Man .. how I like this radio. It plays MP3s, it has a nice radio, you can use it as an emergency flash light and I just charged my cell phone with it. The internal battery can be solar charged (well .. not very fast though) or you may improve your upper body strength with the hand crank trying to put juice into the battery. It's way easier just to charge it with a 5V power supply. What I love most is the capability to just put normal batteries into the unit if the internal battery runs out of power. I would have loved to give it all 5 stars - but my radio didn't come with NOAA. They send me the wrong version (I got the RD-666T).As is true for most hand-cranked power generators, the user generates a lot of energy for paltryenergy storage potential. Scraping your knuckles against the radio case is the most likely outcome.Radio reception on AM is very good, with FM a bit deficient. NOAA signals are 5 by 5 - excellent.AM selectivity is as good as the best transistor radios. I took this unit to a known radio dead spot;it passed with solid AM & NOAA signals.Loss of reliable AM sighnals is a sure sign that thebtteries need some sunlight.This is a great choice for our emergency kit. Plus it arrived just in time, the morning before our first tornado outbreak of the year. This is easy to use in a variety of formats, charges quickly, doesn't drain batteries very quickly, and is loud enough to wake us up from the basement when an alert comes across. We are very happy with it, thank you so very much!I have several of these emergency radios and keep one in each vehicle. This particular one is the least of all the brands, it's better than nothing but not what I would want on hand in an actual emergency.To begin, the radio reception and sound are both pretty terrible, even the NOAA band which is the most critical thing. You have flashlight mode, but my other devices also have a bendable reading light. Charging mode for a typical phone is really slow, but again better than having a completely dead battery.At this price point you can easily find more compact emergency radios with better functionality. This one is more like a toy that kids can camp in the backyard with.This is a must have item everyone needs especially if you live in tornado alley like we do. It runs on solar power, battery power, or hand crank so you always have a power source and you can even use it to charge your cell phone. It's even got a siren so you can set off an alarm to get attention in case of emergency. Keep one for your car, home, office. Makes a great gift too.UPDATE!!!!!My daughter played her radio for about 3 days and then the MP3 stopped working... so I returned it and replaced with the same item hoping that it was just a defective fluke.We played the second radio for about a week, and it just quit playing... one second it worked, the next it didn't quit mid song. I guess I'll have to get one that is more expensive. The FM/AM still works.ORIGINAL REVIEWI got this emergency radio for my daughter because I didn't want to spend too much on a known brand and I wanted it to have a SD card slot for her to load songs on since radio signal is patchy in the boondocks anyways. She wanted an emergency radio like grandma. I am pleased to say that it works as advertised, we can listen to the NOAA stations easily and we can get a few FM stations pretty clear. The music from the card obviously plays the best since there is no interference and the sound is very nice - but note that we don't listen to it loud or with heavy thumping bass sounds, so I can't attest to sound distortion in those cases. But there doesn't seem to be any bad distortion listening at a normal level.Very disappointed with this emergency radio. It looks and feels "cheap". Reception is poor for NOAA and AM, even though my other radios can get these bands with no problem. Finally, the MP3 keeps cutting out. I don't know if my radio was defective or if all of them have the same problem. Anyway, I am returning the radio for a refund.