Roberts Radio Reviews 

Thank you for your speedy repair of my Roberts Rambler digital portable radio. This radio is absolutely essential for life in my caravan, when I am away with my dog. The battery spring assembly was repaired & tested & the radio was returned in a well packed box.

I bought a Roberts Rambler Mini in December 2022. It cost £80. This is a DAB portable radio with built-in rechargeable battery and Bluetooth. The warranty was two years and now it’s stopped working. It won’t recharge and won’t even play when plugged in, even though there’s power to the device. I rang the technical people and was told it can’t be repaired as it would be too expensive. They suggested I try a Repair Café but I can’t see them being able to repair it. Essentially this is junk after less than three years. Interestingly, the model has been discontinued. Did Roberts know it wouldn’t last much longer than 2 years when they sold it to me? I won’t be buying another Roberts in a hurry.

I have five Roberts internet radios but two of them no longer operate as they should because of Roberts's unacceptable manufacturing policies. Both radios cost me in the region of £180 each.

One of the radios will no longer play any internet radio station, and Roberts has claimed that the fault is with the radio-station aggregator company, which is no longer in business. So the radio itself is in pristine condition but is no longer being sent any streams. Roberts has suggested that I buy a gadget to fit to this radio so that I can cast to the radio from stations on my smartphone. In other words, Roberts has suggested I use their internet radio now as a speaker only.

The other radio will no longer play any BBC station. Roberts says this is because the BBC has changed the nature of its streams and the radio cannot receive such streams. The radio is therefore only capable of connecting to non-BBC stations.

In the cases of both the radios, Roberts has not accepted that it is at fault. Roberts's defence amounts to, "We can't do anything if services alter. We only provide the hardware". This is unacceptable.

Roberts should produce radios which can in the future deal with alterations such as aggregators closing down or stations altering the nature of their streams.

As compensation for my two Roberts radios no longer functioning as they should, Roberts has offered me only a 20% discount off the purchase of two new Roberts radios!

I will never buy a Robert's internet radio again.

Ordered a black Play20 by mistake and really wanted the white. I emailed customer services and they were able to efficiently rectify my mistake. I'm really pleased with my little radio. It's currently sitting on my kitchen counter and runs great on either batteries or mains. It has really good reception and packs a nice sound for such a little thing. I'm really pleased with my purchase and great service from Roberts.

I lost LBC reception on my Roberts Zoom Box, circa 10 years old. I contacted Roberts for any suggestions and was taken through a factory resetting process with a very patient adviser, and LBC was back clear as ever. Roberts has always had a reputation of producing first class radios, and now proves to have a first class customer service.

We had two Roberts Radios that had an issue with the volume - the volume would gradually fade after a couple of minutes eventually going completely quiet.

No problem with that, they’re 10+ years old so can be expected. Instead of buy new ones we wrote to Roberts explaining the issue and they said they knew what that was and could be repaired for £100.

When we received them back from the repair the same thing happened. They told us it was our batteries (it wasn’t as we’d bought new batteries) but they didn’t believe us. Then, they said it was actually a different problem to the one they’d initially said and repaired (and what we’d already paid £100 for) and that they could repair it for more money.

Long story short, we didn’t send them back again so have lost two Robert’s radios to the scrap heap and are £100 down as they wouldn’t refund.

Probably the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had.

This is my first DAB+ Radio. Previous Roberts Radio about 20 years old and still sounds and looks great. I wanted a compact radio for my bedside, and this is very compact. How something so small can sound so great is amazing! My Bose connected headphones sounds great too. Very easy to set up and use, and the bluetooth works fine with my iPhone, and also charges the iPhone. The display is large and clear and dims automatically or manually. Good design, and the leather gives it that Roberts quality. Well done Roberts!

Have a Robert’s WiFi radio stream 94l
It’s so user unfriendly when sent ting up. Like going back to dial up internet.
Sounds ok
Operating system is rubbish

I find it inappropriate that a radio of this value only lasts three and a half years. I bought a Rambler BT radio, and it started sounding terrible over a year ago, and it died this week. It`s just the brand, that is why it is expensive. I would not buy it again, much less recommend it. I feel deeply deceived by Robert Radio. please don´t buy it!

I'm a pensioner and bought a Roberts radio, but when I got home and tried to tune it in - it was a complete nightmare!! Everything was so complicated!! I phoned Customer services technical support (not thinking I would get a real person, or any help), but not only did I get a real person...I received all the help I needed! Amanda was absolutely brilliant and patiently took me through everything, step by step and got me up and running!! Thank you.

I ordered a replacement radio adaptor which arrived promptly - the adaptor worked, the display worked however there was no sound. When I called Customer Services I spoke with Amanda Curry who was most helpful. She suggested plugging in earphones which may solve the problem - however, no success. Amanda advised there would be problem in returning the adaptor - which I did and received a refund within two days. Very helpful and professional.

