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Best Alarm Clocks, Even if you put your phone on silent and dim it, using it in your bedroom at night can keep you from sleeping. Consider getting an alarm clock if you want a quieter place to sleep and don’t want to be tempted to use your phone before bed. An alarm clock may seem like a step back in terms of technology, but it can keep your bedroom free of distractions and make sure you wake up on time in the morning. Also, these clocks can give your nightstand a touch of elegance.
Even though your smartphone has a lot of different sounds and apps that can wake you up, using it as an alarm clock can make you sleep less well. Let’s face it, we already do a lot of things with our phones. If you want to sleep deeply and wake up feeling refreshed, it’s best to keep your phone away from your bed and use an alarm clock instead.
To help you find a good replacement for your phone’s alarm, we put 18 highly rated analog, digital, and smart alarm clocks through a lot of tests. Over the course of a month, we set alarms, let them go off, and maybe hit the snooze button a few times too many to figure out who was the best. After a lot of testing, we found that five alarm clocks were better than the rest.
Best Alarm Clocks Comparison Table
Braun Classic Analogue Alarm Clock
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | Braun |
Model | Classic Analogue Alarm Clock |
Alarm Type | Analog |
Display Type | Analog |
Power Source | Battery-operated |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | No |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 3.1 x 3.1 x 1.6 inches |
Weight | 4.8 ounces |
You can’t stream Spotify to the Braun Analogue Alarm Clock because it doesn’t have Bluetooth. It has no wheels and can’t charge your phone. It doesn’t know what a smart bulb is or how it works. It can’t wake you up with natural light or tell you what the weather will be like. It doesn’t get texts, and it won’t keep you up at night by ticking too loudly.
It’s a great idea. This is what Steve Jobs would have had for an alarm clock. That face is a design icon, and the rest of the phone is all about function. By Braun’s standards, this model is pretty fancy. It has a light so you can see the time in the dark, but other than that, it only does two things: it tells you the time and wakes you up at the time you set it to. And that’s all you want sometimes.
The Good
- Classic analog design that runs on batteries to make it portable
- The snooze button is easy to use.
The Bad
- There is no night light.
Sonic Alert Sonic Bomb
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | Sonic Alert |
Model | Sonic Bomb |
Alarm Type | Digital |
Display Type | LED |
Power Source | AC power |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | Yes |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 7.5 x 5.1 x 7.1 inches |
Weight | 2 pounds |
People who often sleep through their alarms would probably find it hard to sleep through the Sonic Bomb. Not only is the alarm very loud, but it also comes with a vibrating device called a “bed shaker” that you can slip under your pillow or mattress to wake you up without anyone knowing. When the alarm goes off, both the sound and the vibration wake you up.
This is great for people who sleep a lot and need more help getting up in the morning. The bed shaker should wake you up if the loud alarm doesn’t.
If the loud beeping and bed shaker aren’t enough to wake you up, the alarm will also flash red LCD lights.
The Good
- Strong alarm tone
- Bed shaker that vibrates for people who sleep a lot
- Has a night light built in.
The Bad
- AC power is needed, making it less portable.
LittleHippo Mella
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | LittleHippo |
Model | Mella |
Alarm Type | Digital |
Display Type | LED |
Power Source | AC power or battery-operated |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | Yes |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches |
Weight | 9.6 ounces |
The LittleHippo is another cute and friendly clock that can be used as a night light (with six colors and three brightness settings), a sound machine (with ocean, white noise, and lullaby options), and a read-to-wake clock. This last feature is very important for kids who think it’s fine to wake everyone up at 4:30 in the morning.
The colors can be set to go from red (for sleeping) to yellow (up to half an hour before wake-up time, so they can play quietly in bed) to green (when it’s time to get up). Also, the clock has faces that are sleeping and faces that are awake, just in case kids need more help figuring out which color means what. The stop, slow, and go lights are great for little ones who don’t quite understand time and either get up whenever they want to or like to ask, “Is it time to wake up yet?!?”
