Best Alarm Clocks 2023 – Buyer’s Guide

Alarm clocks in the digital/smartphone age abound with newfangled features and high-tech, complicated details. But many of these offerings fail in what they should do best: function as an alarm clock.

On the other end of the spectrum, the market abounds with cheap, poorly-made alarm clocks with no features whatsoever and which somehow also fail to tell time accurately or wake you up on time.

If you are looking to buy a new alarm clock, you may be completely overwhelmed by now with the staggering number of designs and features. Or you may be fearful of spending your hard-earned money on a dud alarm clock that causes you to miss your flight. Have no fear. We have done the work for you to narrow down the field of alarms to a list of the ten best alarm clocks available.

Without further ado, here are the top ten best alarm clocks (scroll down for detailed reviews of each):

Best Alarm Clocks 2023

1. Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock HF3520
2. Sonic Alert SBB500SS Sonic Bomb Extra Loud Alarm Clock
3. RCA RCD30 Digital Alarm Clock
4. Travelwey Home LED Digital Alarm Clock
5. DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock
6. Oct17 Wooden Alarm Clock
7. Peakeep 4” Twin Bell Alarm Clock
8. Magnasonic Projection Alarm Clock EAAC601
9. iHome iBT29 Bluetooth Color-Changing Dual Alarm Clock FM Radio
10. Clocky, the Original Alarm Clock on Wheels

For those in a hurry, we have broken down some of the key features in the chart below:

Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock HF3520

Philips is an industry leader in the burgeoning field of alarm clocks which aim to wake you as gently, naturally, and peacefully as possible by simulating the rising sun. In fact, a simple Google search using the search terms “sunrise alarm clock” or “wake-up light alarm” will yield a plethora of highly reviewed offerings from Philips (as well as a few other competitors not particularly worth mentioning).

And perhaps the best and most popular sunrise alarm clock from Philips is, without a doubt, the Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520.

If money is no object, you also could go for the Philips Somneo Sleep and Wake-Up Light HF3650, which offers the same wake-up experience as the HF3520 but is almost twice its price. The Somneo would certainly be considered the more luxurious option and has a number of extra features.

Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Philips offers the HF3505, a budget version of a wake-up light at less than half the cost of the HF3520, but this wake-up light unfortunately lacks the red tint that the HF3520 and the Somneo use to simulate a more accurate sunrise.

So in terms of simulating a sunrise well, waking you up pleasantly, and all-around awesomeness, the Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520 will do the trick just fine for most of our readers. It offers the best selection of features and the most pleasant overall wake-up experience at the most reasonable price.

The Philips Wake-Up Light (along with the Somneo) are some of the only sunrise alarm clock models on the market to offer a more realistic red-tinted light component in their simulation of the sunrise and sunset. And this Philips Wake-Up Light is the least expensive model we have found to include this red tint, which research suggests is more effective at shifting your internal circadian rhythms and therefore waking you up more pleasantly and naturally.

The Philips Wake-Up Light also has the added benefit of simulating the sunset to help your body enter into a more restful state. Studies have indicated that a more realistic sunset and sunrise may help you get better sleep and higher quality sleep cycles.

Any light (emitted by devices around the bedroom, for example) can suppress your levels of melatonin, the hormone that your body produces to help you fall asleep, but the red-tinted light from the sunset simulation of the Philips Wake-Up Light will suppress melatonin less than white light or blue light.

Thus, the Philips Wake-Up Light not only wakes you up more naturally but also helps you to go to sleep more peacefully and easily and thereby get more sleep, enabling you to have a better overall quality of sleep and quality of life.

In addition to the excellent red-tinted sunrise and sunset simulations, the Philips Wake-Up Light also offers a number of other noteworthy features, including a built-in FM radio tuner, a back-up alarm, and several alarm tones which simulate sounds from nature, such as cheerfully chirping birds. It is also bright enough to function as a decent bedside reading lamp.

One of our favorites on this list, the Philips Wake-Up Light improves your quality of sleep and makes waking up in the morning as painless as possible by easing you into consciousness through its realistic sunrise simulations. And it will certainly look fantastic (stylish yet unobtrusive) when placed on your nightstand or bedside table. Although this is the only sunrise alarm on our list, we can assure you that unless you feel the necessity to upgrade to the Somneo, the Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520 is the sunrise alarm to get.

