Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ICF-C318 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio with Dual Alarm (Black)

This radio was purchased for my wife as a birthday present, it is great it has large easy to read numbers and is very user friendly. My wife just took it out of the box and was able to figure out everything without the book. Two of the features that got me to buy this besides the price were the fact that it has a dual alarm, and also has battery backup. No more coming home and finding you have to set the clock before you go to bed, or having to reset it in the middle of the night if the power has gone out. We are very happy with the purchase!

Personally, I hate waking up to a buzz. My old, and I mean old, clock radio only offered two reachable stations and I was continually falling back to sleep. This cutie pulls in the classical music station that I love. I can snooze and listen for a half hour, wake up gradually, before the second alarm beeps to alert me that it's indeed time for my sleepy self to get out of bed. The clock is easy to use, has a dimming button for the display which is large enough for me to read without my coke-bottle eye glasses.

No, it's not an artistic treasure, but one rarely gets an artistic treasure for this price. It's precisely what I wanted and worked well from the moment I took it out of the box and plugged it in.

At first I highly recommended this product, but I've taken away two stars because after a bit over a year the alarm setting knob stopped working correctly. It's supposed to go back and forward in time, making it easy to adjust, but now only goes forward. I'm wondering what feature will go next...

Otherwise, I would highly recommend this curvatious black treasure.

Well I seem to like the little chirping alarm noise it makes. Only once since I purchased it did I miss the first alarm. Not too bad since it fixes itself when the power goes out and doesn't lose your time that you set for the alarm to go off. Some of these types of clock radio lose everything when they lose power. The power seems to go out randomly often for everyone and if I don't notice the clock is wrong I could be late for work. I depend on my clock to wake me when I don't wake myself. I think for the price the look and sounds are pretty good. I would recommend this item... and I actually have to someone else and they like it as well. The numbers are nice and big and it isn't too bright in the bedroom at night time.

The past few alarm clock radios I have gotten were from Sony. I always thought they were high quality and this alarm clock radio is no exception. The automatic time set function literally takes maybe two seconds to complete after you plug it in. Automatically adjusting for daylight savings time is very convenient. The only thing that I find weird about this alarm clock is that you can't set the times for the alarms without first setting the alarm on (radio or buzzer).

I bought one of these in black. It's nice looking and it works just fine. The buzzer alarm could be louder, and so when I want a louder alarm I set it to turn on the radio and I pre-set the volume to a level that I know will wake me. I keep the numbers lit on the lower brightness setting and I have had no problem at all reading the time from different angles. I think this is the easiest to set of any alarm clocks I've ever owned.

So that the reader who is considering purchasing one of these sight unseen, other than for photos, can visualize the footprint of this alarm clock radio, I took a plastic gallon milk container (same size and shape as plastic gallon water bottles) out of the fridge and held the bottom of it over the Sony. The container bottom covers it, which is to say that the Sony's footprint is a little bit smaller than that of a standard plastic gallon container. That's about how much area it takes up on a nightstand. The unit angles back from the clock face to the rear, and at the highest point it's a bit under 3 1/2 inches high. That's a good size for me, because with smaller clock radios and my reading glasses off, I have to put my face close to them to read them.

The radio sound quality is not high fidelity, of course, but it's not bad for a clock radio in this price range. It's fine for listening to talk - news, etc. - and is adequate for listening to music set to a sleep timer when drifting off to sleep.