Ryobi One+ 18V Bluetooth Radio R18R

A rare dud from Ryobi – Bought for DIY jobs around the house. Radio reception is really bad with the small antenna and I was looking for better sound quality given the price. Still better than listening to my phone streaming a radio station and it seems rugged enough, but compared to Ryobi's normally good gear in the One+ range I'm disappointed. Could have picked up an Ozito one for less than half the price.

Great basic gardening or workshop radio – There's lots to love about the Ryobi R18R 1. The sound is loud and clear. I was tempted to buy the bigger twin speaker Ryobi radio, but this one meets my needs. 2. The convenience and flexibility of using Ryobi's 18V battery system is great. 3. The Ryobi people even thought of a concealed spot for a couple AAA batteries to maintain the time and preset station frequency memory whilst you have the 18V battery out for charging. Better still, a tiny internal battery will hold the time and preset station frequencies for 15 seconds when the time comes to swap out dead AAA batteries. 4. There is a great little carry handle at the back. 5. The bluetooth paired quickly and easily to my Samsung mobile phone 6. The USB socket even allows you to charge your phone or other small device whilst the radio is being used.

I have not experienced the FM radio reception problems encountered by other reviewers. I suspect their problems may be a locality issue.

Ryobi could however, have put more a little more thought into a few other aspects of this radio's design. 1. It’s great that there are ten preset radio stations for AM and another ten for FM, but they are only accessible in one direction; via a single "up" button. Not being able to go back or just choose a single station by using ten preset buttons is a nuisance. 2. The AM receiver is could be stronger and better at filtering interference. 3. The auxilary input allows for an mp3 player to be plugged into the 3.5mm socket, but the usb slot will not take a standard usb stick on which music might be stored. The inclusion of an mp3 player would have been helpful. 4. The shelf at the rear upon which a mobile phone might be placed is too small. Whilst the shelf can be no lower, most modern mobile phones will also be too tall to sit on the shelf and fit under the carry handle. The elastic cord also seems a little flimsy and interacted unhelpfully with the touch screen of my mobile phone. 5. Whilst bluetooth tends to have a 10 metre range (so you could keep your phone in your pocket) the bluetooth seems to drain the Ryobi battery more quickly than if the mp3 player is connected to the 3.5mm audio input socket.

All up, a great FM radio and audio player with the convenience of the Ryobi One battery system.

Radio reception is terrible – Radio reception is terrible on all FM stations. Do not buy if this is your primary intention as it cannot hold a signal regardless of where you try to position it. Apart from that, good little unit. Bluetooth reception is good, sound quality is good, volume level is good but becomes distorted on highest setting. Obviously this is not suitable as a large worksite radio, but is good for small jobs where you are near the radio most of the time.

USB port is handy, as is the phone strap on the back but bear in mind modern larger handsets won't fit.

Lasts all day using the 5Ah battery.

Not worth the money – I have purchased a few Ryobi One products and most of them are really great, but this is a bit of a fail. The first thing a radio must do is be able to hold reception and this just doesn't do that. I have had it side by side with other radios and they work fine, whereas the Ryobi One r18r radio just drops reception. You can walk in front of it and it drops reception it's not good. My advice is DO NOT BUY a Ryobi One r18r radio.