The Good
- The design is kid-friendly, and the screen is bright.
- Two alarms to wake you up at different times
- Offers sounds to help you sleep
The Bad
- Battery life is short
Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen)
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | Amazon |
Model | Echo Dot (4th Gen) |
Alarm Type | Digital |
Display Type | LED |
Power Source | AC power |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | No |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.5 inches |
Weight | 12 ounces |
Echo Dot 4th Gen from Amazon does a lot more than just show the time. It’s a digital clock and alarm, but it also has a lot of smart features that help you get the most out of your morning routine. For example, you can use your Echo Dot to stream podcasts, meditation cycles, and music to help you fall asleep or wake up. You can also set up multiple alarms with different sounds.
Also, you can connect it to a smart plug that will turn your lights on automatically when you wake up. Also, if you want to fall asleep while listening to your favorite entertainment, you can set a sleep timer that will turn off the sound after the time you choose. All in all, the Echo Dot 4th Gen will not let you down if you want to get the most out of an alarm clock.
The Good
- Smart alarm clock that can be set by voice
- Integration with Alexa to make it more useful
- Music and audiobooks can be streamed
The Bad
- Needs an internet connection to work properly.
- Doesn’t have a night light built in
Emerson SmartSet clock radio
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | Emerson |
Model | SmartSet clock radio |
Alarm Type | Digital |
Display Type | LED |
Power Source | AC power |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | Yes |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 6.2 x 3.5 x 2.2 inches |
Weight | 1.5 pounds |
You can also slowly turn up the volume of your favorite FM radio station to wake up to it. You can set two alarms to go off only during the week, only on the weekends, or for all seven days.
It has a large, clear, and beautiful cyan LED time display. A button on the top of the device turns on and off a soft cyan nightlight. There is also a USB port for charging and a Bluetooth speaker. You can’t play your own music through the speaker, but the sound quality is good for an alarm clock.
The device is easy to use because all of the buttons are on top of it. I didn’t like that I couldn’t change the alarm settings on this clock while listening to music over Bluetooth. You have to turn off the radio or music before you can set alarms or change other settings.
The Good
- LED display that is easy to read
- SmartSet is a way to set the time automatically.
The Bad
- There aren’t many ways to change alarm sounds.
Lenovo Smart Clock Essential
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Brand | Lenovo |
Model | Smart Clock Essential |
Alarm Type | Digital |
Display Type | LED |
Power Source | AC power |
Snooze Function | Yes |
Night Light | Yes |
Dimensions (LxWxH) | 4.5 x 2.9 x 3.1 inches |
Weight | 7.8 ounces |
The Lenovo Smart Clock will make getting up in the morning a little bit easier. This Wi-Fi-connected clock also works as a Google Assistant. You can tell it what to do with your voice and even use it to control other smart devices in your home. This means you don’t have to fiddle with different buttons every day to set an alarm, and you don’t even have to move a finger to snooze it.
During testing, we loved that you can use almost any sound as an alarm with this unit. We tried it out with birds chirping and a popular song. There are 10 volume levels, and the loudest one is over 90 decibels. We found that it is loud enough to wake you up without scaring you out of bed. Even better, you can use your voice to turn on the Lenovo Smart Clock’s built-in nightlight, and it automatically adjusts the brightness of its display based on how bright the room is.
The Good
- The design is small and stylish
- Google Assistant built in for voice control
- can control other smart devices in the house
The Bad
- Few ways to change the brightness of the screen
FAQs
Yes, there are alarm clocks that make it look like it’s morning. The Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock is a well-known example. These clocks gradually get brighter, like a sunrise, to wake you up in a way that is more natural and gentle than with a regular alarm. The light triggers your body’s wake-up response, which helps you wake up feeling more refreshed and energized.
Yes, you can use your phone as an alarm clock. You can connect your phone to many alarm clocks that have Bluetooth so you can play music or use it as a speaker. Some clocks even have USB ports or wireless charging pads so you can charge your phone while you sleep.