RCA RC50 Voice Activated Alarm Clock

 (4 customer reviews)

We bought the RCA RC50 hoping that the "gradual awake" function would be compatible with radically different wake-up times - that she could get up without him being woken up.

Pros: The clock is easy to use and the dual-display makes knowing the alarm time and status a snap.

Cons: Even on the dimmest setting, it lights up the whole room. The "Graduwake" ramp-up starts out at Van Halen concert levels, and moves from there to Exploding Warhead volume levels... it's too loud to start with, louder than the maximum should be. It would wake people all the way across the house.

Summary: Great features, but too bright and too loud.

I have had this for about a week now. It is pretty easy to operate, and the voice recognition is pretty good.

Pros:
The alarm is nice and loud ... the graduramp feature has always struck me as silly, because it ramps up over thirty seconds, which doesn't seem like enough time to gently rouse a person
There are two alarms, and the wake-up sound can be different or the same for each.
Saying "wake up, sleepyhead" is fun.
The voice recognition is pretty good.
You can do everything except snooze with your voice.

Cons:
You can't say "snooze", and must push a button for this feature.
Sometimes, it just doesn't seem to understand me, which can be frustrating.
Mine seems to buzz a little like the sound is being distorted (radio and speaking voice)
The radio is analog, so you can only set one station at a time. This means if you use the sleep feature, you must wake up to the same station. If you set alarm one for radio, alarm...Read more

Purchased this hoping it would help my 96-year-old, blind mother. Could not get the clock to accept my commands (female voice) nor my husband's. We would request an alarm be set for 2:25 p.m. It would respond "Alarm set for 5.30 a.m." Simply unacceptable. Returned it.