The signal is constantly going and will skip..
Was bought a lovely lilac one for Christmas - looks great and very compact.. But really not happy with the FM signal at all. My really old radio has a much better signal although not as clear.
Quite dissapointed tbh.

We have just purchased a Roberts Revival Rest clock/radio. The product seems well made in all but one aspect. The time display can be adjusted and has an auto function that senses the light and adjusts the display accordingly. The issue with this is you cannot read the time during the night. You can select Auto, High, Medium, Low of Off. This first three settings are very bright to have next to you while sleeping. There is an adjustment feature but you cannot increase the Auto display level for darkness. IMO this is a disappointing design flaw and we are returning the product.

A good quality radio for DAB, FM, internet and podcasts, but has the annoying problem of wiping itself clean of everything at frequent intervals, even when connected to power source. The result is the radio stops functioning completely. It then needs a Factory Reset, and all the information has to be re-entered, including internet connection. This is a time consuming nuisance, and is not straightforward owing to a poor set up menu. Connection to the internet requires entering the router password. Nothing in the menu shows this. I have to remember to choose “Skip WPS” which means nothing to me. All the stations and presets then need to be found and set.

Roberts Play 20 radio. Having bought Roberts radios for decades, I purchased (1.1.2025) a Roberts Play 20 as the successor to the Roberts Play. Sadly this radio has the following flaws: the volume buttons are black (as is the body of the radio) and are virtually invisible and the buttons are in the centre of the radio in an non-instinctive position; in spite of the increase in radio stations available, the number of station preset buttons has been reduced instead of being increased; there is an irritating pause when turning the radio on and between changes of station leaving you wondering whether you have actually pressed the button; sound quality is poorer than previous versions. At £74 relatively expensive and not good value.

Our radio / CD / alarm has recently expired after > 20 years of service.

The Roberts Revival Rest was determined (by my wife) as the acceptable replacement.

It's not the easiest device to set up. More 'scratch your head' than 'plug and play' when trying to sort it out. And getting appropriate 'preset' radio stations required a couple of attempts.
The alarm setting is a case in point of confusion - as it suddenly requires the date. Why ..... it's not covered by the instruction nor by Google as far as I can see. On the 2nd alarm set I suddenly realised that, by default, I would be setting a one off alarm for 4 days prior!

But other than resolvable setting up eccentricities - it is brilliant. The sound quality is truly exceptional - even DAB is perfect when considering both our dedicated Pure DAB radios (downstairs) struggle because of the thick walls of the property.

A really good purchase. Just requires a bit of tinkering with the instructions, which are confusing in places.

Wonderful sound quality in our new Roberts RD70 radio. Rang and spoke to Roberts Customer Services as we were concerned about the design of the electrical adapter lead and, not only was the phone answered quickly and the staff member spoke good English (sadly, not always the case with customer service departments these days) but Rachel really cared, and resolved our concerns with kindness. Made us feel valued. Feel Roberts is a genuine, modern company but with old fashioned service and support. Great they are an English company. Very happy!

Both my sister and I have radios where the faux leather coating has peeled badly. Like others, I was advised I could send them back but no guarantee it could be repaired. They’ve now become so bad they leave a plastic sawdust every time you use/move them. Customer service reply still awaited after weeks of asking what can be done

I have now had 3 Roberts radios and all have gone faulty within 3 years. Two of these were just outside the 2 year warranty, and the other was replaced during warranty period. Sadly, one of those failing just outside warranty was the replacement.

For such higher end products, this is very poor. By contrast, we have numerous cheaper radios, clock radios and other audio devices that are still going strong after ten or even twenty years.

On the Roberts Revival radio, the volume control failed. It will play, but if anyone turns the volume knob it's anyone's guess if it will go up or down, and it takes many attempts to get it back to listenable volume.

Both Zen Plus clock radios behaved well for a while, but then went screwy. The first randomly set or unset the alarms, and would sometimes just flash for no reason. The second was doing okay until the clocks went forward to summer time. It didn't change automatically, but I didn't get round to changing it manually and then it changed itself the following night. But then it changed itself back again! So I manually set the time. And it changed itself back later in the day.
Then it put itself right again overnight and the 7am alarm went off on time at 7am this morning. I got up and made breakfast. One hour later, at 8am, I heard the alarm go off again, went into the bedroom and there was the clock showing 7am again!!!!

Roberts would repair out of warranty items, at my cost, but it would not be economic to pay for repair every 2 or 3 years when a cheaper device would cost less than the repair.

An unreliable alarm clock is worse than useless, so I'm afraid it will be going to the tip and I'll be buying a less expensive replacement.

I will not buy Roberts branded radios again and I advise others to think carefully unless wanting to treat these devices as disposable.

I own three Robert’s radios none of which work.Main problem being volume control knob.