Teufel Radio One in the test: Small radio alarm clock with boom

Wake up as you want, when you want – well, the latter cannot be guaranteed even with a clock radio. But Teufel wants to take care of the “how” with Radio One. Wake up with ringtones, radio or your personal playlist and dance your way into the day, that’s the mission of Radio One. Mission accomplished? Read it in our in-depth review.

Teufel Radio One: Coming soon

The Teufel Radio One does not have many airs and graces, but is immediately recognizable as a classic radio alarm clock. But radio reception and beeping alarm clock sounds are apparently not enough for Teufel, and so the Radio One comes with a number of other playback options. digital radios can not only do radio today, as can be seen from the lavishly equipped models in our list of the best.

With Radio One you should fall asleep gently to your own music, wake up refreshed in the morning and enjoy stereo sound with a solid bass foundation. But can Radio One deliver on its promise? We look – and listen – closely.

Start the day: DAB, FM, Bluetooth and AUX with the Radio One

As a radio alarm clock, the Teufel Radio One naturally has the transmission standards DAB/DAB+ and FM on board. But that’s not all: Your own music should also be used for the morning alarm clock. You can use either Bluetooth or the AUX input on the back for this. So your Spotify playlist can serve as an alarm clock.

Two alarms are available to you, which you activate and set using the two bell symbols on the fabric-covered front. You can choose the time and date of the alarm, as well as whether it should play once, daily, weekdays or only on weekends. You can also set the volume at which the alarm clock rings, so that you don’t stand up in bed in the morning – or you can, if you’re a real grouch in the morning. One of the four pre-programmed alarm tones is intended to remind you of the devil’s home town of Berlin, more precisely the glockenspiel of the Memorial Church. There is a sleep timer for gently falling asleep in the evening.

Your clock radio as a power bank

In addition to the AUX input, you will also find a USB port on the back of the Teufel Radio One. It’s not for playing music, you can charge your cell phone here instead. So: in the evening, plug in your cell phone, connect it to the radio via Bluetooth and turn on your sleep playlist. After either 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes, the sleep timer switches off the program in a relaxed manner.

The Teufel Radio One in the sound check

Of course, you can also use the playback options for the alarm clock outside of the alarm function. The Teufel Radio One tries to be a small, compact Bluetooth speaker for the bedside table. With two drivers that are slightly angled outwards, the Radio One should offer you rich stereo sound. The Teufel Dynamore technology, for example, also the larger Teufel Radio 3Sixty sets, should expand the sound stage. The back of the Radio One is dominated by a passive membrane.

The test shows that the Radio One at least fulfills the stereo promise. You shouldn’t expect a 360° sound like from a Sonoro Relax, but there is still a lot of music coming from the side of the Radio One, so you are more flexible in the setup.

The rear membrane makes a great first impression: When you pick up the Teufel Radio One, it vibrates strongly in time with the music, the bass has that much punch. Unfortunately, the Teufel radio only transfers this power to the sound image to a limited extent: the Radio One cannot reproduce really deep tones, our test song Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths seems hollowed out. The focus of the Radio One is clearly on the mids, which it carves out well. However, it also has problems with the heights. All of this results in a flat sound image that makes the voices of your favorite presenters clear and distinct, but with irritating peaks, especially at higher volumes.

The sound is perfectly adequate for a small radio alarm clock that will wake you up in a relaxed manner. In our opinion, however, the promise that Radio One invites you to the first dance in the morning cannot be fulfilled in terms of sound.

Operating the Teufel Radio One: Directly on the device

You only operate the Teufel Radio One using the buttons on the device. There is no option for remote control via remote control or app. Since you’re probably going to be served most of the time while you’re still in bed anyway, that’s forgivable.

The Radio One has all the necessary controls on the housing. On the front you will find two buttons for the alarms, a moon-shaped button for the sleep function, the button that brings up Bluetooth pairing and Bluetooth playback, as well as buttons for FM and DAB+. There are more buttons on top of the radio. On the far left is the menu button, next to it you’ll find forward and back buttons to skip stations and songs. The rotary wheel in the middle is used both for navigating the menu and for volume control. On the right are three slots where you can save your favorite stations.

The operation is therefore logically structured. Unfortunately, it is not really liquid. Keys react somewhat delayed and some inputs are not registered at all. You cannot adjust the volume while you are in the menu, as you need the wheel to scroll through the submenus. There is a back button that takes you out of the menu and alleviates the problem a bit. The key that you actually use to skip songs is used for this, which takes a bit of getting used to. There is no station list to scroll through, instead you have to go through the stations with the arrow keys and let yourself be surprised.

When you press the wheel, the music will pause or mute. This is also how you put your alarm clock into snooze mode. To switch off an alarm completely, you have to press the associated alarm button. This requires some pressure and accuracy, because the keys are quite small. As in all the previous points, the operation of the Teufel Radio One is logical here, but difficult in practice.

Design: Simple with stylish details

The Radio One is an inconspicuous entry in the Teufel portfolio. It’s small and compact, and the fabric covering and the dimmable display also make for a relaxed, cozy impression. Perfect for a bedroom digital radio.

The letters that shine frontally behind the mesh of the fabric are reminiscent of the design of the much larger one Bluetooth speaker with DAB radio from Teufel, den boomster. The Radio One’s luminous display automatically adjusts to the brightness in your bedroom and can be dimmed manually via the menu. So the writing is always easy to read, but every now and then it gets too dark on its own.

Our verdict on Teufel Radio One

The Radio One from Teufel is a compact radio alarm clock for comfortably falling asleep and waking up. However, it cannot keep the promise of the “hi-fi alarm clock”, as Teufel advertises on Radio One’s website. The sound is sufficient for a radio alarm clock, but is not very fun as a Bluetooth player in everyday life. If you’re looking for a small, inconspicuous companion for your bedside table that will reliably wake you up – and you already have a designated speaker for regular music sessions anyway – then the Radio One is worth considering.

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What the hell do you say Radio One? Your new clock radio? Or do you prefer to keep looking around? Let us know in the comments!