There several areas that makes this is bad emergency radio:

1) The Crank Power device is very weak: I charged manually for two minutes, according to the instructions. The power lasted for 3 minutes. I charged again for two minutes and the power lasted for less than one minute.
2) The solar panel charge the battery, in their words "at a very slow rate". They continue, in their instructions: "it is better to crank it to charge the battery". Just imagine how slow is the solar panel.
3) The shortwave radio reception is almost non-existent. Since this is an emergency radio, the SW reception is very important.
4) They offer to give Amazon customer a free SW antenna is we submit a review. This antenna should have been included with the radio.
So, this radio goes back and I will look for something better

I bought this unit after the one that I paid half as much for didn't work right out of the box. This unit is well packaged, has clear operating instructions, and works great. The battery was even charged so I could verify all of the functions right away. I liked the blue color because I thought it would be easy to find in case of emergency. Overall feels well made, the switch stops line up with the switch labeling so no guessing which mode or function you're in. I would buy this radio again.

Outstanding radio. I bought this for my long distance sailing voyages on the east coast, so I can safely say that I trust this as a piece of safety equipment. This is the swiss army knife of batteries - it does it all.

This radio can be charged by USB from computer, which is something I've never seen before and is quite innovative. Using that same USB cord (that comes with the radio, I should add) you can charge FROM the radio to phones or anything else that takes the standard phone charging plug.

Given that you can ALSO charge this radio with a crank, or solar panels - this thing is very versatile. The quality of the radio appears to be rock solid. The plastic is rounded, has grip, and feels firmly assembled. This isn't a "cheapo" radio, by any measure. You get what you pay for, I consider this high value for my money spent. Thumbs up!

Nice little radio. I love that it has four ways to charge up and has a USB port to charge devices. I took the advice of the other reviewers and tried all aspects of the radio right away to rule out any defects. The crank only needs to be worked maybe a minute or two before creating a nice charge. If you're not a directions reader, note that you have to plug the battery pack into a little socket in the battery area before the radio will work. The only part I'm not able to confirm works is the solar panel, but it sounds like that is a very slow way to charge. Also, the plate with the radio station numbers on it isn't the most accurate, but I had no trouble finding my local news station on the AM dial. I also purchased the extra antenna and DC adapter and they work fine.

Excellent standby radio. It has everything you need including USB charging port for a device like a cell phone. In case of an emergency you have the crank or solar method of charging. Even though the solar probably would take all day to give you a strong enough charge.