ZHIWHIS Portable Bluetooth Radio, FM AM Shortwave Radios with Sleep Timer and Preset Function, Rechargeable Digital Recorder, Stereo MP3 Player with Lyric Display, Support Micro SD Card and AUX

First of all, I purchased an older version of this radio nearly a year and a half ago and liked it a lot even then. It could record from any source, mic, radio, line-in, even bluetooth, and could play mp3 files on a TF/MicroSD chip. But the automatic gain control built into the mic recording mode didn't really work as expected; many times the recorded sound would be too loud and would fluctuate rather wildly, while other times just clearing my throat close to the mic would allow the automatic gain control to work more as expected, though this was not guaranteed to work for every mic recording. Also, recordings were stored in folders called MRECORD, BRECORD, LRECORD, etc, and inserting a new TF card then reinserting the old one would cause recordings to be mixed in with the music in shuffle mode. Now fast forward to this new version, and wow have they outdone themselves with this one! First, the recording quality defaults to mp3 160Kb/s/channel, so stereo recordings via line or bluetooth are now 320Kb/s and mono recordings such as via the mic are recorded at 160Kb/s, a major improvement over the max 128Kb/s of the previous version. Also, the automatic gain control seems to be off by default, though I haven't checked the menu system to see whether or not it can be turned on. It's enough that it is off and that in most situations, the mic is not too sensitive and the recording will not be distorted unless I speak directly into the mic or blow into it or something as clipworthy as that. Playing back my recordings made with this new version sounds amazing now. I even got an excellent recording from FM radio, though I only tested for about half a minute. Other tests using the mic, both recording on the unit itself and connected to a computer using the unit as the recording source sounded quite good played back on the computer. Even better, recordings are now stored in folders named as AUX, BLUETOOTH, MIC and RADIO under the RECORD folder, which is only played when the unit is switched to recordings mode by holding the 0 key down. Doing the same to switch back to music playback mode will leave the RECORD folder out of the music being played, even in shuffle mode. Radio reception on all bands is very good, especially considering the price. I initially purchased the earlier version of this radio for casual shortwave listening, but found all the rest of its impressive feature set to be too compelling to ignore. Still, shortwave reception is not bad either, making this a great all-around value for the price. It won't win any battery life contests with the included battery, but the common BL5-C battery is rather inexpensive and after-market batteries will range in capacity from about the same as what ships with this radio up to more than 1 1/2 times the 1000MaH that ships with it, and that will considerably increase the life per charge. Sound quality is not bad through the internal speaker, especially as small as the radio is, and the maximum volume will certainly fill a small to medium room. Headphones though are another matter. I get more bass from the speaker than I hear through headphones, and something I find even worse is that the left and right channels on both the older and newer version of this radio as well as another similar radio by another brand are reversed, so I have to wear my headphones backwards to hear the sound as it was intended to be heard. As this seems to be a wide-spread flaw among many inexpensive radios, although I find it to be very annoying, I didn't feel the need to take off a star for this one, as the rest of the features and the newest implementation far outweigh the annoyance of the reversed headphone channels. I just note it here in case something can be done by the manufacturer at some point, as many improvements have certainly been made just in the past year and a half, all while keeping the price low. Overall, this little radio packs a ton of features in a very small, very inexpensive package, everything from AM/FM/SW reception to mp3 music playback to mp3 recording from every supported sound source to card reader to USB audio device. I can't recommend this one enough, and if it withstands the punishment the last one took, I'll be back in a year and a half to get another one.

This has some nice features for a low-end portable shortwave radio. Plusses include:- Bright easy to read display- Direct frequency entry- Flexible inputs for use as a computer/Bluetooth/MP3/radio speaker- Ability to record good quality sound from the air, the radio, Bluetooth or Aux input- Very strong sound- Play/Pause button that works both on music files and as a mute button on radio- Equalizer tone control (only works with recorded music, not radio)The radio is compact and convenient to recharge with the included USB cable.But while the display is bright and easy to read, the labels on the buttons are not. In anything less than bright lighting conditions, I can't read the buttons. The the tiny off white or orange labels don't provide strong contrast. You can see this in the last product photo that on my monitor is about the same size as the actual radio. It's professionally lit but the text on some of the labels is not sharp. It's much worse in indoor lighting. I've had many radios, and this the only one I can't read easily.While the sound from the radio speaker is quite good for something this small, the sound from earphones with radio is not. With a good pair of Apple ear buds, the bass disappears and an annoying high frequency hiss is substituted, something not seen in other radio models. I do not think that someone who intends to use headphones for radio will be satisfied with this product.I don't expect any serious shortwave listener will be relying on an inexpensive radio like this, but I should mention that the tuning is not all that selective, allowing clear reception of strong stations when tuned +/5 kHz (sometimes even 10 kHz) off frequency. Sensitivity is on par with other radios at this price point. It lacks an antenna jack. Sensitivity is fair, but not on par with something like a Tecsun PL-330. Also the shortwave coverage is limited to 4.75 to 21.85 MHz.The lack of a clock is a mystery and if you want an alarm, you're out of luck. This also means no time stamp on recorded files, but at this price point even radios with clocks don't timestamp recordings for some reason.I found some of the controls not intuitive. When listening to radio, tapping the volume up or down button actually switches between stored stations. Changing volume is click-hold -- but when listening to music you can just tap the buttons for volume. When entering a frequency, you complete the operation by pressing the Play/Pause button.There are much better radios for more money, particularly for shortwave, but for FM plus a music player at this price point, the ZWS-603 is hard to beat.Update:I've had this radio for a year now. I never use it any more. Initially I took it with me largely because of the recording feature; I'd attach a cable to another radio that couldn't record and make recordings with with the ZHIWHIS. It's more convenient to record off the air with my phone rather than carrying an extra radio and a cable. If one has a better radio (I have several), there isn't much of a role for a lesser performing model.My review sounds more negative than I feel about the radio. It's strongest point is the speaker -- it's really good in a subcompact radio. That's what I think of first.This radio is also sold as model K-603 under the HanRongDa brand.