Retro tech is fun not only for its nostalgia factor but also for its simplicity and, of course, the aesthetics of it all. For a lot of us, nothing is more fun than using a cute, well-designed piece of technology that lets us enjoy media from the past. I want to put my phone away, forget Spotify exists, and take my cassette tapes out of the closet.

The ByronStatics cassette player is exactly what I imagine when I describe the above. At first glance, it looks absolutely precious, its pink colorway looking almost like a Barbie toy more so than a functional cassette player. So I put it to use to see how it fares as a portable cassette player.

Price, specs, and availability

The ByronStatics is available on Amazon for $53. It’s a fairly standard-sized cassette player, weighing 7.2 ounces and measuring 4.5 x 3.1 x 1.2 inches. It features a clip that allows you to attach the entire thing to your belt, so it’s quite portable. The casing is all plastic and has nice, big tactile buttons, making it feel like a toy from the ’90s you found in your closet or at a garage sale.

The BryonStatics is powered using either a microUSB power cable or 2 AA batteries. You’ll need to provide your own batteries.

The cassette player has a built-in speaker. It comes with earbuds, but they don’t sound very good, so you’ll want to use your own. The BryonStatics doesn’t feature Bluetooth connectivity, so you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a pair of wired headphones available to use.

What I liked about the ByronStatics cassette player

Wonderfully nostalgic and portable

A cassette player should be simple. It should do what it’s supposed to do without frivolous extra features. The ByronStatics is exactly that: It plays and records tapes, and comes with a built-in FM and AM radio. In my opinion, that’s all a cassette player should do, in true retro tech fashion. The ByronStatics only supports wired headphones, and doesn’t have Bluetooth, making it a truly enjoyable blast from the past.

I really love the design of this cassette player too. It almost looks like a toy, and the pink one I got to review is extremely cute. I was happy to have it clipped to my belt and listen to it outside since it’s not only a nice piece of tech but a very cute accessory too. And speaking of clipping it to my belt, I really appreciate that it has a clip, so you don’t have to walk around holding it.

What I didn’t like about the ByronStatics cassette player

The speaker unfortunately misses the mark

The biggest issue with the ByronStatics cassette player is that the built-in speaker doesn’t sound great. It’s rather tinny and doesn’t reproduce bass sounds competently. This is to be expected from a cassette player bought off Amazon that looks more like a toy than anything, so I’m not very surprised or significantly disappointed by this.

The radio signal is also not very good if you’re not using headphones. Headphones significantly improve the radio signal since the cassette player will use them as an antenna, but if you’re just using the speaker, the radio signal will be very staticky. If it had an antenna like other cassette player-radio combos I’ve used, that could be improved upon.

Should you buy the ByronStatics cassette player?

The ByronStatics cassette player is a good purchase if you’re looking for a cassette player that does the bare basics and doesn’t have any bells and whistles. It plays and records tapes, has a radio, and that’s all. If you want something more updated, this won’t be for you.

It’s also a good option if you’re looking specifically for a very well-designed, cute cassette player. I loved the way it looked in pink, but it also looks nice in the teal and black colorways. It is very plasticky and feels like a toy, but that’s part of its appeal, in my opinion.