Pure Sensia

The Pure Sensia is an odd-looking egg-shaped radio that can receive both digital broadcasts and internet stations.

It is controlled through the touch-sensitive 5.7in front screen.

There are now many different ways to listen to music, and the Sensia combines these into a single device. It can play music from standard FM radio, DAB radio, portable media players that are plugged into it, music streamed over a home network and The Lounge, a service run by Pure that gives access to thousands of internet radio stations.

The screen is bright and responsive when tapping or sliding the on-screen controls, such as the volume. When you play digital stations or files, the screen updates with a description of the show, artist and track information.

Certain digital radio shows now broadcast images too, and these are also displayed on the device. There are two 30W speakers mounted on either side of the screen which sounded good, even at high volumes. It comes with a similarly egg-shaped simple remote control.

Keeping track of all these music sources is easier than it might sound thanks to the simple but effective station browser. You can flick through the different sources and add a station to a list of favourites with a simple tap.

As with a clock radio, the Sensia has alarms, and when you put it into standby mode the display changes to a big, bold clock. You can enter text iusing an on-screen keyboard. It can also support external services such as Twitter. There are currently few of these, but more are planned.

The Sensia is not portable unless you purchase the rechargeable battery pack for an extra £35, something that should have been included considering the radio already costs £250.

This high price will put most people off, but the Sensia is about as luxurious as digital radio gets. If you only listen to radio when waking up in the morning, a cheap £10 alarm clock will do, but if music and radio chit-chat are a constant part of your daily routine, the Sensia is a treat that opens up plenty of new ways to listen and sounds good too.