Digital Trends

Sanyo R227 Internet Radio November 12th, 2008 | by David Tanaka

Features and Design

Thankfully, multiple options are provided for connecting to the Internet, allowing a maximum amount of flexibility in terms of convenience. As you’d anticipate, the Sanyo R227 is WiFi-enabled, so if you are using a wireless router, you can plug the radio into any convenient AC outlet within your router’s range. If you haven’t gone wireless yet though, the R227 additionally sports a standard RJ-45 Ethernet jack on the back.

The unit also incorporates an FM tuner with an auto-seek mode and two alarm clocks. The wake-up call function associated with the latter features can be set to buzzer, an FM station or an Internet radio station. Each alarm clock can further be programmed to sound daily, on weekdays or weekends only, or once a week on a specific day. The radio additionally has a sleep timer that can be set for lengths of time ranging between 15 and 90 minutes.

If you have a Windows PC on the same network, you can also use the R227 as a media player, provided you’ve set up sharing on the computer. Tunes may be selected by album, artist and individual tracks or playlists.

The radio's design is simple, albeit quite pleasing overall — it’s essentially a black rectangular box with a brushed metal faceplate. The black surface has a sprayed lacquer finish that's trendy and a touch more elegant than glossy plastic. A circular control cluster on the face is occupied by a big rotary dial surrounded by eight buttons designed into the circular bezel. (The bezel has 11 segments, but only eight are active buttons). Four of the buttons serve more than one function as well, including offering access to stored stations (you can store a total of eight stations, if desired).
Mind you, the blue blacklit LCD is quite small. Nonetheless, it shows only four lines, so the text is big enough to read from several feet away. Other control buttons are arranged below the LCD window. The R227 also comes with a wireless remote unit. The radio will play stereo and has a pair of speakers mounted on the left and right ends. It has line-in, line-out and headphone jacks to boot.

The front display of the r227

The back panel of the r227

What's In the Box

Besides the radio itself, Sanyo provides a wireless remote control unit (complete with a battery), two-prong AC cord, instruction booklet and a one-sheet menu guide that explains how to enjoy various settings using the controls on the radio. In other words, don’t expect anything special here, but the selection proves adequate in terms of supplemental accessories and materials.