RCA RP5440 SmartSnooze Dual Wake AM/FM Clock Radio with Time Projector | 
 enlarge | Brand: RCA
Category: CE
Buy New: $37.99
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 5669
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.3
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 3.4 x 4.8
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Warranty: 1
MPN: RP5440
Model: RP5440
UPC: 412353665018
EAN: 0044319503715
ASIN: B000HX6SK6
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | Built-In Time Projection - This alarm clock has a pivoting lens that projects the time onto the ceiling, a wall or any other object | | • | Wireless Temperature Readout - Shows the indoor and outdoor temperature on the display via a wireless temperature sensor | | • | Programmable Sleep - Plays the radio for up to 2 hours before automatically turning off the radio, allowing the user to gently fall asleep to music | | • | Programmable Snooze - Turns off the alarm or radio for an extra 9 minutes of sleep or can be programmed for 1-30 minutes; you can snooze up to 2 hours | | • | Auto Time Set - Simply plug in the clock radio and the current Eastern Standard Time (EST) is automatically displayed. Flip the switch to select your time zone |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Thomson provides a wide range of video technologies, products and services to consumers and professionals in the entertainment and media industries. Offering an array of state-of-the-art digital products and services, Thomson adds value to hundreds of millions of consumers around the world every year.PRODUCT FEATURES:This AM/FM clock radio has a large LCD display for easy readability;This alarm clock has a pivoting lens that projects the time onto the ceiling, a wall or any other object;Shows the indoor and outdoor temperature on the display via a wireless temperature sensor;Connect your mp3 player to the audio input jack and then sit back and enjoy your music;Simply plug in the clock radio and the current Eastern Standard Time (EST) is automatically displayed. Flip the switch to select your time zone;When the alarm is activated, any of the top buttons will act as a snooze;Individual wake time indicators allow for two different alarm settings for two different users.Each wake setting is indicated;Turns off the alarm or radio for an extra 9 minutes of sleep or can be programmed for 1-30 minutes; you can snooze up to 2 hours;Plays the radio for up to 2 hours before automatically turning off the radio, allowing the user to gently fall asleep to music;Allows the user to set a quick alarm for a short interval of sleep without disturbing the alarm settings. Set for 10-minute increments up to a total of 2 hours of naptime;Digital active radio station readout displayed for current station. Also makes it easy to locate a specific frequency quickly.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 RCA AM/FM Projection Clock February 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I Love this alarm clock radio with indoor/outdoor temps and projected time. My only problem is with the brightness. It is so bright it casts a shadow, and I have to sleep with my back to it. Just got it yesterday for my birthday, so I'll turn it around or cover the display tonight.
For the reviewer who can't get the outdoor temp unit to sync up with her base unit... Read the directions under the "thermometer" heading. You need to press and hold the ID button on the main unit. It will then receive the temp information from the temp unit. Good luck, I love that feature!
 RCA RP5440 Dual Wake AM/FM Clock Radio February 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The best alarm clock I have ever owned. Easy to use. I love the outdoor wireless temperature reading and the dual alarm. No more resetting the alarm in the morning for my wife. The projector is really nice as well. All around a great product so far.
 Good product, but Aux Input needs more juice February 10, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The main reason I bought this clock was for the MP3 input jack so you can plug in your mp3 player or Ipod into it and set the alarm to whatever music you like or to just listen via the clock's speaker. That all works, except that the sound is about impossible to hear even though the volume is turned all the way up. I liked all the other features like the outdoor and indoor temperature, projection, dual alarms, and radio, so I kept it. Your mp3 or whatever external device will need some type of ampliphier in order to hear it though the clock speaker, other wise the Aux input jack is useless.
Son love it! January 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a Christmas present for my 11-year old son. He thinks it's great that it shows the time on the ceiling and the display is bright enough (even with auto-dimming) to be a great nightlight. The first unit we got (and opened) had the snooze and nap buttons broken. Since my son isn't totally dependent on these features I almost kept the unit as it was rather than go through the hassle of returning it. I finally decided that it should work correctly and Amazon replaced it with no problem; including shipping. The new unit works perfectly and I assume I just got a lemon the first time. Can't beat the price for what we got and Amazon's service was great.
