I bought this little gadget a few months ago so that I could listen to music when I'm in the bath without driving the neighbours mad with the sound of my stereo blasting from the front room to the bathroom. I also thought it would be handy to have around in case of a power cut or, after the extreme weather conditions we had last winter in the UK, to sling in the car if I need to go out in the snow so that if I ever get stranded somewhere I won't drain the battery in my car by having the radio on.

I wasn't expecting much for £5.50, and it's a small enough amount of money not to worry too much either way, but I have been pleasantly surprised. This analogue radio is a good little piece of kit by all accounts. It's light, and small enough to slip into a bag or a car glove compartment easily at 10cm x 4cm x 3.5cm. As well as being a radio it also has a torch positioned on the side; it's not the brightest torch in the world but it would certainly do in an emergency.

The radio is AM/FM with comes with a headphone socket and also a handy carry loop. As you would expect, the controls are simple to operate. There are slide type controls for frequencies and volume. You choose your channel using a dial that is positioned on the front of the radio. There is also a fully extending antennae style aerial on top of the radio.

You can either use the wind up function to power the radio or put batteries in. If you do choose to use it with batteries it takes 2 x AA. Now -I have to admit to being a bit dubious about claims that it would give 30 minutes of 'air time' from 60 seconds of winding. So I wound it up for a minute and left it in the bathroom, going back periodically to check. It actually lasted almost an hour! Granted, I didn't have the volume really high (that will drain the charge much quicker) but it was comfortably loud enough to be heard if you are in the same room as the radio. There are two small lights on the front of the radio; a red one and a green one. When the radio is charged up the green light will come on, and the charge gradually runs down this will get dimmer. A red light will come on when it's time to give it another crank.

As you would expect, the sound quality is not pristine, but hey - we're not talking about a piece of Bang & Olufsen kit here. It's a £5.00 radio from Tesco! I find the sound to be perfectly acceptable, there isn't much interference at all and it stays tuned in to a station really well.

Overall I am really pleased with this little radio. It's excellent value for money in my opinion.

At the time of writing this radio is on offer from Tesco Direct for only £4.00. If you have it delivered to your local store then there is no delivery charge.