I spend a lot of time commuting by train over the winter, and because I'm an intolerant, grumpy sort of traveller, I like to shut out the sounds from all my irritating fellow passengers, especially when they all board the train and start yakking at 7.30am. In my book, 7.30 am is NOT a time for gossiping, it's a time for gently waking up to some music while watching the sun rise on my train journey. That said, it's a free world, and so instead of scowling at them I just turn the volume up ever so slightly on my new, shiny, very little personal radio walkman.

I used to have a radio/cassette walkman, which I found didn't work for several reasons: firstly it was just too big and cumbersome. When you are squashed into trains that suffer from overcrowding the last thing you want to do is elbow people while you try and adjust the volume or fiddle with the tuning on your radio. Secondly, the already quite poor reception was made even worse by being broadcast from the deep recesses of my fleece pockets. And last, but by no means least, I was fed up of retrieving the device from my bag at 6pm, stepping onto a train and realising that because it had been knocking around in there all day, the battery had gone flat because it kept switching itself on.

I wanted a replacement, and I wanted something that only had a radio, to keep the size minimal. I wanted something that would last, and was therefore of good quality. And I wanted something simple and not too expensive that would replace the gratuitous noise of my fellow commuters (God, I sound just like my father): in short, it didn't need to wake me up at 7.30 am so that I could listen to where it was at the weekend, how much it drank, and who was there or wasn't there; it just needed to wake me up gently in the morning with some music.

I bought a Sony SRF-M37L. Not only is it small (about two and half inches across, fitting neatly into the palm of my hand) but it's also sturdy. It's already had several knocks and been dropped a couple of times, and it doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. It's very light to carry and has a handy clip, so you can attach it to the inside of your coat, or to your belt, and forget about it.

The first thing that impressed me about it was the quality of the reception. In areas where I had little or none before, I can now tune in. That has to be due to the quality of the device, rather than anything else. There is a local/distant (DX) switch which "optimises the reception" of local and distant stations, and although I'm not entirely sure how that works, sometimes fiddling with it helps!

I wanted simple and that's what I got. There is an LCD which displays either the time, or the radio station frequency. There are no complicated controls: just power on and off, clock, band (to switch between FM/AW/LW), six preset buttons numbered 1-6 which you can tune to your favourite stations and a tune + and - to manually change the frequency. You can store up to 24 stations in total — 12 in FM and the rest in AM or LW. It's very easy to set them — you just tune to the station manually, and hold the preset button until you hear a couple of beeps. Even I can manage that!

It also seems to be ultra-efficient with battery life. It runs from one AAA battery. 20-ish hours is around the average I've had, which is pretty good. There is a picture display which warns you when the battery is weakening so you know to replace it.

My favourite feature is the hold key, which you can activate to lock the radio and prevent it changing stations when you have it set to the station you want and are moving around. A little key is displayed on the LCD when this is on. I would be even grumpier if I was happily listening to virgin radio in the morning and suddenly found myself faced some appalling local station!

All in all, I'd class this as a good mid-range piece of kit: it cost me 37.99 sterling: not fancy, but good value and it fits my needs perfectly. Combined with a strong cup of coffee, it almost makes me human in the mornings!