Emerson SmartSet CKS1850 Clock Radio

Pros: KNOWS the correct time, even in a power outage. Blue LED readout.
Cons: Only lasted 2 years, "time" burned out.

UPDATE May 24, 2007: In about two years, the "light bars," in this clock burned out. It is impossible to tell the time. We need to buy a new clock. Hubby knew I was having a hard time seeing the alarm clock in the front room, since it was red on black ...

Pros: 100% reliable
Cons: The only faults are the human factors... forgot to set it, etc..

I have had this for 4 years now with no problems. The alarm goes off reliably even if there is a power outage, or the power is still out. I'm in the military and being late is absolutely unacceptable and this is the ONLY clock I trust. The blue light does dialate your pupils more than a red LED would, but the same model is offered with a red LED if that is your cup of tea. There are no batteries to remember to replace, just a high quality Lithium ion battery that is internal to the unit and is maintanence free. I can even set it so that it goes off on weekends only. The radio is exactly the same quality you will find on small bedside clock radios. If you are an audiophile you should not be listening to a clock radio in the first place! A This is for those who can NEVER affoard to be late.

Pros: Time Zone/Daylight Savings Monday-Friday setting
Cons: Sunday-Monday-Saturday-Sunday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday BBL-Bright blue light

Christmas gift 2005. I realized 90 minutes after I was supposed to get up the very first time I used the clock (12/27/05)that the clock thought it was Saturday. Tuesday and Wednesday are skipped during the week! On those days, Saturday and Sunday light up respectively. I like the idea of setting the alarm for the work week so I don't have to turn it off on Friday hoping I don't forget to reset it on Sunday night, but when it only works 60% of the time, it defeats the purpose. The blue light is still too bright even on a low dimmer.

Pros: The self time setting feature works great
Cons: poor radio tuner, and the display is too bright

This is a good attempt by Emerson Research to make a decent clock radio. It has a few faults, but overall I'm pretty impressed with it. Its largest feature, of course, is the self-setting mechanism. Plug the radio in and it cycles through each of the time and date digits like a slot machine, stopping on the correct numbers. I live in a valley where I can hardly pick up radio and TV signals, so I didn't know if it would work, but it picked up the signal instantly. Later when I moved it to a different room it again set itself quickly and correctly. The downsides are that it has a terrible AM/FM tuner, and the display is too bright, even on the low setting.

I like that it has switches for to turn the alarms from off/radio/buzzer, although they would be easier to use if they were on the top instead of on the side. Some of the other clock radios have buttons rather than switches, and they are much more complicated to operate.

Pros: Time sets automatically. Good sounding radio. Gradual alarm.
Cons: BRIGHT BLUE LED DISPLAY even on the low setting.

I will make this brief. My husband finally set up this clock that he got for Christmas. He had been using a travel clock that he had to press a button to make a light come on each time he wanted to see the time at night. It did not have an LED light display. Also, he could not figure out how to set the alarm as the directions were misplaced. Needless to say it defaulted to 6 am.

SO he set up this Brookstone clock and we were both impressed with it until he turned off the lights. I asked him if he could adjust the dimmer, but he already had it on low. Needless to say I couldnt stand it. Everything in the room was illuminated. Sadly, it is going to have to go back.

Pros: Smartset, Dual Alarm, Blue LED
Cons: Only lasted 2 weeks. Warranty Terms are a Joke!

When my trusty Sony Dream Machine was doused with water, recently, it still functioned well as an alarm clock, but the snooze feature had apparently given up the ghost. I found this clock online and it reviewed fairly well. The features were what i thought I needed and the "Smartset" feature was very appealing as i would never have to reset the clock again.
Unfortunately, right out of the box the time zone setting was incorrect for the stated default Eastern time zone and I had to set it up manually. No big deal i thought and the clock worked very well...

Until this morning when it would refuse to display the time, sound the alarm or even play the radio. All of this after only owning it for 2 weeks. I thought the warranty would be helpful, but at a shipping cost of $9.00, it apparently is another way for Emerson to make money.

i have since taken that $9.00 cost and applied it to the purchase of an updated Sony Dream Machine!