I want a clock radio with some specific features

January 4, 2015 8:04 PM

I'm looking for a clock radio with these features: radio, battery powered (not battery backup), alarm, and headphone jack.

I'm having a little trouble finding many options. I suppose there's not a huge market anymore. There's this Seiko one which is a little more than I want to spend. Ideally I'd like something for under $50. Any other suggestions?

Just to be jerk-ily preemptive, please no "almost all" suggestions. I absolutely require my four features. Additional things are fine.

posted by sevenless to Shopping (13 answers total)

Here's a Short wave radio, It has all of the requirements.

You might want to broaden your search to radios that also happen to have alarms.
posted by FallowKing at 8:19 PM on January 4, 2015

This one is $48.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:19 PM on January 4, 2015

Please unplug it before you cut the cord.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:35 PM on January 4, 2015

If you have a tablet or a smart phone, your requirements can be met with a free app. I use an android tablet as my clock radio.

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-turn-your-phone-into-the-ultimate-alarm-clock-fo-1247925652
posted by nogero at 9:03 PM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

There's an app for that. I use a Sony Tablet. Works great. beautiful clock app. Wonderful alarms. Timers for music. Memory slot. Headphone jack. Bluetooth for external speakers. Touch screen. Wonderful stuff. You can get one for less than $100 because you don't need a lot of memory.
posted by ptm at 10:12 PM on January 4, 2015

This Sangean clock radio fits your criteria; it is $52.75 on amazon. It is battery operated but also gives you the option of using rechargeable batteries and recharging them in the radio itself.
posted by gudrun at 10:17 PM on January 4, 2015

(Most smartphones or tablets do not have a radio, do they? As in, radio from the airwaves, not from internet...)
posted by applesurf at 12:44 AM on January 5, 2015

I'm not sure if it has an alarm, but the iPod Nano has all the other features that you want.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 6:04 AM on January 5, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggetions so far. Re: tables, smartphones, bluetooth speakers, etc. I have all those things, but I'm doing an internship later this year where I won't reliably have (much) power, and I don't want to have to worry about charging my "alarm clock."
posted by sevenless at 6:56 AM on January 5, 2015

The battery powered part is the most difficult requirement, looks like, so maybe add 'camping' or 'portable' to your search terms.

This one, for example, is about $35, but it's shipped from the UK, which would make it more expensive if you're in the US. Or here's a portable AM/FM/shortwave radio that has a clock and alarm for under $20.
posted by ernielundquist at 7:54 AM on January 5, 2015

If you choose nogero and ptm's smart phone or tablet suggestion, "broadcast radio but over the internet" option (like iheart radio app or even pandora app), you'd want the phone/tablet to go through your home's Wi-Fi so that you're not using ridiculously expensive data. You can get the phone to display the time, evenly dimly, all the time by checking your smart phone's settings.
posted by dlwr300 at 8:12 AM on January 5, 2015

This is marketed as a portable battery-powered radio but it has a clock and alarms. It has a headphone jack.
posted by barnone at 8:33 AM on January 5, 2015

I looked a little more into iPod Nano's last night, and they do have alarms, so they meet all your criteria. They don't have replaceable batteries which you don't specify and they are FM only.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 6:06 AM on January 6, 2015