Sangean WFR-28 Internet Radio/FM-RBDS/USB/Network Music Player Digital Receiver

I am reviewing the Sangean WFR-28 portable internet radio, but also adding comments about my recently purchased Grace Mondo portable internet radio, as they are in a similar class so I hope the comparisons may help others. Both are nice radios.The Sangean radio has some striking differences from the Mondo which I will try to describe. Some pro's on the Sangean radio are that you can use your own batteries in it, whereas with the Mondo, you have to purchase a separate battery pack for it. The Sangean will operate on either conventional or rechargeable NIMH D batteries, and will also re-charge the NIMH batteries while plugged in. This is very convenient, and gives the Sangean more flexibility.The Sangean radio has good WI-FI reception. I did a side by side comparison between the Sangean and the Grace Mondo by walking around the house and just outside with them to test their range. The Sangean was clearly more stable with much less drop outs and buffering. I also noticed that when the Sangean did buffer or loose signal, it was much more likely to recover, whereas the Mondo tended to give up entirely at times.The biggest advantage of the Sangean over the Mondo in my view is that it handles Podcasts nicely. You can stop/pause/forward and rewind a Podcast, whereas on the Mondo you cannot. That is a real drag if you are listening to a Podcast and either need to stop for a moment or missed something, you need to start it over or give it up. Further, the Sangean seems to receive many more Podcasts, (at least the types I like, such as Medical stuff, science, and automotive Podcasts).The Sangean uses the Frontier Silicon Portal, whereas the Mondo uses Reciva. Reciva is probably bigger overall, but for me, I love Podcasts and prefer the Sangean variety offered and the functionality of such.Of Significance is that with the Sangean, when you go to set up your stations on the Frontier Silicon Website with a computer, you can actually listen/hear them first before adding them to your list that shows up on your radio, but with the Mondo/Reciva set up- you cannot listen to any of the stations on the computer, making choices tricky. I verified this with the nice staff at Grace, and it is true that while on the computer you cannot sample the stations, weird but true apparently. This results in wasted time and making lots of changes on the website for Reciva. To clarify, you can listen by browsing with either radio, but you cannot add stations while listening, so you need to use a computer to set it up your stations, but with the Mondo, you cannot hear it first when on the computer and setting up your stations. It is sad that you cannot set up stations permanently on either radio, (other than on the few presets) like you could on some of the older Logitech radios.You can allegedly add stations and Podcasts on either radio, but it is not easy, as I was only successful one time in doing this and it was by luck I picked the exact right digits. It requires selecting the proper RSS or URL feeds, and it is probably best to let your 8 year old do it for you. I have not seen good directions on how to do it, but apparently it can be done on both models.CONS: The Sangean does not have apps, such as Pandora, and the screen is small. Here the Mondo is better, as Pandora and others can be nice to have- so this is personal taste. I tend to listen to Pandora on other units, (including the Mondo) and the Mondo does a good job with the apps.The Sangean screen is OK, but small.The Mondo's much larger color screen is nicer.The Sangean has only 5 presents, (5 for regular FM, 5 for Internet radio). The Mondo has 10 for internet radio using a shift key.BOTH radios may cut out if used near a microwave oven that is in operation. This is very frustrating if you want to listen while in the kitchen using the microwave, (this is more of a problem with the Mondo). You can move them around and usually get a signal, but it takes time, so placement is touchy if the oven is running. I think this is due to the radios using a 2.4 frequency, as does the microwave, and I found this interesting as I had not read about this in other reviews and it is a significant issue with Wi-Fi. if you plan on a kitchen based listening situation.SOUND: The sound quality between these two radios is close and,both are good. The Sangean seems to handle louder volume a bit better while the Mondo at lower levels seems clearer, (the Mondo has an added tweeter which helps the sound a bit, especially lower end voices, but both sound nice). You can tailor the sound of both nicely on the menu. Hint: With the Sangean, turn OFF Loudness, then boost bass/treble to taste-this clears it up nicely and puts the sound close to that of the Mondo.CONCLUSION: The Sangean clearly wins as to handling Podcasts. I also really like the built in FM Band with RDS on the Sangean, (this radio will