What can be better about a compact 12V jobsite radio that plays your tunes and fits neatly inside a Bosch L-Boxx for storage and transport? The same radio but with a lower price tag!
The relatively new Bosch PB120 is now priced at $79 at Amazon. Its MSRP is $99, but in recent weeks its price has been a little higher than that.
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It comes with an AC adapter, but you’ll need to buy batteries and a charger separately if you want to use it without cords. Luckily, there’s a battery starter kit that includes (2) 2.0Ah batteries, a charger, and L-Boxx for just $69.
Sound quality is actually very good on this model, and it’s built fairly sturdily as well. At $79 it is an excellent buy.
Buy Now(Radio via Amazon)
Buy Now(12V starter set via Amazon)
Ryan
It’s also $79.00 at Lowes and HD. The Lowes near me has it in stock. I have the Bosch PB360D. It’s a great radio, but it’s too bulky and impractical for my needs. I’ve been looking at this one and the 18v model, but it looks like the specs are the same. If the sound quality is equal, then it seems like a no-brainer, especially since the 12v fits in one half of the l-boxx1.
Ryan
I must say though, I’m pretty disappointed that it doesn’t charge batteries.
Hang Fire
Supposedly deWalt (Stanley now?) owns a patent on the battery charging radio, or some part thereof, so nobody else makes one. I’ve heard that for years and am wondering just when this wonderpatent wears out, seems like it’s been more than 17 years. A patent number would be nice, too.
Ryan
My existing pb360 charges batteries, so I don’t think that can be the reason.
JOSH GUHN
Correct Dewalt has a patent on the radio charger and Bosch lost the lawsuit, so for every pb360 they sale Dewalt gets a kick back………….. ouch
Stuart
It appears that some are still valid 6,308,059 / 6,788,925, others have been expired due to reexamination 6,427,070.
Yes, having a built-in charger can be useful, but it results in larger size, greater costs, and in some cases reduced sound quality.
Javier
Larger bosch radios can charge batteries also so not just a dewalt thing.
So far no modern compact 12v job site radio has a charging function for its batteries. Neither the Milwaukee 12v compact radio or dewalt compact radio (if you can consider that compact) that runs off of 20v and 12v max batteries, have the charging function. I believe that the main reason is due to price. They would most likely charge more than $99 if it included that function and possibly the $99 price point was their target. Also adding the extra circuitry could have made them a bit bigger and Bosch and Milwaukee probably wanted to keep them as compact as possible.
matt
on Milwaukee’s sight they state lack of charging on there radios is because of interference issue’s.. And I have heard the charger buzz on plenty of dewalts.
I really dont buy this patent thing because the ryobi or rigid charges cant remember which, so does the Bosch.
Javier
I haven’t read that on the Milwaukee site but I will agree with you about the interference issue. I have the m12 radio and it was playing fine all day doing a good job at picking up stations that were too far and when the battery was dead I popped in a fresh one and charged the old one and for some reason it wouldn’t pick up most of the stations. I later found out that the farther it was from a charger that was charging the better the reception. It could be next to a charger and be fine but as soon as it was charging the reception went bad.
Nearby stations were unaffected but those out of the area stations were the ones that Were affected when charging.
Johnny
This radio is a disappointment. I still have the original JB and a JB360 but I wanted one that charges my 12V batteries. This little guy is just not up to the standard Bosch has set with its previous models.
Here is my wishlist for the next Bosch radio:
-indestructible like the original
-amazing sound like the 360
-charges 12V and 18v
-wireless charging stand
-bluetooth
-2x 2.1amp USB device charger from AC and battery
-LBOXX dimensions so it can clip into a stack of boxes
Anyone else able to add anything I missed?