was a web browser! But don't think the WFR-28 is perfect. It's not like this. First, leadership, shall we say, is not enough. I am aware that things are changing and features available in Europe may not work in the US. But some of the things listed don't show up on my own computer. For example the brightness menu. Or a backlight timer. Also, the font size on the display is so small that those of us with poor eyesight may need to put on readers to see it. Of course it would be nice if this could be adjusted. But these are minor complaints. That's close enough to perfection. Add to that the fact that it uses standard D-type batteries. In addition, you can choose batteries. The radio charges them when plugged in! To me, these things are incredibly cool. It's one of those things we were promised when we entered the space age (along with the jetpack that I'm still waiting for). Sangean did a great job with this device and I'm glad I went with it. As a Sangean, I expect to end up passing it down to my son to enjoy for many years to come.