Sonic Alert SBB500SS Sonic Bomb Extra Loud Alarm Clock

Let’s say you are an extremely heavy sleeper who can sleep like the dead through multiple alarms. By this time, you must be completely fed up with always being late for school or for work due to your failure to hear and respond to the many alarm clocks you have set up around your bedroom. You also probably scoffed at the notion of being woken up by gentle birdsong and a simulated sunrise.

If so, then the Sonic Alert SBB500SS Sonic Bomb Extra Loud Alarm Clock is for you. This alarm, which takes its styling cues from a cartoonish grenade, is the loudest alarm clock on the market. And it has a host of other features sure to blast even the deepest sleepers out of bed.

So how loud is loud? The Sonic Bomb’s alarm clocks in at 113 decibels. That is equivalent to the sound level of a rock concert, a car horn going off in your ear, or an aircraft at takeoff!

And if the sheer volume of the Sonic Bomb is not enough to pry open your eyelids in the morning, it also includes a powerful 12-volt bed shaker device that you can place underneath your pillow or mattress to shake you awake. Furthermore, the Sonic Bomb also includes pulsating red lights to convey to you the fact that the world as you know it is ending if you fail to get up immediately.

You need not utilize all these features (the loud alarm sound, powerful bed shaker, and flashing red lights) at the same time if you do not wish to do so. You can pick and choose what works for you. Or you can use them all at once for an earth-shattering experience sure to rouse you from your slumbers and get you to school or to work on time so your boss doesn’t get mad at you again.

You can also set two separate alarms with your own personalized settings so that if you and your partner both sleep like the dead but need to wake up at different times, each of you can still be woken up at the appropriate hour.

The Sonic Bomb from Sonic Alert certainly does not make for a peaceful or pleasant waking up experience or morning routine, but if you are an almost comatose sleeper who has slept through basically everything else on the market, then the Sonic Bomb is exactly what you need. It can even be used by those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

In short, do what you need to do in order to wake up in the morning. If that means buying this bomb of an alarm, then go for it. Just don’t expect your neighbors to be especially thrilled with your choice of an alarm clock.

RCA RCD30 Digital Alarm Clock

You may not need a fancy sunrise and sunset simulation or an earth-shattering wake-up experience sure to wake the dead. You may just want a simple, highly functional and readable alarm clock that is easy to use and, more importantly, easy on your wallet. If so, the RCA RCD30 Digital Alarm Clock is for you.

In terms of function, usability, and readability for the price, the RCA is pretty close to unbeatable. This is a top pick for those who want a reasonably loud and dependable alarm with a highly readable display, a simple user interface, and not a lot of clutter, all for a budget price.

Although the RCA is quite basic, it has everything you truly need in an alarm clock. Although it has a fairly small footprint and will take up very little space on your nightstand, it has a very large digital display with red numbers that is readable without glasses and can be seen at night or in the daytime from over twenty feet away. The fact that the display is red means that your melatonin levels will be affected as little as possible.

The display has two brightness settings, neither of which casts a glow and both of which are readable from across the room. You can set it to the brighter setting during the daytime and to the dimmer setting when you go to sleep (so you don’t burn your retinas when you’re trying to figure out what time it is after waking up in the middle of the night).

The snooze button (a saving grace for many of us) is large and easy to use and can be hit without much difficulty. Each time you snooze the alarm, you will get an extra nine minutes of sleep, and you can continue to snooze for over an hour.

The RCA plugs into the wall and may be reminiscent of hotel room alarm clocks from the 1990s, but one distinct advantage it has over them (besides offering a dimmer display setting) is the fact that it can use backup battery power to save your alarm settings in the case of a power outage.

Like the aforementioned hotel room alarm clocks, the buttons on the RCA are not necessarily the easiest to use. Since the buttons to set the minutes and hours only count up, not down, you have to pay attention while setting the time or you may miss the number you want and have to cycle through again.

The least expensive alarm on our list, the RCA is simple but does everything an alarm needs to do. If you want a cheap alarm that simply works, look no further than the RCA RCD30.

