Alarm clock charging station manual#
Alarm clock charging station plus#

There's no button for it - you hit the plus or minus on top to see the time then keep hitting one or the other to set the alarm time. Even setting and checking your alarm time is counterintuitive at first.

Alarm clock charging station manual#

You'll want to keep the manual handy when first setting up the Sony ICFC-1. Even the buzzing alarm gently ramps up to ease you out of your sleep, and the snooze function button is easy to find if you need more time. It adjusts the time automatically for daylight saving time. You can set a sleep timer so you can fall asleep to the radio as it plays. It has an alarm clock radio built in so you can wake up to your favorite station or a more traditional alarm clock buzzing. The Sony ICFC-1 costs $25, a little more than the Travelwey Home LED. Its list price is $80, but sometimes you can find it on sale. The Show 5 is a smart display similar to the original Echo Show, but trimmed for your nightstand.Įven with adaptive brightness enabled, the screen still casts a little glow, and you can't customize the snooze time, but it otherwise offers all of the customization and any feature you'd want if you're willing to pay more for a smart alarm. You can also use the touchscreen to make video calls, check the weather, control your smart home and other things. When you're not sleeping, you can issue voice commands to the Show 5 thanks to the built-in Alexa voice assistant. Along the same line, the screen can gradually get brighter starting 15 minutes before the alarm to wake you from sleep. You can have the alarm ramp up the volume to ease you out of your sleep. The alarm can wake you up with a customizable tone or your own music. You can set different alarms and have them repeat on various days of the week. The Show 5 has a lot of the trappings I look for in a good alarm clock. There's not much to the Travelwey Home LED Alarm Clock, but what's there works well. You can check the time with a button and press a separate one to turn off the alarm but leave it set for the same time the next day. It has a backup battery, if you have a power outage. A simple indicator shows the alarm is armed. It's a simple alarm clock, but Travelwey made sure all of the basics were implemented well. You can switch between a two-volume alarm setting if you prefer a soft or loud alarm, but you can't change the tone or have it play music or the FM radio. You can't adjust the snooze time - it's 9 minutes. Other than the night-light, Travelwey's alarm doesn't have many features. The Travelwey Home LED Alarm Clock also has a separate night-light feature if you don't want your room to be pitch black while you sleep. At all levels, the numbers are large enough that they're easy to read from across a dark room and they don't cast a glow that could disrupt your sleep. You can adjust the brightness of the numbers with a slider on the back. The big red numbers dominate the LED display, and the snooze button is easy to find and smack when you want to shut up the alarm in the morning. It only has a handful of buttons, all of which are easy to understand and use.

It's $20, which is a little more than other competent models I tested, but still easily affordable for a bedside alarm clock you'll use every day. Travelwey's alarm clock excels at simplicity. Read more: 4 Sunrise Alarm Clocks That Will Wake You Up Gently

I've added my thoughts on each below and I'll keep updating this list as I test more products. That said, the recent Lenovo Smart Clock 2, Smart Clock Essential and Amazon Echo Show 5 all feel like worthwhile upgrades. Extras and customizability were nice, especially at higher prices, but I generally preferred those that got the basics right for an affordable price. I let each alarm wake me up for at least two nights, making notes about the experience as I went, and I was surprised to find big differences in usability even when it came to such a simple task. I compiled the common denominators into my list and purchased them for testing. I checked the recommended products on other sites, and looked at top-rated models and top sellers on Best Buy, Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and Walmart. In pursuit of a more refreshing morning, I tested 10 alarm clocks over a couple of months to find the best one on the market. Nevertheless, alarm clocks still have their place, and I understand the appeal over an app or smart device - I like turning my smartphone off at night and having a clock I can check at a glance if I wake up from sleep and it's still dark. Multiple volume and tone settings, multiple alarmsĬomplicating matters even further, you likely have a smartphone alarm clock app and possibly a smart display or smart speaker, which can wake you up and render a separate alarm clock redundant. Sunrise light, a variety of tones, streaming musicĪmazon's Alexa for voice commands, touchscreen display for videos, shortcuts for smart home controls