La Crosse Technology 617-1485B Atomic Color Alarm Clock with USB Charging Port

Some have given this clock a five star rating while others call it trash. Hmmmmmm. Undoubtedly, some buyers (such as myself) lucked out and received wonderful product while others received lemons. You could say the same about ANY product, NO MATTER WHERE YOU PURCHASE IT, but realistically, most companies would go out of business in a heartbeat if all they did was build trash. The best advice I can give you is to treat any product you buy (again, no matter where you purchase it) like a trial run. Always keep the box until the return window closes and find where your nearest FedEx/UPS/USPS office is located and don't hesitate or be LAZY to return the product if you feel it is defective or badly engineered. I would be willing to bet that 99.999% of all companies around the world would rather replace the product or refund your money than to get a bad review on Amazon or anywhere else (maybe tell them you plan to give their product a bad review and see what happens?).This La Crosse Technology 617-1485B Atomic Color Alarm Clock with USB Charging Port gave me no problems. Suspecting exaggeration on the part of some reviewers, I purposely oriented the clock in a north/south direction (something a few other reviewers warn not to do because they claim it will not pick up the atomic signal that way). Not only did it IMMEDIATELY pick up and lock onto the signal like a rottweiler biting a home invader on the behind and not letting go, but has been dead balls-on accurate ever since. It advances to each next minute in perfect lock-sync with my cell phone carrier's (and my computer's) time signals. A lucky coincidence? I think not. I believe this is a well-built product, but I'm not saying that some buyers may have received a defective product. Keep those boxes!This clock has a three-brightness display controlled by the snooze bar. The brightest setting lets the display double as a lighthouse and, along with the large digit size, can be read by most anyone (even during the day), even if they have mild vision impairment. Tap the snooze bar once and the display dims so you can get some sleep, but still read the time in a darkened room. Tap it again, and the display turns off altogether. The clock also displays the room temperature and humidity percentage with arrows indicating the temperature and humidity trends (going up, down, or holding steady). The alarm sound is an insistent but non-annoying beeping that's sure to awaken even the deepest of sleepers. The clock also displays the day, month and date in a orange color to distinguish them from other data on the display. There is even a nifty moon phase indicator and, of course, the obligatory USB port to charge your smartphone.I am sad to report that this will be my last review on Amazon. This is because I have not received answers from Amazon concerning questions I had about their Vine membership, so now I will no longer be participating in anything at all. I thank all my fellow shoppers who have given my reviews "helpful" ratings and hope all their future shopping experiences are happy and satisfying.UPDATE: I have owned this product for two years and last night it went belly up! It was a good two years, but last night the display went out and the item is now a piece of trash.

(01/14/18: UPDATE: See my update in comment section below)I did a review on an previous version of this clock two years ago:www.amazon.com/review/R32924DH2WLTB5/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00EG8O2SSIt came in a silver bezel and I really liked it, but it had three problems: the battery backup did not always work (clock reset when power resumed), the buttons made a loud beep (annoying at night), and the moon phase was a few days off. These have all be been fixed from what I can tell, which makes it almost perfect for me, except the hard-to-remove screen protector residue (see below), and it could be brighter.First off, this is not an 'LED' clock as described by Amazon, but it's an LCD (multi-colored) clock with backlighting, which is why the viewing angle isn't so great. Try adjusting the height of where you place it, or wedge some padding underneath to change the angle a bit. Once you get it right, it's a very attractive looking display, especially good for bedside viewing. When the lights are off, it is actually too bright at its highest setting (hi/lo/off), but not so good in the day - that's about my only complaint. The multi-color LCDs are a very nice touch.If you're into the atomic sync function, the reception is about as good as any other atomic clock I've had, which apparently is not great here on the east coast (the signal originates from Colorado). It also depends on the room of the house (eg basement not so good) and the direction you have it facing. The manual goes into this in depth, but the backlight and USB charging port will turn off when it is trying to acquire the signal (to reduce interference). This happens every night after midnight, so that's what's happening if you see your clock seem to turn off. If you need to see the time while this is happening, tap the backlight/snooze bar and it will light up for 10 seconds. Since my reception is poor here, I just turn this feature off (it has a setting for this). Then all this weirdness goes away and the clock probably only loses a few seconds a month, though without the atomic sync you would have to manually adjust for DST yourself twice a year.Battery-only mode: You can operate the clock without AC power on just the two backup AAA batteries. Once you unplug it, the backlight will go out but all the other features (like the alarm) will still work, except USB charging (obviously). Whenever you want to read or set the clock, just tap the backlight/snooze bar and the full backlight will come on for 10 seconds. Without the backlight you can still barely make out the display in regular ambient light (moreso if you can shine a light directly on it). Running on batteries-only could be convenient for travel or if the power went out. There is no spec for how long the batteries will last like this, but there is a low-battery indicator.The USB charging port works (tested on my iphone 5) and is capable of 1 A of charging current (double the 0.5 A of the previous version).Some other tests: temperature and humidity readings are roughly accurate. Moon phase is accurate (fixed). Buttons are silent when pressed (fixed: previous version made loud beeps). Battery backup works (fixed). The alarm is a 2-minute gradual beep (improved pattern over v1) with 10-minute snooze. It beeps slow (1 beep/sec) for ten seconds, then faster (2/sec) the next ten, even faster (3/sec) the next ten, then fastest (non-stop) for the remaining 1.5 minutes.It doesn't come in the silver bezel anymore apparently (which I liked), but now comes in several other colors (B-lack/W-hite/BL-ue/R-ed/O-range), indicated in the last letter(s) of the model number.Overall, I found this to be a very good-looking alarm clock for the bedside, perfect for my needs, especially now with all the bugs worked out.NOTE: When I peeled off the temporary screen protector, there was a lot of stubborn residue. It took some isopropyl alcohol, soft lens tissue (careful not to scratch), and a lot of patience, but it eventually all came off: still, a big hassle.

One main reason for this purchase was for the atomic clock feature. I won't be able to verify that particular functionality until daylight savings time comes and goes. Manually going around the house resetting all the clocks is a pain at best. Display is bright, but I wish there were more increments. There are only 3 brightness levels (bright is almost too bright and for certain the dimmest setting is too dim. I wish there were more or that it was linearly adjustable. This clock has temperature and humidity functions as well and also moon phases. I only wish the actual time digits were slightly larger. Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase.