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It has to be said that the Q2 Internet Radio is one of the most refreshingly different and interesting internet radios that we’ve ever seen. Beyond its cool cube design (available in five colours), this radio is the only model we’ve ever seen not to have a single button on it, bar a power switch on the rear.
Instead, the Q2 Internet Radio is designed to be used entirely with its accelerometer. You tip it back to turn up volume, forwards to turn volume down and place it speaker down to mute it and put it in standby mode. It can be programmed with your four favourite stations or podcasts, and you simply place the Q2 on the correct side to get the assigned station. Each side is marked with lines from one to four, so it’s easy to see which preset you’re using.
Programming the radio is simple. All you have to do is download the software from the Q2 website and plug the radio in via USB. The software’s first tab lets you drag and drop radio stations or podcasts into the four available preset slots. You can search for radio stations or browse by country or genre, where genres are further divided into country to make finding the one you want.
We couldn’t find any UK radio stations missing from the list and there’s a massive range of foreign radio stations to pick from. In short, no matter what you like listening to you’re bound to find the station you want.
Next, you click the Networks tab where you can select up to five wireless networks to use, stored in order of preference. If the network you’re connecting to is protected you’re asked for the password when you select it. Note that you can’t use a wireless network that requires authentication through a hotspot, such as in a hotel or other hotspot.
We also noticed that the Q2 isn’t correctly configured to work in the UK and wouldn’t detect wireless networks running on channels 12 or 13 (UK networks can run on channels 1 to 13). To get our Q2 working we had to change our router’s wireless channel to one in the US range of 1 to 11, although a firmware update coming soon should fix this. The only other minor problem is that you can’t manually add networks, so if you’ve turned off SSID broadcast on your router you’ll need to turn it back on in order to see and connect to the network. Finally, you can use the Settings tab to select an initial listening volume, update firmware and undo recent changes.
Once configured the radio connects to your network: a red light flashes to show it’s trying to connect and turns green when it connects before turning off. The radio then starts playing on the station that you’ve selected. Audio quality is very good and the Q2 Internet Radio produces a balanced mix sound. By that we mean that the sound is clear and detailed. While there’s not much bass, neither are the speakers too tinny. The hiss and fizz of internet radio is dealt with well; however, sound quality is dependent on the quality of the stream: the best stations give you 128Kbit/s streaming, which is around FM stereo quality; talk radio stations typically give you 32Kbit/s, which is fine for voice but music sounds a bit robotic. Volume is loud enough to fill a big room, and it’s good to see that there’s no distortion even at maximum.
The biggest drawback is that the single speaker means that you can’t get stereo sound, unless you plug in a pair of headphones. Given where the radio will be used it’s probably not a huge downside but you may want to look somewhere else if you want an internet radio that you’ll listen to a lot of music on.
A USB power adaptor plugs into the mini USB port and charges the internal battery. On a full charge there’s enough power for around 14-hours use: after around six hours an amber light flashes to tell you it’s a good idea to recharge; after around nine hours it flashes really quickly to remind you.
The Q2 Internet Radio is a really neat product. Four stations should be enough for most people to use, although it’s easy enough to update your stations when you want. It’s incredibly easy to use, while the long battery life means that you can use this radio anywhere in range of your wireless network, making it the ideal choice for general use, such as for DIY or gardening. It’s a little expensive, but for pure flexibility and ease of use it just about justifies it.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Price | £90 |
| Rating | **** |
