Reviews related to : Alba
Alba manufacture a range of consumer electronics goods including portable DVD players, DVD Recorders and DAB radios. Listed below are product reviews for Alba here at GadgetSpeak
I usually find that Ministry Of Sound systems have the odd extra sometimes quite unexpected, this does not disappoint. Its a CD, FM/MW radio, iPOD, SD Card and USB stick system.
This unit is black as are the speakers who as is the style are open displaying the cones. The main unit is 22x31x10.5cm, the speakers are each 15x15x21.5cm. The connecting leads are the bare wire type and are around 1.15metres in length. The case of the main unit is metal and the cases for the speakers are wood and have 10watts total power each speaker.
While I have seen cheaper unbranded boxes on sale in adverts, this is a new ball park low in a nationally advertised box it breaks the £20 price point and of course its not a sale price.
This is a simple black box, it is 21x17x3cm with the aerial lead inserted. There is a single LED on the front and the mains lead is hardwired into the rear. Unusually for basic Freeview units not only does an aerial input but an output as well. Most will connect to a SCART socket and it of course has one of those.
This unit is tiny, it will easily fit in the palm of your hand but that does not stop it having a decent display and lots of memory that can be further expanded by adding an SD card
This Alba 4Gbyte personal MP3 player is 5.5x4.5x1.5cm and the weight with it's single 'AAA' battery inserted is less than 50grams. The front has a 3x1cm LCD display that does not stop it having a very readable three line display that appears black on pale green (with backlight off) and black on pale blue (with backlight on). The unit is black with a sort of silver/grey border around the LCD display and joystick.
This is a small DAB/FM radio with clock. Has this new offering from Alba anything new to offer an already crowded market apart from what Alba always offers lower prices.
This is a grey unit with shiny black front and sides. It is 18cm wide, 16cm deep (with power lead inserted) and 5cm tall. If weight is important the unit - minus the power brick - is around 600grams. The rear has the power brick lead input, beside this is a 3.5 earbud jack and a wire aerial (this is around 1.3metres long). The sides have no controls, the base has two rubber feet at the rear and a label saying designed in Great Britain.
This is the first dual box that I have seen, great for anyone with a perfectly serviceable tubed analogue TV that only has a single SCART socket; oh thats exactly my situation when not looking at other peoples offerings.
The box is 42x28x5cm and is silver grey in colour. The total weight is around 2.4kilos. The front edge has six silvered buttons and the front left has the DVD tray while to the right of this is a LCD display. Once configured most will probably control the unit with the 47 key remote control. Providing you have a TV with a SCART socket the Alba unit provides everything you will need.
Not perhaps the most catchy title but if I say 50 hours or use on a single AA battery that becomes interesting and as a DAB radio around 14 hours, did I mention that its also tiny in size.
As always I tend to barge right in without reading the blurb. I have over the years reviewed lots of MP3 players and initially if you got 8 to 10 hours of use you were doing well. As things developed then 15 up to around 20 hours was possible. But I have never got beyond that on a single AA battery. Here after 20 hours the indicator is still registering fully charged. Apart from some short tests to tune the DAB all my use up till then had been on MP3 use.
Say it very quietly I am looking at something that is pink, in fact worse than that its a series of things that are pink and at least one of them will not be able to be used behind locked doors.
Apart from the fact that it is obviously aimed at the female this is a rather good small portable DVD player. The claimed time for use on batteries is only two hours but I never got less than 165 minutes and on one occasion I got 174 minutes. You can of course run it from the mains and should you wish you can plug it into a TV.
This is certainly one of the smallest DAB radios around, but small certainly does not mean limited functionality as it also has FM and the ability to be an MP3 player.
It is 8.5x6x2cm and weights only 120grams. It has a 2.5x1.5cm three line two colour display in the centre of the face that is extremely clear and easy to read. This is surrounded by eight rubberised buttons that control the unit. All but two are very obvious as to what they do and the 32 page manual describes everything in detail so the job of the two buttons that have a picture of a beating heart and a sun beside them are soon explained.
Yes this is cheap money wise, however it is well constructed and gives a good clear crisp sound, for those entering the DAB market this could be a good starting point.
It looks like a normal radio with a telescopic rod aerial and a nice carrying handle, it could be used on batteries (6 'C' cells) or more likely on mains. It is 23x16x7cm and weights 1.35 kilos without batteries so it is not flimsy. The first difference anyone new to DAB will notice is that there are no dials or knobs only a total of 16 buttons and a 6x1.5cm display.
A sub £100 DVD Recorder not so very long ago you would not have found many DVD players in that price bracket.
This is quite large at 41x41x7cm with cables inserted. Several units I have seen are thinner and certainly less deep but they do cost considerably more than the Alba. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy this was to setup. Plug in the aerial and the SCART lead and turn on. It then scans channels and finds not only the five terrestrial but also my cable channel even though it was switched off.
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