Nice compact & simple alarm clock radio with Easy to Read non-offensive display
Pros:
Compact, simple, large legible red display with dimmer, battery back-up, bargain price
Cons:
Display at Lo is still bright, only one alarm setting, radio is very basic.
The Bottom Line:
Great value, compact & unobtrusive, simple easy to use basic alarm clock, very easy to read display day and night, red LED does not light up the room.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I've been looking all over the internet for just a nice compact alarm clock radio to replace my huge Sony CD alarm radio and I stumbled upon this one tonight while looking for another Timex model. My main requirements were: compact, simple to set, snooze alarm, radio (can't stand buzzers), a battery backup would be nice, and a red LED display. I'm a light sleeper and cannot go to sleep if I can actually see everything on my nightstand. With the green display Sony I'm replacing, I can not only see the nightstand, but it is so bright it throws shadows on the ceilings. I bought one of the brand new tall behemoth automatic set Sony Nature Sounds CD radios and brought it back the next day because the "cool blue" display, even at the lowest of the three settings, was even brighter than the green display clock (which I had to put an piece of cardboard in front of at night). Also, there were only four nature sounds on it and they were annoyingly looped.
This clock is small, the radio seems adequate to wake me up, the controls are fairly straightforward, there is a hi/lo setting for the dimmer, the display is huge and very easy to read, nothing blinks on it (the Nature Sounds had a blinking colon). As I'd remembered from early LED clock days, the red is the least offensive color. You can see it easily but it doesn't light up the room. Even on Lo it's still a bit bright for me, I'l like to find a clock with a full range brightness dimmer, not just 1 or 2 preset settings, but for $12 I'll keep this one till I find my perfect clock. It has a battery backup, which is nice to have again, the snooze button seems fairly easy to find (it could be a bit bigger and have a different texture than the other buttons). The alarm/radio switch on the side is a bit small but easy to use.