Pros: Big display that is easy to see, time projected onto ceiling, auto setting time, outside/inside temperature, and it kept its time when unplugged. In fact, we packed the old unit up (obviously unplugged) and the alarm went off the next morning in the box. We had to unpack it, plug it in, and then turn off the alarm. We didn't want the Postal Service to get worried!
Cons: The display is very bright (good for our kids' room). The temperature isn't projected. No station presets.
The RCA RP5440- Not that bad after al... Pobody's Nerfect! January 19, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Looking for a better way to wake up, I did a lot of research on every type of alarm clock out there. After chucking out the losers, I shortlisted the rest to the Zen Alarm Clock, a Nexxtech CD Clock Radio, an electronic wind chime clock, a Sunrise Dawn Simulator device, and finally, the RCA RP5440. My goal is to test them all, as what they all have in common is they try to avoid that nasty brutish emergency siren type of alarm clock; which is the worst way to wake up, for your body, mind and work day.
The RCA RP5440 is not perfect, but has a lot of endearing qualities to me. It's a pretty smart, high tech device, reasonably (or relatively) well built. Does everything but change your baby's diapers, and looks smart and good doing it....
THE RADIO: The antenna is in the cord. When I first turned it on (FM), the station was playing some type of indian-sounding mountain music, with echoey banjos and other country strings. I was startled by the quality of sound when I first heard it. You couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, and it was crystal clear, with enough presence to sound like the musicians were very tiny, but playing right there, somewhere in the vicinity of the clock. Then after a couple of seconds, I realized the reason why the sound was that good. It has nothing to do with the RCA itself, I had remembered that I have PWB devices (from PWB Electronics) installed throughout my house. They work to affect the listener's perception of sound quality, so any audio device I bring into the house sounds good, automatically. Even a lowly clock radio. So for a more objective test, I compared the RCA's radio sound quality with my Sony Dream Machine cube (both of which would be ultimately affected by the PWB devices, so both are on equal footing). Next to the Sony, the RCA had a decidedly top end bias (I believe the word is "tinny"). Probably typical for clock radio sound anyway, with the Sony being more of an exception, as its sound was richer and fuller, if somewhat less distinct than the RCA. Despite the lack of bass and richness, I reiterate that the RCA can sound good, if just used in a morning wake-up session. BTW, contrary to popular but informed opinion, the radio does not have digital tuning. It is an analog tuner but with digital readout. So much the better.
THE ALARM: It's no Zen Clock mechanically-struck buddhist chime, but it's a nice sounding electronic tone, that at least doesn't start off blaring you in the face. It's just that it ramps up a bit too quickly for my taste, and starts off a bit too loud (I wish it took a minute to progress, instead of 1/2 minute). When it gets to the loudest volume, dogs down the street will start barking. I don't think anyone could sleep through that, but then, that's probably the idea. You can't change the volume of the alarm, either. It features a "SmartSnooze" function, which is not -that- smart actually, but simply means you can press any button to effect the snooze function. The unit can take an MP3 player, but won't allow you to wake you up to it. Unfortunately.
THE DISPLAY: A lot has been said about the display on this unit, little of it good. Let me confirm it is indeed a blue electroluminescent display, with a black LCD readout. This was obviously done because there is more information here than your typical LED display, ie. the weather info, and little icons. Overall, the display is one of the things I find so attractive on this unit. If the conditions are right, it makes things easy to read and gives the whole device a high tech look and feel. You just gotta figure out how to get those conditions right! Here's a couple of clues...
The digits on the readout are only clear at the angle the clock normally rests on, if looking from above the clock. (It must the stupid engineer at Thompson Electronics that was assigned the LCD readout...). If you look at the clock at eye level (or the wrong level), the blackness of the LCD readout diminishes. Basically, turning the clock away from you greys out the digits (until they all but disappear), turning it toward you makes them darker.