Travelwey Home LED Digital Alarm Clock

Another excellent budget-oriented pick, the Travelwey Home LED Digital Alarm Clock is only a tiny bit more expensive than the RCA RCD30, but it has all the same great features—with a few handy extras added on.

Like the RCA unit, the Travelwey also has a large, highly readable digital display with red numbers with adjustable brightness. But the brightness is adjustable by a slider, improving on the RCA RCD30’s simple two-brightness-setting switch setup.

The Travelwey’s snooze button is quite large, taking up almost the full length of the alarm clock, and exceptionally easy to tap in the morning for some extra slumber, given in increments of nine minutes.

Power is supplied to the Travelwey through the wall outlet, but it also includes a slot for backup batteries in order to preserve your alarm settings and prevent a Home Alone scenario from occurring.

If you want a fairly loud alarm clock but don’t quite need the explosive, Armageddon-like experience offered by the Sonic Bomb, you may prefer the volume settings the Travelwey has to offer. Its peak loudness setting measures in at 82 decibels, which is as loud as a blender or a garbage disposal.

Other notable features include an easily activated night light (if you prefer not to be in total darkness or for children who are afraid of the dark) and an automatic shutoff for the alarm after it has rung for five minutes.

The Travelwey LED Digital Alarm Clock is one of the best-selling alarm clocks on the market, and for good reason—it is a dependable alarm without frills which excels in its simplicity, readability, and functionality. It costs a tiny bit more than the RCA RCD30, so it’s up to you to decide if the extra features on the Travelwey, such as the night light and the dimming slider, are worth a few extra bucks.

DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock

Another entry in the budget, no-frills category of alarm clocks is the DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock. This alarm clock distinguishes itself with its sleek, streamlined design and its extremely large, highly readable digital display.

The DreamSky comes in a wide variety of display colors. You can choose from displays with white, red, orange, blue, and green digital numbers, just to name a few. We would suggest the red or orange displays to cause the least disruption to your melatonin levels, but the other display colors are unobtrusive enough to earn our recommendation as well.

None of the displays (no matter which color you choose) produce that unfortunate LCD alarm clock glow which can interfere with your sleep. Furthermore, the brightness can be adjusted for any desired setting between 100% and 0% with an easy to use turning dimmer wheel.

The DreamSky’s most noticeable feature, its exceedingly large LED digital display, is easily visible and readable from a distance in the daytime or at night without glasses or contact lenses. Each digital number measures a whopping two inches in height (almost the full height of the clock), although the DreamSky itself is, as the name suggests, compact, and will not take up a whole lot of space on your nightstand.

Another wheel on the back of the clock is used to adjust the volume on the DreamSky, which can go as loud as 90 decibels and be set to as low as 30 decibels. This is surely loud enough to wake all but the soundest sleepers (to whom we would recommend the aforementioned Sonic Bomb).

Snoozing the DreamSky is accomplished not with the press of a physical button but a tap of the touch-sensitive surface on the top of the clock. The snooze increment (like the other above budget alarms) is not adjustable and is set to nine minutes.

Like the RCA and Travelwey devices, the DreamSky derives its power from being plugged into a wall outlet but has a slot for batteries which can serve as a backup and will save the alarm settings and keep your alarm ringing at the proper time even if the power in your room goes out.

Setting the time and the alarm on the DreamSky is quite intuitive and actually a bit easier than on the RCA RCD30 or the Travelwey, since it allows you to navigate in either direction with your button presses and thereby relieves you of the trouble of cycling through the whole 24 hours or 60 minutes again if you miss the number you want.

Furthermore, the two USB charging ports on the DreamSky for your various device-charging needs constitute a thoughtful inclusion for our smartphone and smartwatch connected generation. The USB ports, not found on the other budget alarm sets, are a nice surprise on this otherwise simplistic and no-frills budget alarm clock.

If you like the simplicity and budget-friendly price of the DreamSky but would like your alarm clock to include a radio as well (so you can wake up to the sounds of the radio rather than the stereotypical alarm buzzer), DreamSky offers a number of fairly simple alarm clock FM radios with headphone jacks that have nearly all the same features as the DreamSky Compact for just a few dollars more.

The DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock includes all of the features of the RCA RCD30 and the Travelwey (with the exception of the night light function on the Travelwey) and also adds a few other nifty features, such as the USB ports for charging your smartphone or smart watch. Thus, if you are willing to spend a few more dollars than you would for the RCA unit or the Travelwey and the extra features are worth it to you, go for the DreamSky Compact.

Oct17 Wooden Alarm Clock

Without a doubt one of the most stylish options on our list, the Oct17 Wooden Alarm Clock will look handsome on any nightstand, bedside table, end table, or desk. It boasts a triangular prism wooden body that was engineered with sleekness, elegance, and simplicity clearly in mind. In designing the Oct17, its creators certainly adhered to the minimalistic mantra that less is more.

By all accounts, the Oct17 is quite a basic budget alarm clock, and yet it looks and feels more expensive and upscale than the price would indicate, especially in comparison to other alarm clocks on the market priced in this range. Indeed, it looks and feels better than many other far pricier alarm clocks. The Oct17 is available in a number of different colors which include a bamboo finish, a black wooden finish, a brown wooden finish, and a white wooden finish.

By virtue of the sheer awesomeness of its style and feel, the Oct17 is one of our personal favorites on this list, though it may pale in comparison to the other alarm clocks in terms of features and usability. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but we wager that you would be hard-pressed to find a great many people who would not consider this clock one of the coolest and most stylish alarm clocks they have ever seen.

The large digital LED display shines from beneath the veneer of the front of the Oct17, producing a “now you see me, now you don’t” effect. In fact, when the LED display is completely turned off, there is no hint of a display to be found anywhere; viewed from the front, it looks like a block of wood sitting on your nightstand or desk.

The ability to shut the Oct17’s display completely off and not merely adjust it to a dimmer setting (while the clock is plugged in and functioning, of course) is a feature unique to this alarm clock. Indeed, none of the other alarm clocks we reviewed possess a completely off display possibility. This can be quite a boon to those who are extremely sensitive to light of any kind while trying to fall asleep.

The completely off display on the Oct17 is activated by turning on the “Sound Control” power saving mode. When this mode is on, the display will automatically shut off completely after ten seconds of inactivity, but in order to get a quick glance at the time, you can clap your hands (produce any sound above 60 decibels) or tap the clock, and the LED digital display will light up for you for a ten-second period.

When the Oct17’s display is on, it is quite readable with large numbers to display the time and two stacked sets of digits directly to the right of the time for conveying other information, such as the humidity and the temperature. Despite the additional information displayed on the front of the Oct17, it still manages to look uncluttered, unconfusing, and elegant—for instance, it is always manifestly clear what time it is on the Oct17, unlike on many other clocks which provide the temperature, the humidity, and other such information on their oversaturated and practically unreadable displays.

If you like the look of this alarm clock but prefer a simple time-only display, Oct17 offers an updated 2023 version that looks and functions almost identically. The major difference is that the humidity and temperature on the new version are eliminated from the main view and the time is displayed clearly in the center with no other distractions. The new version also has the added benefit of being slightly cheaper.

When turned on, the LED display offers three different brightness settings ranging from bright to dim. You can set the Oct17’s display to show the year, month, and day in addition to the time, humidity, and temperature (it will cycle through the information to present it in an uncluttered, crystal-clear fashion). Or you can keep the display on time, humidity, and temperature mode only.

The LED display uses white numbers, although on the dark brown wooden finish, the numbers look somewhat orange and are easier on the eyes. This is a plus when taking into consideration your melatonin levels (although you can simply switch on the aforementioned Sound Control mode to shut off the display entirely if its light is bothering you).

In terms of its primary function, the Oct17 offers the ability to set three separate alarms. It also allows you to set those alarms to go off on the weekdays only, granting you a peaceful time to sleep in on the weekends if you so choose. Notably, the Oct17 lacks a snooze function, which is a feature common to almost every other alarm on our list. You can take into consideration your personal sleep habits to decide for yourself if the lack of a snooze button is a plus or a minus.

