iTOMA Electronic Alarm Clock Radio-Bluetooth Stereo Speakers,FM Radio,Dual Alarm,Snooze,Brightness Dimmer,USB Charging Port,Backup Battery(CKS3501BT)

So I purchased one of these alarm clocks for my daughter so she did not have to keep her cell phone in her room at night to use as her alarm clock and we were so impressed, we bought another one for my other child! These alarm clocks are feature and function rich including but not limited to having blue tooth capabilities, a programmable radio, USB and auxiliary ports for charging and playing music as well as having two separate alarm clocks. A speaking of the alarm clocks, they have the option of being a radio station alarm or a beeping alarm, and I'll tell you what, the beeping alarm is awesome! A bonus feature I was not aware of when originally purchasing is that the beep will actually start off quiet and incrementally get louder. It is REALLY a nice feature as it prevents the alarm for simply being startling and terrifyingly loud from the get go. Furthermore, you can program the alarm clock to go off Monday thru Friday, Saturday and Sunday or seven days a week. You cannot program this alarm clock on random days of the week unfortunately, but for our purposes, that is not necessary as we use this alarm clock for school. The alarm clocks also have a nine minute snooze button. The clock radio can also get nice and loud if you want it too. The sound is clear and really nice for a compact, good looking clock of this size. Speaking of good looks, the numbers and screen have a nice cool, aqua blue color with three brightness and dimming options. The ONLY real gripe I have with this alarm clock is the battery backup. This alarm clock will NOT work during a power outage. The "battery backup" is to keep your time, alarm clock settings and programmable radio stations in the event of a power outage and when the power returns you will not need to reprogram your clock. READ: The alarm will not go off if the power is out. Although this would be a super rare event, for those of you that NEED an alarm clock to work if your power goes, this clock will not suit your needs. That being said, I can maybe think of one, maybe two times in my entire life that my power was out when I needed to get up in the morning, so again, not a deal breaker, but probably the one thing that keeps this clock from being the perfect alarm clock. Lastly, I'd like to let you know that this alarm clock is a little bit involved when programming for the first time. One really needs to follow the instructions, be a little bit patient and mess with it in order to familiarize yourself with the buttons. It's not terribly difficulty, but does take some getting used to. We spent maybe twenty minutes or so getting the alarm clock set up and are able to use all of the features now without a hitch. That being said, overall, this is a great alarm clock with lots of great bells and whistles.

I'm very particular when it comes to my alarm clocks. I figured it's about time to "upgrade" my current one as it's about 14 years old. While it's still functioning well, I wanted to move from an analog dial for volume and tuning to a digital one with even a small antennae to capture FM frequencies better. I read multiple reviews on other products and I discovered two things that bug people most--the brightness of the display, and the volume of the alarm. I could relate to people's preferences with these attributes as i once tried the iHome product and found the alarm to sound like a theme from Star Wars, (which I DID NOT want to wake up to. ). As far as brightness is concerned, FOR ME (maybe not for you), the blue color is very appealing over a more standard chartreuse (yellow-green) color. There are 3 dimming settings and while I would like to have it most dimmed, I sometimes look at during the day, so the medium setting was a happy center ground.The alarm sound is really ideal FOR ME. In fact, a feature I like is the gradual elevating of volume to a particular max setting that you would set.This is nice so that it doesn't blast you out of bed listening to Iron Maiden first thing. Another slick feature was being able to set an alarm for Mon-Fri, Sat-Sun, or Mon-Sun. Setting this up is very easy. I don't recall at the moment, but I did struggle a bit trying to switch modes to radio. Be patient when you do it. It will work.Oh, as far as the instructions go, they look daunting, but if you dive right in and start reading them, you'll see that operating device is much easier (again, FOR ME) than I expected. I guess I could've figured everything out quickly enough. I think it would've been nice if a graphical image was included in the instructions to point to the areas where the buttons were being referenced.I also think it's pretty slick that in the back is a USB charging port and that it includes a CMOS battery for backup purposes.Something that irks me to no end is the blue tooth pairing on devices. For this, I honest believe I've never found anything that paired so easily.Again, your experience may be different--especially if you're new at pairing devices via Bluetooth.I guess the really cool thing though is that as soon as I plugged the device into an outlet, it set itself to the correct time.What I thought was really thoughtful is in the instructions how they discuss that while the time will set itself automatically, for those of us (like me) who like to set the clock a few minutes ahead they showed the manual way to do this.Whew...so why did I not give it a full 5 stars? Well, for starters, I don't ever give anything 5 stars. Likewise I never give anything 1 star.I mean, I guess I would "hate it" if it electrocuted me or something, and I would give it a 5 if it made me coffee in bed, as well. :-pThe important aspect with which a reader of this critique should ask is would they buy one of these again for someone they liked.It was all I could do to resist buying two of them, because I'll use the old one in my office for a little while longer.Anyway, it's only been 5 days since I received the device (which came quickly and nicely protected in wrapping, by the way).If I think about it I'll follow-up with a comment in 6 months.

Like: Well written instructions; well made - does not feel or look cheap; the clock numbers are big; the sound from the radio, as well as the auxiliary and Bluetooth connections, are fantastic. The USB port is convenient.Dislike: The clock numbers are too dim with the auto-dimming feature. I hope after re-reading the instructions I can make the numbers bright all the time.Flaws in design (personal opinion): This ITOMA clock replaced an RCA RC40-B clock which I had for many years, but sadly one of the set buttons stopped working and RCA no longer makes this clock (and the new RCA clocks I saw felt and looked cheap, especially compared to my old RCA RC40-B). The ITOMA clock puts all of its great control features on the top of the clock which is fine if you are standing and looking down at the clock. But if the clock is at your bedside and you are in bed you cannot see any controls without holding the clock in hand. If a few of the controls were placed on the face of the clock below the numbers, like for example, the radio, rev/forward, off and check wake time buttons on the old RCA RC40-B, they would be readily visible without having to rotate the clock to see the top AND the time would be slightly higher (above the buttons) and therefore more visible. In my case, the bedside table is a few inches shorter than the bed so it is difficult to read the time from across the room. I will have to elevate the ITOMA clock somehow so it is readable from a distance (as soon as I turn off the auto-dimmer...).