Sangean MMR-99 vs Midland ER300 Pro: a better radio or a bigger power bank?

A radio first, or a power bank first

On a shop page these two read alike: AM and FM, a hand crank, a solar panel, a torch with an SOS mode, Bluetooth and USB-C charging. Their manuals show two different products. Sangean’s MMR-99 is a radio with a modest battery and an unusually good crank. Midland’s ER300 Pro is a large 10,000mAh battery with a fast phone-charging port and a radio attached. Like the Sangean, it stops the radio while it charges a phone.

We haven’t used either. The figures below are from Sangean’s UK product page and manual and from Midland’s English manual. Our Sangean MMR-99 review and Midland ER300 Pro review go further, and emergency radios compared has every set we track.

Listening: the Sangean is the better radio

Sangean’s manual gives about 24 hours of play from a full battery, about three hours to recharge it over USB-C, and about ten minutes of radio for each minute of winding at about 100 turns a minute. That crank figure is one of the better ones published among the radios we track, and it means a couple of minutes on the handle gets you the next news bulletin. The MMR-99 also has RDS station names, 40 presets and an IP55 rating, which Sangean describes as protection against splashing water and dust, though its safety notes still say not to expose it to rain or moisture.

Midland quotes up to 100 hours of use for the ER300 Pro without saying what kind of use, so it can’t be set against Sangean’s 24 hours. Its crank and solar panel are slow refills for a battery that size: Midland says an hour of direct sun gives about ten minutes of recharge under ideal conditions, and its crank figure is printed as a current rather than as listening time. The manual lists no presets and no water rating.

Neither radio takes AA or AAA cells. When the internal battery is empty, both depend on the crank, the sun or a socket elsewhere. Sangean’s manual calls its solar panel a supplementary source that should not be relied on as the main one.

Phones: the Midland is the bigger power bank

The ER300 Pro’s 10,000mAh battery is nearly four times the Sangean’s 2,600mAh, and its USB-C port charges at up to 5V 3A, 9V 2A or 12V 1.5A. Midland’s manual says it can fully recharge a flat phone. The Sangean’s USB-A socket is rated 5V 1A, a slow but real top-up, and its manual has a DC OUT setting that must be switched on for the socket to charge anything while the radio is off and on battery.

Neither lets you listen while it charges. Midland’s manual says that while the ER300 Pro charges another device it switches to clock or standby mode, with the AM/FM radio “momentarily disabled”; Sangean’s manual says to turn the radio off to charge a phone. With either, a long cut means listening at set times and charging in between. The difference is what is left afterwards: the Sangean’s phone charge comes out of the same 2,600mAh battery its radio runs on, while the Midland has nearly four times as much to draw on.

If phones are the priority, a separate power bank and a simple radio may suit you better than either; Be Ready lists a charged power bank as its own item.

Which suits who

The Sangean MMR-99 is the simpler choice and good enough for most homes that want a radio: a published, generous crank figure, presets, IP55, and a phone socket for emergencies. It is heavier, at 900g, so it is a radio for the house rather than a bag.

The Midland ER300 Pro suits someone who wants one box that keeps phones topped up through a long cut, accepts that the radio pauses while it does, and doesn’t need a water rating. At 609g it is the lighter of the two, and Midland rates it to work from −20 to 55°C.

Whichever you choose, keep it charged, note the FM frequencies of the stations you use for news as Be Ready suggests, and read which radio works in a power cut. For storing and charging lithium batteries safely, see lithium battery fire safety.