Gracioso cassette player review: Simple, easy, affordable

When you think about portable technology these days, you probably ponder on how technology has become progressively smaller and more capable of holding digital files in a way that makes it easier to carry around large amounts of data, like in our smartphones that fit easily in our pockets. But when you think back to the way you used to listen to music, in standardized formats that were still fairly small but more often enjoyed at home, things like portable cassette players were the way to enjoy that music on the go. The old Sony Walkman cassette player was the gold standard for portable cassette players, and with the resurgence of retro tech, some of us want to return to those good old days.

So, enter the Gracioso cassette player. This cassette player, tape recorder, and radio is marketed as being like the Sony Walkman cassette player, being a portable way to enjoy your cassettes, embracing that return to retro tech, and for a fairly affordable price. But does this cassette player actually satisfy the criteria needed to make a portable cassette player good? I tested it out to see if it was worth getting my favorite tapes out of storage.

See our process

How we test and review products at Pocket-lint

We don’t do arm-chair research. We buy and test our own products, and we only publish buyer’s guides with products we’ve actually reviewed.

Price, specs, and availability

A classic cassette player design for cheap

The Gracioso cassette player retails for $36, and you can purchase the tape player on Amazon. It’s a similar size to a classic Sony Walkman cassette player, being 3.6 x 1.4 x 5 inches, and weighing in at 7.2 ounces. It’s portable in the cassette player sense, and is definitely a lot bulkier than the tech we carry around with us nowadays.

However, this cassette player doesn’t only play tapes — it can also record tapes using a microphone line-in port, which you can use with the microphone it comes with, and you can also listen to AM and FM radio. It also comes with a pair of earbuds, but they don’t sound great, so you will definitely want to supply your own earbuds or headphones. The cassette player only takes wired headphones through a 3.5mm jack, and doesn’t support Bluetooth. It also has a built-in speaker, which isn’t great quality.

The Gracioso cassette player can be powered either with the included power adapter, or with two AA batteries, which are not included.

Related

If you’re new to turntables, here are 4 essentials to any beginner’s setup

As a vinyl enthusiast, these are the 4 accessories you’ll want in your beginner vinyl set-up base on my ears.

What I liked about the Gracioso cassette player

There’s nothing frivolous about it

The best thing about any retro tech to me is its simplicity. The Gracioso cassette player does exactly what a cassette player should do: It plays tapes, can record tapes, and can play AM and FM radio. There are no bells and whistles with this thing, and I love that. Another thing that sometimes happens with modern iterations of retro tech is adding modern-day technology like Bluetooth, but this cassette player thankfully doesn’t. It’s true to its nature, and only supports wired headphones.