There's plenty of promise in the Pure Sensia, but given its shortcomings and the high price you pay for them it's only worth considering if you're after style above substance.
We'll admit to being quit smitten with the Pure Sensia. It's a lovely looking piece of kit, and the clear audio and large touchscreen display give it an edge over every other audio streaming device we've tested. Having said that the speed of the interface leaves something to be desired, and scrolling through stations can be a chore. On the upside: the search functionality and large touchscreen keyboard make up for this, and once you have favourites stored you can quickly locate them. Then the interface becomes a joy and having pictures or one of the apps displaying information while music plays is a great feature. At â£249 it's hardly cheap, but we think the feature set justifies the cost.
The Pure Sensia is, without doubt, a fantastic radio device that adds some nice extra features. But that's all it is - a radio device. The apps make it a bit more interesting than your average DAB radio but you're not going to want to spend a lot of time using the Facebook or Twitter apps - it's just not a very fluid interface.
The media server feature is nice, but we can't help but feel that Pure has missed a trick by not getting Spotify, Napster and the likes on board.
Our overall opinion on the Sensia is nice idea, but must try harder. We like the idea of a radio hub that could sit on the kitchen top and provide access to the web. But the Sensia feels like its web apps have been ham-fisted on board leaving a sour note to what is otherwise a fantastic internet/DAB radio device.