Similar to the RCA, Travelwey, and DreamSky alarm clocks, the Oct17 draws power mainly through a power cord plugged into a wall outlet. The main difference with the Oct17 is that the power cord is a USB cable, so you can also plug it into any USB port for power. And of course, it has the option of drawing emergency power through backup batteries in order to preserve your alarm settings in the case of a power outage.

One distinct drawback of the Oct17 is its highly unintuitive and difficult to use button system. All of the aforementioned functions are set through three small buttons on the back of the Oct17, somewhat cryptically labeled “UP,” “DOWN,” and “SET.” When trying to set this alarm clock, you will probably be reminded of how it felt to set a cheap 90s-era digital watch by cycling through the seemingly endless modes and options. Or you may be reminded of certain complicated button press combinations you mastered in order to execute a particular move on Super Smash Bros.

Either way, setting the Oct17 is no easy task. But at least you can go either up or down when setting the date, hour, or minute (so you don’t have to cycle all the way through if you miss the right number).

On a more positive note, the Oct17 is practically impossible to tip over due to its structure. This may be a key consideration if you are fed up with knocking over your alarm every time you want to see what time it is.

The Oct17 is one of our favorite units due to its elegant design at a budget price. But all that style and minimalistic modernism does not come without a drawback or two. Still, the look and the functionality (especially the completely off display option) of the Oct17 more than make up for any inconvenience you may face while navigating the alarm’s complicated button press system.

Peakeep 4” Twin Bell Alarm Clock

One of the least complicated alarms on our list, the Peakeep 4” Twin Bell Alarm Clock is an exercise in simplicity. It happens to be the only analog entry on our list, and this works to its advantage. You will find no Super Smash Bros. button press combinations on the Peakeep. With its retro “Mickey Mouse ears” bell styling and vintage mechanism, the Peakeep may be old-fashioned, but it is certainly effective and highly usable, an analog alarm clock built for the digital age.

The Peakeep comes in a variety of colors, such as black, green, pink, red, and white. If you have trouble seeing at night (or in general), we recommend the black, white, or red versions, as the high contrast between the numbers and the dial promotes readability.

The Peakeep boasts an extremely readable dial with large, stereoscopic numbers (rather than flat numbers painted or printed on a cardboard dial).

To aid with readability at night, the Peakeep offers a light to gently illuminate the clock face activated with the press of a button on the back of the alarm. The light is dim enough to keep you from being disturbed too much at night when you wake up and merely want to see what time it is.

However, we found that the light was a bit too dim on the green and pink versions of the Peakeep (we could tell the time on these colors only with some difficulty). The black and the white versions of the Peakeep were the most readable at night when illuminated by the clock light. The brightness of the Peakeep light is not adjustable.

The volume on the Peakeep is also not adjustable, and it is indeed loud. The Peakeep is so loud that it is generally placed in the same category as the Sonic Bomb and is similarly suitable for those who are heavy sleepers, deaf, or hearing-impaired. It produces sound in the manner of classic alarm clocks, with a metal hammer clanging furiously against its eponymous twin bells.

Although the alarm sound on the Peakeep is extremely loud, the movement of the seconds hand is completely silent. It does not tick at all, allowing you to fall asleep undisturbed if you are sensitive to even the quietest sounds at night.

The Peakeep lacks a snooze function, making it and the Oct17 the only two alarms on our list without this oft-used feature. You must decide whether an alarm without a snooze button is right for you.

Setting the Peakeep is altogether simple and utterly intuitive, with a dial to set the time and another dial to set the alarm. In fact, the entire clock has only four buttons: an on/off switch for when the alarm sounds, a dial to set the time, a dial to set the alarm, and a button to illuminate the clock face. The only downside to this simple setup is that because of the analog interface, it is not possible to set the alarm to the exact minute.

True to form, the Peakeep dispenses with any need for AC adapters or wall outlets and is powered by a single AA battery, which can last for more than four months. The fact that it is solely battery-powered, combined with its sturdy metal design, makes the Peakeep an ideal candidate for travel; you can simply toss it into your luggage without worrying about bringing any other moving parts.

The Peakeep excels in its simplicity and usability and does what it promises: it wakes you up effectively. If you wish to purchase a simple analog alarm, we recommend the Peakeep 4” Twin Bell Alarm Clock.

