Distinguishing features of the first Royal 500 include the 7XT40 hand-wired aluminum circuit board, the lettering deeply embossed into the back cover with "Tubeless All Transistor" written in script form and the Zenith name outlined in gold. This circuit board marks an interesting blend of traditional tube radio manufacturing methods used in conjunction with components reduced in size thanks to those new-fangled transistors. By the way, this radio plays loud and clear, even today.