actually show you the song/title/info playing if the FM station you are listening to has this feature). I really like having the option to use my own batteries.To be fair, I did send back the first Sangean WFR-28 due to poor Wi-Fi reception. (I think this was a fluke based on my lengthy history with many other Sangean radios over the years, all have been solid and never failed over many years). My first Sangean unit was weaker than my Mondo, but the replacement unit is great, with the Wi-Fi being clearly better than the Mondo.Both radios have a nice remote app for I-pods, I-phones, and Android phones which work nicely. They are free. You can control nearly every function, such as searching, volume, changing pre-sets, it is nice. On the Mondo, I discovered you can have 22 Pre-sets, (instead of 10 on the radio itself, and that tickled me. I also discovered I could operate another CC internet radio with it).The display on the Mondo is clearly better, the sound is close with the slight edge going to the Mondo. I like the feel and build quality on the Sangean, I like some of the options such as Pandora on the Mondo. The Sangean has better Wi-Fi range, yet the Mondo can be hardwired directly to the internet with their separate optional adapter, a nice option to have if either in a weak Wi-Fi spot where a hard connection is available, or in case you go somewhere without any Wi-Fi or want to turn off your own. If using your own batteries is important, and of being able to swap them out due to long battery listening times, the Sangean may be your best option.It would be nice to combine the best features of both these radios, with the biggest differences being control of Podcasting on the Sangean, and of Pandora being on the Mondo. Either way, I think it is hard to go wrong with either radio, depending on your needs. I hope this was helpful. In case it is not obvious, I really like radios!

This review comes after two months of continuous daily use. The Sangean Internet radio is overall a great device that does what it promises. I do recommend buying it however, it's not perfect and potential buyers should be aware of a few things before buying. The Sangean WFR-28 has great sound, works steadily, plays thousands of radio stations with no problems, is relatively portable, good looking and overall does what it promises to do. No reason to say many things about its good points because it simple delivers what its specs say it does. This review will be more detailed on its bad points so potential buyers know. This is no way means that I don't like my device. I love it and I gave it four stars. The issues it has are the following:-Too few preset buttons. The radio comes with 5 dedicated preset buttons for stored stations. These are too few when considering how many stations one can access. One can access a larger favorites list by digging in the menus but it's not the best way to do it.-The user interface is somewhat tiring (many sub-menus to get somewhere) and the jog dial that is used to control the menus is not so easy to use with one hand.-Very few options to control screen brightness (no timing setting, no dedicated turn-on button).-Boot from standby can be long when using batteries.-Most important, one should be aware of the situation with batteries. When used as a WiFi radio the Sangean WFR-28 really consumes a good amount of power. Four alkaline D-cell batteries will last only a couple of days. So it's safe to say that nobody will actually use it in this way because the cost is really high to change batteries every two days. Fortunately, one can use rechargeable NiMH batteries which work great and are recharged by the radio itself BUT the tricky part is that one should get the largest capacity batteries possible. Don't buy four 1000 mAh cells and expect this to last a day. One should go for 5000 mAh D-cells and, if possible, find good value 10000 D-cells. This will allow the radio to actually last a few days with one charge and allow it to show its strengths, for instance portability by carrying it around the house and garden with no power cord. So one should add the cost of good batteries to the cost of the radio.Finally, regarding WiFi reception I would say that the reception is above average but not top. It is comparable to that of typical smartphones so if your smartphone has good reception at a specific location, this radio will probably work. The reception is not as good as typical laptops so if you have a large house and your laptop has good reception at a remote corner, the Sangean will not necessarily have good reception as well. When reception is good, the streaming works flawlessly with no interruptions. When the signal is low, the radio can keep losing connection and appear to freeze. I would guess that most problems regarding this radio that are mentioned in the reviews are due to bad wifi signal because when reception is good, the radio absolutely streams with no interruption.