In-car-only FM transmitters 1 - Kensington Digital FM
The two in-car only transmitters we looked at happened also to be dedicated iPods models that plug into the iPod's docking socket. Each acts as battery charger for the iPod and fires up automatically as soon as it's plugged into the cigarette lighter socket.
Kensington Digital FM
The £38 Kensington Digital FM is a small white and grey affair that connects to the iPod via a 1220mm (48in) cable – giving you plenty of flexibility about where to put it.
The controls are housed in a small block that's part of the lighter-adaptor itself. That means it can be controlled with just one finger, making it the best of the five transmitters for usability and ease of use in the car.
In fact, this type of design - where the controls are in a fixed place and effectively become another set of dashboard switches – is, we think, the safest option for in-car use when you're driving alone.
An up/down tuning button lets you to select the desired radio output frequency - 88.1MHz works quite well around some of south London. You find the frequency with the up/down button and then press and hold one of the three preset buttons to store it.
In terms of sound quality, there wasn't much to choose between any of the units though the Kensington was the worse performer of the five.
Sound wasn't quite as clear or sharp as the other units and there was sometimes unpleasant sibilance or distortion in the higher frequencies. The sibilance wasn't noticeable all of the time but on 17 Again from Peace by the Eurythmics, for example, it made Annie Lennox sound as though she has a really bad lisp.
Also, although build quality was okay for something costing £30, it wasn't as good as for the other products in the test.
Now for our second in-car-only unit, the Griffin iTrip Auto...
