RCA RP4842 AM/FM Dual Wake Clock Radio

 (14 customer reviews)

My trusty Sony ICF-C740 that got me through college was assimillated to my wife's side of the bed which worked for a while, but eventually I'd had enough and she's not so good at learning new gadgets so I found myself looking for an alarm clock radio. I'm a big researcher/try-er out-er of things and if there's something about a gadget that bugs me, it tends to grow worse until I take the thing back. So it was with clock radios. I had a few simple criteria: 1) had to be large (>0.9"), semi-bright green numerals (the night-time vision area of your eye is more sensitive to blue--that's why blue signs catch your eye at night--but much worse resolution-wise than the day-time portion which essentially makes your vision worse when reading blue text/numbers at night, so blue displays were a turn off) which were easily visible by day or night, and didn't provide a light distraction for me as I went to bed; 2) preferrably 2 alarm times; 3) had to have radio as the alarm; 4) had to pick up at...Read more

As other reviewers have noted, this clock has an excellent list of features. The sound quality on the radio is surprisingly good. Having two separate alarms is handy, the alarm tone is not too obnoxious, and the gradual volume increase works nicely. Unfortunately the designers apparently paid no attention to usability whatsoever.

There should be one simple, clear way to turn an alarm off. It should be something you can do in the dark (if you have to get up while your spouse is still sleeping, you know what I'm talking about). For this clock there are actually two different ways to turn off the alarm (besides Snooze). If the alarm is sounding, you can press the "On/Off" button to turn it off. If it has not yet sounded (either you get up before it goes off, or you have hit the snooze button) you have to press "Cancel" then the specific alarm button. Good luck finding those tiny buttons in the dark! If you accidentally hit "Nap" instead, you've just put the clock into a mode...Read more

This clock radio has great features at a very modest price (about $15): two alarms, two-way time and alarm setting (so you don't have to go all the way around if you go slightly past the desired time or alarm setting), a pleasant green display (soothing compared to harsh red or blue), and easy-to-use, well-designed controls.

Unlike another reviewer, I have had no problems at all with radio reception.

The only negative is that the self-adjusting display (which is supposed to adjust to ambient light) gets too bright in the middle of the night. Certainly not enough to wake anyone up (and we are light sleepers), but a little jarring when coming back to bed after getting up for some other reason.

Overall, we are very pleased and would definitely buy this clock radio again.