Home > Consumer Reviews > Roberts CRD51B Glowtime DAB/FM RDS Digital Clock Radio-Black

We have a 26, which is about the worst designed clock radio known to man, so beware, it doesnt sound as if they are getting much better. You cannot see the display if you wake in the night as the numbers are not bold enough, the buttons are so small, it is impossible to work out what you are doing if you are half asleep and changing channels is impossible under these circumstances as the relevant button for presets is the third from the right - try finding that in the dark!! BUT WORST of all - it doesnt adjust with the clock changes, neither forward nor back and we left it all day once, so you have to get up an hour early or late according to the time of year and then unplug it and plug it in again!!! Roberts, if you are reading this - get your act together!!

Most DAB radios and certainly clock radios seem to have been designed by old fogeys. This one at least looks a bit more modern. Sound is good for a clock radio. I did get the Roberts 29 which was dreadful, designed by a tone deaf illogical person, plus £100 is mad for a clock radio.

Bad points
There are some slight niggles though...

to change the alarm time you have to go through a whole menu system every time, and if you are setting the hour for the whole and dont complete it within a set time period it 30 secs or so then it reverts back to the orginal alarm time.

To change the alarm you have to turn the radio on - very strange and not good if you other half is already asleep and the radio volume was set to high volume

Still expensive for an alarm clock but cheaper than almost all

single line text

strangelt standard text shows time and 2 letters for the day (hmm date would be better though that can be retrived via a key press)

Good points
You can dim the backlight or switch it off....hoorah they have listened.

Good size - very small.....i looked at at the Roberts CRD33 but that is monstorously large..made the weighty and fat CRD 29 look very small

You can adjust the alarm volume before the alarm goes off from silent (??) to very loud (hehe!) - - hoorah this BASIC feature is on this one - theyve listened.

All in all though well happy with it as the bad points arent massive ones

.....it's fine, but as an alarm / clock radio it is nigh on useless.

Wish I had seen these reviews before I bought this product. I can only think that the person at Roberts who designed its functionality does not use one themselves otherwise it would have been reworked.

Good points - Roberts name, stylish design, good build quality, and sound quality is not bad.

Negatives - (a) having to turn the thing on to set the alarm, (b) when the radio is on the time display is not shown, and (c) that light level is way too bright.

Action taken to workround negatives - (a) inappropriate language, (b) kept the analogue clock out, (c) ended up turning the display off, so I still don't know what the time is
and finally -
(d) put this Roberts device in the cupboard and bought a real alarm / clock radio from another maker.

At first I thought I had found what I needed, a good small sized radio alarm clock with plenty of features especially a headphone socket in easy reach (as I'm one of those poor soles who have to listen to the radio with headphones on whilst wifie snores her head off).
Then I switched it off, turned off the light and tried to sleep. Could I?? No way! I was kept awake by this high pitch buzzing noise 3 feet away from my head! It sounded like an electricity generator on full power! I had to unplug it at the wall at the cost of waking up the wife who was none to happy!

My search for a good alarm clock radio continues.

I purchased this alarm clock after having read some of the negative reviews. I'm glad I did. Some of the negative reviews are wrong. i.e. when playing the radio it stays on the radio station and not on the time. Well if you are listening to the radio you can press the display/menu button and it will scroll through to the time and stay on the time. The quality of sound is great. Your selected station will also tell you what kind of station it is, i,e, pop music, will tell you what song is currently playing and also what is coming on next. It is also good having the 2 alarms that can be set to come on daily or weekends. Another negative review was that the display was angled. My bedside table is level with my bed so there is no problem looking at the display. It would only be a problem if you were looking 'up' to it. In my view, a great wee radio and I can recommend it, infact I have bought another one as a gift for xmas.