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126 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good clock, but not if it's your only one, March 25, 2003
By A Customer
I received this clock as a Christmas present from my grandmother the Christmas before last, and it's served its purpose well. But, I think I'm going to buy another clock to supplement it.The Good stuff:
The clock is battery powered, so I've only had to wait for it to set itself two or three times when the batteries were taken out. (It's still running on the batteries it came with over two years ago, by the way.) The projection feature is really cool, at night when you can see it. It is pretty small, so it can fit just about anywhere - I have mine on a windowsill. The projector makes for a display much larger than a normal digital clock. And of course, not ever having to manually set the clock, even after the power goes out, is really nice. The Bad stuff:
A minor annoyance with this clock is that the official US observatory time is consistently two to three minutes slower than everyone else's time. Rather than the usual digital clock makings - LED segment display and real speaker for the alarm, this clock is made of supersized digital watch material. The face is an oversized LCD panel (think digital watch LCD, not laptop LCD), and is impossible to read except when it's illuminated (either by the backlight or daylight), and you're looking at it straight on from a couple of feet. The projector is (understandably) underpowered such that any ambient light at all washes it out to the point that it can't be seen. So, unless you carry it around with you or keep your windows covered by black curtains, it's almost completely useless during the day. Worse, though, than the display, is the alarm. Rather than a speaker, the clock has an oversized piezzo buzzer. (Once again, think oversized digital watch.) The crescendo alarm doesn't crescendo, it subdivides - "chirp........ chirp........ chirpchirp...... chirpchirp...... chirpchirpchirp.... chirpchirpchirp.... chirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirp....." ad nauseum. The lack of real crescendo means that light sleepers like me can literally have hit the snooze button before the second chirp. Which brings up another complaint - the snooze is only eight minutes, so you really don't get much of a snooze. In short:
This is a good clock to have around, but not as a main wakeup alarm. The battery power and automatic setting are very convenient, and combined with its relatively small size, would make it a good travel alarm clock. However, unless the thought of waking up to a glorified digital watch everymorning appeals to you, I would recommend buying it as a second clock, to set your other clocks by, use as backup during power outages, and just if you want another clock in the house. I like having this clock around, but I think I'm going to have to supplement it with another, one with a better alarm.
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