What this clock really needs is to have its display on a swivel base, so you can swivel it to read clearly at the angle you normally would read it at. My night table and bed are roughly the same level, and this is not the ideal viewing angle, so the digits on the display washes out. To fix this, I simply tilt the clock toward me (enough that it almost tips over). And voila, the digits are as black as coal at mattress viewing level, and easy to read. (The trick is keeping it in that position, so it doesn't tip over while fidgeting with the buttons. One way is to tilt the side projector unit forward, so it acts as a leg and prevents the unit from tipping over. It also can prevent the projection from being above the bed, but hey, pothing's nerfect). Of course, if the digits are easy to read in bed, they won't be so easy to read when you lift your head up off the pillow, and vice versa.
Brightness of the display is another common complaint I read about this clock, and for good reason. Unmodified, you can practically read a long book using just the light of the display on this thing. The clever-guy fix for that problem is chewing gum. Or fun-tak adhesive putty. Or black sticky foam -- anything that you can cover the sensor with and black it out. No, it's not enough to just cover the eye that says "sensor", you need to cover the surrounding area of the sensor to maximize the dimming. (If putting your finger on or around what you covered has no further effect on the display's brightness, then you've done the job right). You also need to put the clock on auto-dim. The result is a muted darkish blue display. Those two fixes together make the display on the RP5440 more acceptable. How acceptable, is a matter of personal taste.
In my completely blacked out room, I find the muted display still gives off more light than I would like to see. Fact is, electroluminescent displays really have no business in a night table clock of any kind. It creates "light pollution", and if you're trying to maintain a dark room to sleep in, its impossible with an EL device like the RP5440. I did manage to sleep with the clock inches from my head, but I found didn't like the initial brightness (which closed eyes are nevertheless sensitive to), before slumber arrived. If you don't have a very dark room or place the clock further away than a bedside table, it may be acceptable (with the above fixes). But don't count on it! So make sure wherever you buy this from, you can return it. If its not returnable and you had to live with it, you could always place (removable) cardboard in front of the display, and just use the projection function to see the time. But this is really bending over backwards to like the clock.
THE WEATHER FUNCTION: One of the best reasons to own this clock, is an easy way of knowing what the weather is. I stuck the outdoor temp sensor out the window of a room down the hall (not my bedroom where the clock was located!), closed the window, and the darn thing actually worked. It even comes with a seperate LCD display unit to show the outside temperature from a location elsewhere than the clock itself. This alone is worth paying $10 extra over the cheaper RP5430 model.
THE PROJECTOR: If I had to nitpick, I'd like to have a choice of colours (ie. blue), than the red color projected. Otherwise, this is a dandy feature. You can change the angle of projection and the location of the image, to put the time on your ceiling exactly where you need it to be. This way you can be on your back in bed, and have only to squint in the darkness to see the time (it disappears when the room lights are turned on).
SETTINGS: I learned how almost everything on the clock works in minutes, without looking at the instructions. Can't say that for all clocks (cough NEXXTECH cough), so that's my little ease-of-use test, and the RCA passes. (About the only thing I didn't know what it did, was the "ID" button. It synchronizes the outside thermo unit with the clock base, in case there are problems). The 2 alarms and time are easy to set. Actually, I didn't need to set the time, just the time zone switch. But no, as others have said, it does not appear to be an atomic clock. Still, close enough and pobody's nerfect.
I initially rated this device after testing it, but before real-world use, where I spent a night with it next to me. Since I can't officially change my 4-star rating, I am downrating it here to a 3, due to the annoying luminescense of the EL display. Sadly, it really wouldn't take much to make it the perfect alarm clock. Just smarter and more conscientious engineers, who try to keep in mind that humans are going to use their designs, and who try to learn at least the kindergarten-level basics of the concept called "ergonomics", before putting such a product to market. If you can live without the projection and get a separate indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer, check out the RP5430, which is basically the same model without the extras, including the light-polluting display.
|
|
|