Magnasonic Projection Alarm Clock EAAC601

Thus far, all of the alarm clocks on our list (with the exception of the Philips Wake-Up Light) have been fairly simple devices without too many frills and with their alarms comprising their only prominent functions. But what if you want a fancy alarm with as many bells and whistles as possible?

Well, you could of course go with the Philips Wake-Up Light. But if you want an alarm with plenty of decent features that won’t break the bank, the Magnasonic Projection Alarm Clock EAAC601 may be the one for you.

Just to clarify, the Magnasonic Projection Alarm Clock EAAC601 is also sometimes called the Electrohome EAAC601 (you may see it advertised as such). Magnasonic and Electrohome are owned by the same company, and both alarms is the same in function and style. As far as we could tell, the older versions (and older product videos) appear to have “Electrohome” as the logo on the front, and the newer versions have a “Magnasonic” logo. But the alarm itself is the same.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Magnasonic EAAC601 is its ability to project the time (and even the temperature) in large red digits onto a wall, ceiling, or other surface, allowing you to open your eyes in the middle of the night and view the time without any effort on your part. The projection feature does not work in the daylight or in other brightly lit settings. But it definitely looks cool at night (especially when you’re lying in bed).

The projection feature works by virtue of an arm on the side of the clock that can be adjusted to almost any angle. You can also flip the projection by 180 degrees if necessary or switch off the projection entirely. Furthermore, you can adjust the focus of the projection to keep it razor sharp and legible no matter how far away your ceiling or wall is.

The Magnasonic also boasts another important function lacking in almost all the alarms we’ve reviewed so far: a radio! Actually, the Magnasonic is the only alarm clock radio on our list to include not only an FM tuner but also an AM tuner as well (so you can listen to the news, traffic, weather, or early-morning talk radio when you wake up if you so desire). You can save up to 20 stations in the device’s memory.

Besides waking up to radio tunes, you can also use the 3.5mm AUX input on the back of the Magnasonic to connect your smartphone, tablet, or other MP3 device and be awoken by your own music.

An additional benefit of the Magnasonic lies in its smart ability to set the date and the time automatically with its SelfSet technology. It even accounts for Daylight Savings Time. All you have to do is to specify which time zone you are in, and the Magnasonic will do the rest.

The Magnasonic is highly readable, with a large backlit blue display highlighting white numbers. Even though this unit can display some other information such as the current temperature, the radio frequency, or the day, month, and year, the time is always clear and unmistakable.

Unfortunately, the fact that the display is blue may interfere with your melatonin levels, and there is no other color option available. However, if you are sensitive to light, the backlight on the display can be dimmed or turned off, and there is an auto-dimming feature to help with that at night.

The dual alarms of the Magnasonic allow two users to set individual alarms at different wake-up times, so both you and your partner can use the same alarm.

Like several other alarms on our list, the snooze function is fairly straightforward to use, stopping the alarm for a non-adjustable nine minutes. However, the alarm will stop snoozing automatically after thirty minutes.

A few extra snooze-related goodies found on the Magnasonic include a nap timer that you can set to go off after a preset amount of time between ten and ninety minutes and a sleep timer that will play music to you for a preset amount of time between fifteen and ninety minutes (this is useful if you like to fall asleep while listening to music).

The Magnasonic, like many other alarms on this list, is powered by an AC adapter plugged into a wall outlet. However, in the case of a power outage, the included long-lasting lithium battery kicks in to ensure that the clock time and time zone settings remain accurate and that all of your alarm settings are preserved.

If you are looking for an alarm packed with cool features which is also easy on your wallet, the Magnasonic may be exactly what you need. Although the many features may require a thorough perusal of an instruction manual and a bit of a learning curve to master, the Magnasonic EAAC601 is surely worth the effort.

iHome iBT29 Bluetooth Color-Changing Dual Alarm Clock FM Radio

Another feature-rich entry and certainly the most colorful option on our list, the iHome iBT29 Bluetooth Color-Changing Dual Alarm Clock FM Radio is a high-tech device built for the smartphone age and consequently decked out with a wide range of flashy features.

