Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I must have researched almost every clock radio on Amazon before selecting this unit. It has tons of useful features and a very reasonable price, so I bought one. It’s pretty good overall, but I do have some nits to pick with it. To be clear, I have the one with the BLUE LED display. The good: - Right-sized for the nightstand. The rubber feet keep it in place nicely. - Large display is easily visible anywhere in the bedroom, even without my glasses. - USB port to charge my phone. Cool! One less wall wart in the AC outlet. - Digital thermometer. Cool! Check the room temp with the tap of a button. - Pre-set time. Cool! Plug it in and select your time zone – done. (Let’s be honest though. It doesn’t pick up the time by some technical wizardry like atomic clock radio or power line signals. Someone sets the time at the factory, and the coin battery inside powers the circuit that maintains the correct time until you plug it in at home. You may have to manually adjust the time once in a while if yours drifts.) - Automatic DST selection. Cool! It will ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’ all by itself. Or you can turn off the automatic DST selection if your locale doesn’t use it. - 12 or 24 hour time display. Cool! Military, public safety, radio amateurs and others can choose to display the time in 24 hour format. - Wake to radio is good. The radio doesn’t turn on with a jarring ‘CLICK!’ like my 30 year old Radio Shack clock radio did – it just starts playing. It is pleasant to wake up to. - Wake to buzzer is also good. The ‘buzzer’ is more of a high-pitched chirp. I’ll say that it is less unpleasant than one might expect. It starts by playing one chirp per second for 10 seconds, then two chirps per second for the next 10 seconds, and so on. - The ability to choose the days of the week when the alarm will (or won’t) sound is very clever and useful. - If your AC power goes out during the night, the clock will continue to keep time, even though the display is off. And, it will sound the buzzer to wake you up at the time you had selected, even if you had selected the wake to radio function. This is all driven by the little coin battery inside. Yes, I tested this. - The AM/FM radio is pretty good. AM reception can be iffy, as the internal ferrite bar antenna is somewhat directional. I can get most, but not all, of the AM stations I want here in the Los Angeles area with reasonable clarity. (Note: The little wire antenna on the unit is for FM only. It doesn’t affect AM reception.) FM reception is good if you remember to straighten-out the wire antenna. The unit certainly doesn’t produce concert hall fidelity, but it’s OK for a clock radio. Having 10 AM plus 10 FM station memories is very nice. The ‘needs improvement’: - The display is a little too bright. Even at the lowest level, it’s just a little too bright in a dark bedroom. If they took away the brightest setting, and added one more dim setting just below the current minimum dim, it would be just right. - The brightness is selected manually by using the snooze bar. If they would put in an ambient light sensor and have the unit automatically select the appropriate brightness, it would be just right. Maybe the user could select the brightness range as a one-time setting? - The display cycle function needs re-thinking. I don’t want to see the date and year, I just want to see the time and temperature. In the display cycle mode, if the unit would display the time for four seconds, the temperature for two seconds (plus the radio station frequency for two seconds if the radio is on), it would be just right. - The radio volume is set in 15 digital steps plus step 00 for sound completely off. Step 15 is plenty loud, but step 01 is still just a little too loud for a minimum volume. If they would scale the volume down so that step 01 is about half as loud as it is now, it would be just right. - There is no volume setting for the buzzer. If it had a selectable volume setting for the buzzer, it would be just right. - Here’s a thought: Have the unit automatically increase the volume of the radio or buzzer during a wake-up. Maybe increase the volume by one increment every 10 seconds? Let the user program the starting and maximum volume levels for this function. - The time selections for the sleep timer (radio plays for this amount of time, then turns off) need re-thinking. The current selections are 90 – 60 – 30 – 15 minutes. If they were 60 – 45 – 30 – 15 minutes, it would be just right. - The time selections for the nap timer need re-thinking. The current selections are 90 – 80 – 70 – 60 – 50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 minutes. If they were 120 – 105 – 90 – 75 – 60 – 45 – 30 – 15 minutes, it would be just right. - The nap timer only allows use of the buzzer for wake-up after a nap. If the unit allowed the choice of using either the buzzer or the radio for the nap wake-up, it would be just right. - The unit does not have an external speaker jack (!). Many people may like to use a compact high fidelity speaker, or a pillow speaker or earphone for private listening. Add an external speaker jack and it will be just right. - A USB charging cable is not supplied. Including a short (6 inch or so) charging cable would make it just right. Or, at least get Amazon to recommend a better add-on cable. - (This is not Electrohome’s fault) The charging cable that Amazon recommends is made of large and stiff wire. It’s so stiff that it pushes my phone away from where I want it to sit during charging. Amazon should recommend a cable made with smaller and more pliable wire. These are my thoughts and preferences. Your mileage may vary. Electrohome’s web site gives very thorough information about the unit, including the full User Manual. You would do well to check all this out before you buy, especially if you’re a nit-picker like me. BOTTOM LINE: I like it and I’m keeping it. I can live with the nits. If Electrohome would incorporate some or all of the improvements I’ve suggested above, even if it adds $10 to $15 to the price, it would be, well, just right ;) I hope you’ve found all this useful.