Pocket Radios Under $20  

Degen DE797 – Kaito – KA-210 – Tecsun R-233 – Vondior 926

And a comparison with other models from the original Pocket Portables review still available including the Kaito KA-200/Degen DE-333, Sangean SR-35 and Sony ICF-P26.

It’s been a while since I compared pocket-size portable radios. Since then some models have unfortunately disappeared but many new ones have appeared. These small radios will fit into a large pocket but they still vary considerably in size with some literally half the size of others, so choose accordingly. As a group they remind me of the old “transistor radios” we all carried with us in the 50’s and 60’s. Of course, today’s pocket sets bear no internal relationship with those all-analog sets of old.

The most interesting thing I found is how much these pocket radios vary in their areas of strengths and weaknesses and there’s no way to know which are best on AM or FM reception or which sound best without comparing them to each other. Some are better on AM, others are better on FM, and some have more balanced sound than others.  While no one expects top grade performance from a $10 to $20 pocket portable, picking the right one can make all the difference depending on what is important to you. And one new Chinese offering is an obvious copy of a very popular Sony model which is now discontinued. How does the clone perform compared with the original? I was frankly surprised and think you’ll find the results interesting.

Read the Pocket Portables Review

Jay Allen