Alarm Clock Radio with FM Radio, Dual USB Port for Charger, Large 4.2" LED Digit Display with Dimmer, Snooze, Battery Backup, 12/24 Hours for Adjustable Volume, Best Gift for Christmas, Bedroom

I have been using an iHome alarm clock for the past 15 years or more. I used it in conjunction with a similarly aged iPod shuffle. It has served me well but was time to be replaced. I wanted an alarm clock that would wake me up with the music of my choice. I chose this particular alarm clock primarily because of the TF memory card. For all of the complaints people have about how complicated this is to set, I think it is fairly intuitive. I generally do not read instruction manuals and this was no exception. I was able to set the time as well as two alarms and have them wake me to the songs that I loaded on a TF card. The alarm starts softly and crescendos to a max volume that you set when setting the time and source for the alarm. Although this clock is somewhat small, it wastes no space as the entire front of the display shows the time. The brightness of this display is also adjustable. I thought the power cord could have been longer. It is not even long enough to reach the floor when my clock sits on my bedside table. Fortunately, there is an outlet directly behind the table or I would have needed an extension cord. Overall, I like the clock because it provided the one function that separated it from all of the other alarm clocks that I considered: the ability to wake up to music of my choosing. The rest is just a bonus that adds to my satisfaction and my five star rating.

Pro's:* Small clock* Plays your own music for wake up* Easy to operate* Back-up battery* It allows to connect your phone and even answer calls (didn't test this).Cons* USB and SD-card must be formatted using FAT. Newer format FAT32 doesn't seem to work.* SD-card must not be High Capacity (SDHC doesn't seem to work)* Lowest display brightness is still too bright for sleeping room* Play back of wake up music picks up where it left off - it doesn't start at the beginning of the MP3 each day

I had the same analog tuner Magnavox alarm clock since I was in HS(!) probably bought it over 30 years ago. The switches and buttons finally stopped working one day. That was a real tearjerker lol. I had no idea what the current "alarm clock tech" was up to these days so I was looking at CD player alarm clocks bc I wanted to wake up to my own selected music. But their footprint was on the large side and I was mostly concerned with the CD player part being low-quality and potentially failing relatively quickly. I saw this "K11" brand clock, (it doesn't say "Hetyre" anywhere on the box, nor in the instructions) and decided to give it a shot. I was an alarm clock luddite so I'm thoroughly impressed!The Basics:The "Mode" button selects the source of audio: Bluetooth (there's also an on-board microphone to connect to your smartphone), FM radio (only, no AM), Aux In (male/male wire is included, doubles as an FM antenna), Micro SD card (they call it a "TF card" (?)), and USB stick.The alarm mode (what u wake up to) will ONLY allow u to select either the Alarm tweety sound, FM radio, or Micro SD. I was hoping to use the USB input but, no biggie, I scraped up a Micro SD card from an old camera. If u don't have one, buy the lowest memory card u can find. You only need MP3s. Do the math on how many MP3s can fit on an 8GB card....more than you'll ever need for an alarm clock. You can't "program" what song you wake up to but, no worries, you just cue up to whatever you want to wake up to, and that's where it will pick up. The rotary knob/button basically works like a Play/Stop button in this application. But the player does not reset any tracks when you hit Stop. Regardless of mode, the Micro SD card player just picks up where it left off. Ex., Snooze function is a 5 minute wait time. Wherever you stop it in the song when you hit Snooze, that's where it will pick up again when it turns on again 5 minutes later. If you want to have control of the volume after the alarm activates, you have to de-activate the alarm (Press Alarm 1 or 2 button, and you'll see the Alarm indicator stop flashing and go steady) otherwise the volume will keep increasing back to the volume you set it to when you programmed the alarm. If at any other point in operation the volume knob doesn't respond, spin it FORWARD (clockwise) and it will drop to "V00" (It looks like "U00" actually) and then it will respond again. It's weird, you'll see what I mean. The alarm volume does do a "swell" effect when it activates. I had set the alarm volume to "V10" and it came on at "V05" and then gradually increased to 10.Sound quality:Better than my old Magnavox alarm clock AND an old AIWA alarm I had as a back up when the Magnavox died. I was only able to compare with the same FM radio station, obviously. Con: a low hum comes from the speaker in "TF Card" (Micro SD) Mode but I could only notice it when a song stopped playing. But, it's an alarm clock, not a custom stereo system.Battery Back-up:Don't be like me and assume the back-up battery (CR2032, I think, don't quote me) cover is righty-tighty-lefty-loosy because IT'S NOT. It's only with reading glasses could I eventually see the arrows on the little round cover pointing in the opposite direction you would expect. Grab a nickel and turn it CLOCKWISE to open it and, in the clock I got, it was already in there.Cons: The radio tuner, short power cordIt does an "auto-scan" of local FM stations at start-up and the manual says you can do a "manual scan" but unless I messed up, the manual scan seems to whiz past stations just like the auto scan did. Ex., my car, right outside my house, can get 92.3 FM pretty good. This little fella, shoots right past it and I haven't yet figured out if I can force it to dial it in. I'm primarily using the Micro SD mode to wake up to and I probably won't ever use the radio so I can overlook it but, I found that bothersome.And the power cord is only about 3' long. I had to get a two-prong extension cord to make it to the nearest outlet. My older clocks had longer cords. No biggie tho, anyhoo...Some of these little deets are not in the broken-English instruction fold-out card. So, YOU'RE WELCOME hahaha. The other basic stuff is explained in the instructions. So, in conclusion, for $35 it worked out great for me and my needs. Definitely recommend.