RCA RP5640 CD Clock Radio with Auto Time Set Review

I've had this clock radio up for one night so far, and I'm fairly happy with it.It's got the basic features of a clock radio/alarm right, in that it has a battery backup, tells the time, and does both the regular radio and weather radio things, as well as more which I haven't explored yet, I think.It has a number of other features, such as the ability to play and wake up to CD, which I was looking for.I was able to burn a mini-CD and use that in this unit.

The unit includes autodimming based on (lack of) ambient light, and you can select any of four colors for the display: green, blue, white, amber.The autodimming feature gets very dim indeed.I'm going to have to move the unit closer than its predecessor, which was around 6ft away.That's not a problem.People who want a dimmed display to be dim may be quite happy with this unit.

One big deal from my point of view is similar to those included in reviews here of older models of this clock: the design of the controls is not optimized for ease of use, but for looks.I had to SEARCH for the snooze button!The CD load button is where the snooze button should be, which may trigger an awful lot of accidental unloads.I figure I'm not alone in not being completely awake when an ALARM CLOCK is going off, which should have been taken into account in the design.

Other than the interface design, which I do in fact consider of critical importance, I quite like the feature set here.It will randomly pick a track, or let you pick one ahead of time for each alarm.It can be configured to repeat either the whole disk or one track or to repeatedly pick a random track, as far as I could tell, having not read the instructions in detail, going from the options which popped up on the display as I operated one of the buttons labeled with 6-sided dice.

About the instructions, I figure I should mention that accuracy was apparently not a high priority.In the bit about setting the clock, it says to press a particular button repeatedly until the CLOCK SET indicator came on.Oh yes, I'm overwhelmed with the precision of these instructions.

The unit came with the battery backup installed, so I didn't actually have to set the time.It includes a slide switch on the bottom of the unit for selecting one of four time zones, completely specific to the Americas, as well as a button for selecting Daylight Savings time.

Anyway, I've had the unit for one night, and it worked.The snooze button in particular got a workout, as did both alarms, to make sure they worked well.Yes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We'll see what happens over time.This unit replaced one by another company which worked fairly well for 26 years, so that's what this one is up against.

UPDATE: I've now had this clock radio a few more days, and I've learned more. It turns out that it DOES indeed have a nice big SNOOZE button, but it's perhaps harder to see than it might be because the "SNOOZE" characters are impressed in the long button under the CD door.

When an alarm goes off, the display turns red, which I consider a nice touch.

Given all the above, I'd like to revise my rating to four stars.

UPDATE: I've now had this clock for 2 1/2 years.This morning, the alarm didn't go off at all.I have it set to use the CD for a music source.When I woke up, it displayed "ERROR".I haven't been able to open the CD door yet.If this clock has become that kind of unreliable, it's headed for the electronics recycling at the local dump.I'll find a unit from a different manufacturer which takes a memory chip containing MP3 files instead.I said it had to compete with a clock that lasted 26 years, and it lasted more like 30 months.

It's a shame 'cause I like the display and I'm, well, used to the shortcomings I listed earlier.And I'm used to the way the "snooze" time changes all by itself to smaller numbers (I thought I just hit it!It *can't* be 10 minutes yet!...and it's not, it's 2 minutes).And I'm used to how non-random the "random track" selector is.Whoever designed "random" for this thing seemed to like the middle track of whatever CD you put in it.Or maybe it just likes track 10 always.I'm unclear on that.

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Product Description:
The RP5640 CD clock radio by RCA is the perfect companion in the morning.The CD clock radio features digital tuning which tunes with maximum accuracy and minimum drift.It has a large backlit display that can be set to one of four colors making it easy to see and read.The CD clock radio has a motorized front load CD player for smooth and easy access.The CD clock radio can play mp3, CD-R, CD-RW and audio CDs.You can connect your mp3 player to the audio input jack and then sit back and enjoy your music without having to use headphone.Clock features automatic time set that will set the clock to the current Easter Standard Time once clock is plugged in.Simply flip the switch to select your current time zone.The clock automatically adjusts to different levels of brightness to accommodate for different lighting situations.Clock radio has two different alarm settings that are perfect for couples who wake at different times or for those who need a second reminder to wake in the morning and you can set the alarm to wake you up to the buzzer, your favorite radio station or CD.The battery backup gives reassurance that your alarm will sound even with the loss of power.

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