Sony ICF-C318 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio with Dual Alarm (White) by Sony
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Digital camera reviews of Sony ICF-C318 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio with Dual Alarm (White)
Digital camera Review: Even one failure is a failure....
Summary: 1 Stars
While this alarm looks good, the other night, without me touching it one time, it just lost an entire hour. Exaactly one hour. We didn't lose power, and all other clocks in the house were at exactly 6:30AM. Mine suddenly displayed 5:30AM. One hour lost, to the minute. Oh, and when i reset it, i noticed it had also lost a month, not that i pay attention to that, but it was stuck on November instead of December. Luckily i sometimes wake up before my alarm does, but if an alarm for unknown reasons loses an hour, that's not a dependable or reliable alarm clock.Digital camera Review: Everything an alarm clock should be
Summary: 5 Stars
Every once in awhile I get my hands on a product that's designed so well, so intuitively, it makes me wonder why all appliances can't be this good. I'd pay good money to have more gadgets work as well as the Sony alarm clock. I never needed the manual; that should be the biggest compliment to this little clock. It's compact, without being ridiculously small. It lets me listen to NPR while I brush my teeth, and the alarms have never once failed me, even in the midst of power outages. The display is easy to read in the middle of the night, even without my glasses, but it doesn't blaze a digital intrusion into our dark bedroom, plus the alarm buzzer is a light chirp - definitely enough to wake you up, but not so offensive that I want to hurl the clock across the room as with some other brands I've tried. I'm especially fond of the single dial on each side to set the respective alarms. No more pressing a single button a million times to click through hours and minutes. Just a easy to adjust dial that cycles quickly through 24 hours until you reach whatever time you need.
What more is there to say? I gladly purchased a second for our bedroom. Good job, Sony.
Digital camera Review: Exactly What I Was Looking For!
Summary: 5 Stars
I needed to replace my old alarm clock that wasn't keeping time correctly anymore and since I'd begun having some sleeping problems I decided I would look for one that had a dim display. My first purchase was one from Target that claimed on the box that it had an adjustable brightness display. What a joke that was! Yes it did have two brightness options, but even the dim one was way too bright. Even worse is that it was a blue display, so I spent one night with a very bright blue light shining in my room. That got packed up and returned. Then I decided to stop wasting my time trying to decipher the product info on boxes and just come on Amazon and read the reviews. I am so glad I did and found this clock! This is not a fancy alarm clock, but it does everything I need it to and more.
First, the brightness of the display . . . There are three brightness options. The lowest is perfect for night. It is bright enough for me to see the time when I want to, but does not give off a lot of extra light to bother me. Some have mentioned that even on the brightest setting, though, you cannot see the time during the day. That is true if you have a lot of light entering your room during the day. This is not a problem for me, though, because it is not a clock I use for daytime.
The alarm . . . I have no problem with it and actually have grown to like it. It is not very loud and it is a beep instead of a buzz. I have found that even though it is not very loud the beep is high-pitched so it wakes me up without any problem. It actually has two loudness settings and I have found I can have it on the quieter setting and it still wakes me up. It beeps a few times and then pauses before beeping again. I really like that it is not a constant beeping and I can usually get it turned off before it beeps the second time. It has two different alarm times which is great when the hubby and I have to get up at different times. When you hit the snooze button it will snooze for 10 minutes. Another feature I've grown to like is that if you immediately hit the snooze again it will add another 10 minutes for each time you hit it. The display will show you your total snooze time. This comes in handy when you had great motivation in the evening to say get up early and go exercise, but when morning comes you decide you'd rather sleep. No need to completely reset the alarm time to later or be awakened every 10 minutes and have to hit the snooze. Just hit it until the display shows how many more minutes you want to sleep and your done. The thing I love most about the alarm function is that when you go to set an alarm you can move the time forward or backward. No more going all the way around again when you bypass the time you wanted or if you need to get up 15 minutes earlier than usual. It's such a simple thing that I'm glad someone finally thought of doing for an alarm clock.
Automatic time . . . As has been mentioned this is not some atomic clock that automatically knows the time. It simply already has the time set for you when it arrives. It has a battery back-up so that if you lose power you don't have to reset it and it automatically resets itself for DST. I've never had difficulty setting the time on electronic gadgets, so these were not all that important to me. Well, maybe the battery back-up was important. We lose power quite frequently during summer thunderstorms, so this is one less clock to reset when that happens. I didn't think the DST option was all that big of a deal, but once again it is nice to have one less clock to have to reset twice a year.
One other feature that I would not have looked for, but comes in handy occasionally is that it will display the date. If you hit the snooze button while the time is being displayed, it will display the date for a few seconds.
I do not use the radio, so I cannot comment on how well it works or doesn't work.
Overall I am very happy with this clock and would recommend it.
Digital camera Review: Exactly what I was looking for.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm very particular about alarm clocks, and this one is perfect. Its not too bright, yet bright enough. The radio works perfect, volume control is exact, unlike my last alarm that seems to go from loud to off. The buzzer is nice, not outrageously annoying, and I love how it slowly gets faster and faster. The buttons are all easily identifiable by touch.Digital camera Review: Excellent little device!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very good little device. The clock display is good and clear, and I can read it from across my bedroom. The radio sound quality is clear and the tuning is easy - and does not slip. It is small and light and very easy to install and use.