The most noticeable part of the iHome iBT29 is its ability to change colors and brighten up the room with its display and translucent LED cabinet. Choose from five colors and six wake-up color modes, and your pick of the moment will be displayed vibrantly and beautifully by the somewhat spherical alarm housing. You can pick a color to suit your mood or what you think goes best with your music at the time. And the color change happens at the mere press of a button.

Speaking of music, you can connect your iPhone or other Bluetooth-enabled device to the iHome iBT29 wirelessly to use it as a speaker for playing your music. This is the only alarm we picked that offers Bluetooth and smartphone integration. It even acts as a speakerphone with a microphone so you can have a hands-free phone conversation! The iHome iBT29 also includes an FM radio with memory for six radio presets.

FM radio music, songs from your connected smartphone, or built-in alarm tones may all be used to wake you, and its dual alarms allow your partner to be awoken by the tune of their choice as well. Furthermore, there is a USB port for charging your smart device so that it can be fully charged while playing your music. It also includes an AUX input if your device lacks Bluetooth.

If you want a fun, colorful, room-brightening alarm or are looking for an all-in-one alarm that also functions well as a Bluetooth speaker, the iHome iBT29 is for you. But if super-complicated devices are not your thing, steer clear.

Clocky, the Original Alarm Clock on Wheels

Last but certainly not least on our list is Clocky, the Original Alarm Clock on Wheels. This adorable and entertaining device comes in a range of colors and runs away from you when you try to snooze it, so you have to actually get out of bed to turn it off. Although it is certainly annoying at times, it is difficult to stay angry for long at this cute little robot alarm.

Clocky is designed for those of us who abuse our snooze buttons with regularity.

The premise is unique and beautifully executed: You set the snooze time between one and eight minutes or turn off the snooze function entirely. You are allowed to snooze once, if the snooze function is on.

But as soon as you try to snooze a second time, Clocky will light up, leap into action, and wheel away madly to run and hide from you, beeping and whistling like R2-D2 all the while long. It will even jump from a nightstand height of three feet to escape from you and force you to catch it.

The snooze button is difficult to use, but that is the point of Clocky. It actually gets you out of bed. The user interface is not exactly intuitive and will certainly require a quick consultation of the instruction manual, but Clocky is unique and well-designed enough to warrant the effort.

For those of us who are serial snoozers, Clocky promises to do the impossible: to actually get us out of bed. We found that once we successfully chased Clocky down to shut off the alarm, we no longer had such a strong urge to return to bed.

Clocky is effective, crazy, and annoying, yet hilarious and adorable enough for us serial snoozers to tolerate his presence instead of getting mad at him. And if one of your friends or family is addicted to snoozing, Clocky makes an excellent graduation, back-to-school, or new job gift. They will never miss a class or arrive late to work again!

What to Look for in an Alarm

Overall Wake-Up Experience

Do you want a pleasant wake-up experience? Or do you need to feel like the world is ending before you will get out of bed? Or are you a serial snoozer? Take these things into account when choosing your alarm.

Volume

Will it wake you up or not? This is obviously a key consideration, especially if you are a heavy sleeper.

Ease of Use

It shouldn’t require a Ph.D. to figure out how to use an alarm clock. More features will complicate matters, but you should still be able to learn how to use your alarm relatively easily.

Display

The display should be highly readable and preferably come in a color that will not interfere too much with your melatonin levels.

Features

It is up to you to decide which features you want or need in your new alarm clock, whether it be an FM radio, sunrise simulation, or Bluetooth connectivity.

Conclusion

Searching for an alarm can be a tedious, daunting task, but we hope we’ve made it easier for you with this list.

Are you looking for the best sleep and most pleasant wake-up routine? Go with the Philips Wake-Up Light.

Are you looking for something loud enough to wake the dead? The Sonic Bomb or Peakeep may be for you.

The RCA, Travelwey, and DreamSky are all simple, compact, budget alarms that get the basics right and are excellent all-around.

The Oct17 gets the basics right and looks incredible while doing so.

If you want an all-inclusive device packed with features, look no further than the Magnasonic or the iHome.

And if you are addicted to hitting snooze or just want something cute, go with Clocky.

We hope this guide has been a help. Good luck on finding the perfect alarm for you!