When it comes to electronics, you can make things only so small before they become too small to use. Tiny buttons become hard to press, small displays are difficult to see, and sometimes sound quality can flat-out suffer. I think back to a few years ago, when cell phone manufacturers were racing to see who could build the smallest phone. It became apparent pretty quickly that the fine line between size and utility had been crossed. Hence the popularity of flip phones. They're compact enough to be supremely portable, yet still offer buttons large enough for the average finger to press easily.

With all this in mind, I approached the new Roady XT with a fair amount of skepticism. Delphi touts it as the smallest plug-and-play XM radio around, which made me wonder immediately if it was going to be too small. Luckily, it's not. In fact, the Roady XT is quite impressive.

The Roady XT: solidly built and easy to use

True, the radio itself is remarkably slim and compact. But the first thing I noticed: it's not flimsy. On the contrary, it feels remarkably well put together. If you put one in your car, you won't worry a bit about it being too fragile.

My primary concern, its ease of use, was assuaged mere minutes after starting to use it. I found it quite simple to use without looking at it, something I consider very important in the car from a safety standpoint — I don't want to have to take my eyes off the road just to change XM channels. The buttons are well defined and easy to push without what I call "overmashing." With many small electronic devices, the buttons can be too close together, creating the tendency for me to push two or more buttons at the same time accidentally, which is a nuisance. The Roady XT's buttons are easy to find, and easy to press one at a time. Navigating through the system and surfing channels become very, very easy.

Sound quality

Sound, of course, is a vital element. I wondered if the XT's compact package didn't leave much room for the components necessary for decent sound, and I crossed my fingers in the hope that the music didn't end up sounding weak and tinny (this issue is quite separate from the inherent sound quality of the compressed satellite signal). The Roady XT, I found, sounds just fine; no better, but certainly no worse than your average plug-and-play satellite radio. I primarily used the audio output to connect it to my in-dash stereo's auxiliary input. I tend to prefer this method to use a plug-and-play with my car stereo, as it provides the cleanest sound.

To be fair, as many car stereos don't feature auxiliary inputs, I also tested the unit's built-in wireless FM transmitter. Again, the sound quality was just fine. The difficult thing about using a wireless FM transmitter is that you often have to find new frequencies to use as you drive across long distances. Different areas have strong stations on different frequencies, after all. Usually this involves digging into the satellite radio's memory and changing the frequency. A great feature of the Roady XT: it lets you recall the last six frequencies you've used, and select one from that menu. This saves several steps and makes finding the best frequency much easier than it usually is with most plug-and-plays. A cassette adapter is also included in the package, for those who still have cassette decks in their vehicles.

A display that's easy on the eyes

I was also pleased to find that despite the Roady XT's compact size, the display is quite easy to read. This is especially important while driving: you need to be able to read the display at a glance, so that you keep your eyes on the road. The Info Extras, such as scrolling sports scores and stock symbols, are a little difficult to read because the display only has two lines. But programming information, like song titles and artist names, is quite easy to see quickly.

Like many plug-and-play radios, the Roady XT lets you store 30 channels as presets, which seems to be the ideal number. It also features a "search" button which is handy for finding out what's on quickly. You can set it to show you what's on by category, or to scan briefly through every channel across the XM dial.

Installing the Roady XT

Not surprisingly, the XT's compact size makes it easy to find space on the dash for it, ensuring a clean-looking installation. The compact cradle handles all the signal and power connections (a marked improvement over the first two Roady models, both of which featured power and signal input and outputs on the radios themselves, which looked somewhat inelegant). You get two mounting brackets in the package: one you clip to your A/C vent, the other you can place on your dash using its adhesive backing. Since I was only using the XT temporarily, I went with the convenient vent mount. But I would have had no problem finding a spot on the dash for the adhesive mount which would have left the Roady XT within easy reach.

The best of the rest

The Roady XT's other features were pretty good, too. It's got a 20-song memory bank, which I like to use to keep the names of songs and artists whose albums I'd like to buy at some point. It also has TuneSelect™, one of my favorite XM features. This lets you save the names of artists and songs you like, then alerts you with a beep every time any one of them is playing. With the press of a single button, you can hop over and hear it. The handy "jump" button isn't a terribly common plug-and-play feature, but it certainly is welcome. Hit it, and you jump back to the last channel you were listening to. I found this particularly nice when using TuneSelect. I could jump over to hear my favorite when the system told me they were playing, then jump back to where I'd been with the touch of a single button. I listen to a lot of sports and talk radio, so it was great to be able to jump to the songs I love to hear, then jump right back to the programming I'd been listening to.

So if you're looking for a solid performer, but don't want to take up much dash space, I can easily recommend the Roady XT. It's loaded with plenty of features, it's easy to use, and it sounds just fine. Best of all, it comes with a price tag that doesn't inflict much damage on the ol' bank account.