Milwaukee has been jamming by coming out with new and improved products over the last couple of years. One thing they have lagged behind on was a cool radio. Well today that comes to an end. Milwaukee introduced a cool new radio that has some pretty cool features.
The first thing you will notice is the nice roll cage to protect the unit. Being on a job site you are almost guaranteed to either drop the radio or have something fall on it. On the front of the radio is where you can control all the functions. While the LCD is large and easy to read, it would be nice if it had a little tilt upwards so if you have the radio on the ground and you’re standing, you can read the time or the station. One thing I really like is Milwaukee now added a volume knob instead of buttons to move the sound up or down. I tend to like the knobs better as I can turn it up or down much quicker. I do have to say the buttons on this radio do seem like they are more responsive then their older version. While I complained about the LCD not having a tilt upward, they did implement that in the speakers. The speakers are powered by a 40 Watt amp. As a user you can easily adjust the treble or bass to a specific sound you like. The radio has two mid ranges and two tweeters which while they point forward, they do have a slight tilt upward to help the sound spread farther in a room.
On top of the unit there is a weather sealed auxiliary compartment, which even my iphone with an Otter Box will fit. As you can see in the video below, you can even prop up your ipad. One thing I like is the auxiliary cable is removable. This way you can make it longer or if you damage it, you can replace it. Inside you will also notice a USB port that will allow you to either play music from your phone or charge your phone or ipad. One awesome thing is that even if you are powering the radio with a battery, you can still charge your phone. I have seen some where the unit has to be plugged in to charge your phone. I like how this doesn’t. One thing I have noticed if you are charging your cell phone, you don’t get any noises through the speakers.
As you know you can power this unit with an M18 battery, but what you may not know is that you can also charge an M18 battery. The power cord wraps around in the back for easy storage. However if you want to power the unit and charge the battery, just plug it in. Now you can jam to tunes and charge a battery. Again, even when charging the M18 battery, I didn’t hear any winding noise in the speakers. Just in case you were wondering, yes Milwaukee kept the bottle opener, which is key. I was a little disappointed it didn’t have a cooler, but again we can’t get everything.
So listening to music is nice on this unit. You can have up to 10 presets. You can also listen to music with the auxiliary cord. Okay, here is the cool thing. This unit has Bluetooth, so you can leave the cord behind. So with powering the unit with an M18 and using Bluetooth, actually it is really cord free. The Bluetooth feature is extremely easy to get set up and works great. No complaints on that at all.
So how does the radio sound? When I am playing music from my phone, the sound quality is awesome. Deep sounds and clear music. When I can find a radio station that does come in, the radio sounds pretty good also. We live about 40 miles northwest of Chicago, but some of the common stations I have had a real problem getting good reception. Now this isn’t just a Milwaukee problem. I have still yet to find a good job site radio that actually has good reception.
One thing that would have been nice to see is a couple of outlets on the unit. Not a huge deal and I am sure they didn’t include it because it might mess with the sound quality. However it would be a nice feature to have.
Bottom line, the Milwaukee M18 Jobsite radio is a great radio. The ability to charge a battery and use Bluetooth is awesome. While the reception could be better, the overall sound quality is great. If you are a Milwaukee fan and own some of the M18 platform, this would make a nice addition to an already great line of tools.
I’m totally bumming out. Do I have to sell my Bosch Powerbox???? Well, we will see about that! Tool fight tool fight tool fight!!!
lol
Great review Eric! She might be big ass, but she can really get her groove on. Seriously, this is a cool radio. Like how you can use bluetooth also.
I was expecting something more compact or streamlined. This is not. This is a big-o box with a few neat upgrades. It’s also a bit ugly & beautiful at the same time (???). How can that be? It has a slick cool looking Cadillac front (slick), but it’s to big and odd. Speaker placement looks like it won’t kick out to many watts or direction will need to place in front of a room (??). I have to many work radios to invest (see my comments on the Ryobi radio) on a new one that pretty much is the same as all the others. This is just my humble opinion. Laters TIA
When the price drops some, I will probably get it. Would of loved to have M12 charging ability too! For now, my older Milwaukee boom box and 6 pack m18 charger will do!
I wonder if this also charges m12 battery?
No
Man, I’m so excited about this. Sadly, I’m gonna sell my guitar amp so I can afford it. The only thing it’s missing is a line out so I can run it through my shop sound system
Bought one for my son, and it sounded better then expected….now it doesn’t have the killer bass that many portable radios have, but for a worksite radio it’s just fine. The 4.0 battery lasts quite awhile. It is big in size, but it’s also big on features. My 27 yr old son loves it!
i think ts great that finally they are including a charger into their radio but with them making the new chargers that come with the fuel kits m12 and m18 capable you would think they would do the same for the radio. i think either they will have a adapter that you can plug into the m18 slot to charge m12 batteries or they are going to release a new m12 mini radio that has charging capabilities. you never know but i am sure they will have a solution cause this is one everyones who owns milwaukee tools mind
3 things it’s missing
1.) needs to run off all batteries and charge them
2.) needs at least 2 GFCI outlets on it
3.) needs to get with the time and have some sort of adapter for Sirius/XM ( I got the older the radio and store all satellite radio equipment in the compartment and run it off the auxiliary and power taps)
They’re on the right track with the radio and got some sweet bells and whistles but I’m gonna wait until they at least make one with outlets on it
I find this radio is quite expensive. In addition, it lasted 2 months then the charger assembly died. Will not work on a and will not change batteries. Replacement chargers cost more than the radio does! Over $200!
I like Milwaukee Dual Chemistry M18 more. It’s a nice radio the compartment really isn’t that big I don’t like that are hard to plug anything up while closing it. Other than that it has worked great runs off battery or cord. Takes about 3 full days to drain a 5.0 ah battery