Yes, Eton's website has better pictures, but mine give it scale. I guess I could have used something more menacing for scale, but the pudding is what was handy. Weight on their website is listed at 8.5 ounces, or just slightly more than 2 pudding cups.
My wife and I previously owned a larger Eton, the FR 500 I believe it was. I was very happy with the quality of the FR 500, and had great trust going with a more compact model for our bug out kit.
I was not disappointed. Quality and ruggedness seem to be good for this radio. The speaker works fine...your not going to use it for hosting a block party, but it's fine for listening to music while playing on the computer. If you are worried about keeping it stealthy while listening for the news during a more...fluid situation, there is a jack for ear phones. This particular model has AM, FM and the 7 NOAA Weather Channels.
The flashlight feature when fully charged, is a decent flashlight. It's not 'tactical level' brightness, but it works for lighting up a room or a stairwell, reading a map, or finding something else in your backpack.
For power options, the radio has both a solar power, and a hand crank dynamo. If I could change one thing about this radio, I would add a power jack. The FR 500 didn't have the solar power, but it had a DC Adapter Jack. I miss it.
Yesterday, I set the radio out on my daughters southern facing balcony, and moved it twice to keep it pointed at the sun. That adds up to right around 8 hours of direct sunlight on the solar panel. With the radio on a moderate volume, that juice lasted about 4.5 hours.
Today, I sat down and cranked the dynamo handle for a timed 5 minutes. I can't even begin to estimate what RPM I was going at...it was a comfortable, not-break-a-sweat pace...for a WAG let's say 180-240 R.P.M. For this effort I was rewarded with 64 minutes of sound from the speakers.
One thing I have noticed, and I'm not sure it's a voltage issue of the charge or what, is that when using the solar panel, you do not get 100% flashlight brightness. It's bright enough to keep you from tripping over something, but it isn't light up the room bright.
All in all, for the $35 range, I think this is a good item. However, for $10-15 more, you can get the Eton Scorpion, which looks even more rugged, has a BOTTLE OPENER FOR BEER, AND has a DC power jack, meaning I don't need to make the girls crank the dynamo just so I can listen to the NOAA weather channels while I try to fall asleep.
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