Customer Reviews

Elgin Electric Alarm Clock with Selectable Display Color

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is a plug in clock with a battery backup (which is not entirely clear from the description). It is very small (definitely fits in the palm of your hand) but has a very clear LCD. I like that you can customize the color for the display but I found the basic blue shown in the picture works the best. It is perfect as a second clock for the other side of the bed--presuming there are two people.

The clock is 3 1/4 x 3 1/2 x 2 inches, not the size listed in the description. The display is very bright. Good if you want a clock that is also a night light, bad if you like a dark room to sleep in. If you turn off the multi-colored back light, you can not see the display at all. The controls are easy to figure out. The buttons are under a cover. With the cover closed, when you push the top, only the snooze button gets pushed, since it is right up against the cover. A good idea so you don't accidentally press something else while fumbling for the snooze button.

I purchased this alarm a while ago and I think it's great. it's small enough to fit in your hand, and has seven different color options for the main screen: red, blue, green, yellow(kind of a darker golden yellow with light yellow numbers), purple, teal, and black with white numbers. this alarm has one volume and my only complaint is that after about two minutes of beeping, it automatically goes into snooze and will go off again in five minutes. This does have the option of using a battery( one AAA)so if the power goes out, or it's unplugged, it won't have to be reset. I keep this alarm close to my bed but I don't like light shining in my face while I'm trying to sleep so I like that the alarm has the option of turning its light from the main screen off. Overall a very decent alarm. I recommend it.

This is just the ticket for me. I don't care for clock radios. Life is too short to wake up to a top 40 station played through a two inch speaker every morning. Give me a simple alarm clock.

This tiny Elgin is just the thing. It takes little room on the nightstand. The controls are covered by a plastic lid that presses on the snooze button when pushed. That makes it impossible to accidently change the time while you're half asleep. It also means that almost the entire top of the clock is the snooze buton. Yes, the lid is flimsy, but it's only vulnerable to damage while it's open, so it should be fine.

This is a handsome little clock. What doesn't show well in the photos is that the display is sunk deep down into the face of the clock. This makes a nice 3-D effect and produces a nice glow around the bezel. The silver finish looks good next to my nickel bedside lamp.

I dismissed the selectable color display as a novelty. I did have fun playing with it for 5 minutes then lost interest just as I thought I would. You can individually turn on the red, green and blue backlights to make 8 different colors including white and black (off). I discovered that I do enjoy changing the color occasionally, just for variety. My sleep partner is sensitive to specular light at night, so being able to turn the display off has come in handy too.

Two gripes: There is one master slide switch for setting the time, setting the alarm time, setting the date and turning the alarm on and off. With so many positions on one stiff slide switch, it's easy to miss the position you want. My other gripe is that if you hit snooze more than a couple times, the clock will give up on you and let you sleep. If you're a frequent snoozer, beware!

Still, rarely do I get something I like so well this cheap.

I like:
- the alarm. it goes beep, beep beep. not the annoying long shrill beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
-the size. very small, fits anywhere. When I took it out of the box I thought it would make a good travel alarm (with the AAA battery)
-display. I put the display at no colors so its blank. By the way the color shown is a sticker. The numbers are actually deeper in.

The color thing isn't too interesting after a few days. The colors are red, green, blue, yellow (red + green), blue green, purple (red + blue), bluish white (red + green + blue). The darkest color option is red.

Not so good stuff:
-There is a lid covering the buttons. I'm not having problems with it yet,but I'm pretty sure its gonna come off one day. Add its loose so it makes a little jangling sound
-The slider mode button is hard to slide
-The buttons not so easy to press, speeds up as you hold it down,so I have to stop about ten numbers ahead to slow down and press it one by one.

Its a nice alarm clock. nothing too special.

The clock is nice and small, with a surprisingly readable display for its size. The fun gimmick is that you can change the color of the display. One neat but not particularly useful feature is that it shows you the calendar date with day of week along with the time. I also like that the button cover, when pressed, is one big snooze bar. And the setting of the time/alarm is nice and fast, scrolling through numbers quickly.

Two problems I have: to open the button cover, you need to use two hands, because the cover is too firmly attached and the clock doesn't weigh enough. So, you can reach over with one hand and smack the cover to snooze, but to actually push the switch to turn off the alarm, you have to use two hands. Second problem is that it's not quite loud enough. I like that the alarm starts quiet and gets louder, but if I'm really dead asleep and underslept, it never gets quite loud enough to wake me. Good enough for most days, but scary on those days when I went to sleep way too late and really need to be up in the morning.

Things I wish I had known about this product before purchase:

- VERY BRIGHT!! It is so bright that I have to cover it at night! Would be great in a baby's room as a night light/clock

- NOT FOR SNOOZERS!! The alarm will allow you to snooze 2 times and then it is just re-set for the next day. I have to be extra cautious and get up right away so I don't keep sleeping!!

If these two things don't affect you, then it's an otherwise nice little clock. It's super small, the numbers can change to several different colors. I experimented and purple seems the least bright. Not bad for the price!

It is small, but definitely mighty. The best feature of this clock is that you can have the display dark, so if you like sleeping in the dark, it is easy to turn off the display. I've been looking for that feature for a while now. I purchased this clock for my daughter, and when I realized it had this feature, I bought another one for me!

I have been looking for several months for an alarm clock that GLOWS in the dark without having to reach over and tap a button. I wanted the day, month, & date. I wanted it to an atomich clock, but that is virtually impossible to find, so I settled for a plug in. This elgin fits the tee exactly. I like the different colors and ESPECIALLY the 3-D effect it has. The numbers all look like they are resessed deep in the clock which gives it a 3-D effect. The 3-D effect doesn't show in the picture BUT IT SURE DOES WHEN YOU PLUG IT IN. I put it on my night stand and tried to read it at night, but everything was blurry and I could hardly make out the numbers. This is NOT the fault of the clock, but with my eyes, which are getting worse. I moved it to my desk and BINGO! I can see it clearly with my glasses on. I paid alot of MONEY for other clocks that said that they glow in the dark, but don't be fooled. YOU HAVE TO PUSH A BOTTON IN ORDER TO SEE THE TIME. Isn't that great for a guy that can't see the numbers with is glass's off. The clock is smaller that I thought it would be. It fits in the palm of your hand. I wanted a larger clock that would do the same thing. I started looking around and found the ELGIN E-3451 COLORATIONS ALARM CLOCK. The only problem was that every store I checked was out of stock. I took 2 months and close to 400 stores before I found it in stock at TARGET. I had checked them previously and they were out of stock also. For some unknown reason I went back and checked again a couple of weeks ago and they had them in stock. I ordered two. The clock is perfect. It is big enough where I can put it on my night stand and see the information quite fine without my glasses, and wonder of wonders it stay illuminated all the time.
Bottom line. Both of the alarm clocks are excellent. It just depends on how bad your eyes are, which one you prefer.

I bought this clock last year. Initially i loved it. You can change the displace background color and the numbers are large and easy to read. Im giving it a one star because the time is always wrong. What good is a clock if the time is never accurate? I check the time on this alarm clock against my phone and computer every week. The alarms clock is always 4 to 5 mins faster.