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Simple to set: Accessing alarm on/off settings or adjusting features like snooze, brightness, and alarm volume shouldn’t require a PhD or a YouTube tutorial.Compact and stable: A good alarm clock has a low center of gravity and sufficient weight to counter the clumsy hands of the half-awake.We highly recommend a clock with the option of manually or automatically dimming the display. Dimmable: A persistent, noticeable bright light can be a detriment to falling asleep.

We favored models with pleasant tones and the option to change them based on personal preference.

Produces a pleasant alarm tone: The ideal alarm will wake you up without creating a jarring effect.

Easy to read: Whether it has hands or a digital display, a clock should be legible at a glance, even without contacts or eyeglasses.

Even the next-dimmest night-light (on the Marathon Analog Desk Alarm Clock with Auto-Night Light) seemed much too bright after we’d acclimated to the Riki’s tranquil illumination. The brightness level seemed more akin to candlelight than to the intrusive modern glare produced by the LED- or LCD-backlit displays on other clocks we tested.

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When you press the button, the clock illuminates just enough to make the face legible (a big plus for those of us who like to peek at the time before we have any real intention of waking up). The clock’s sole button consolidates the light and snooze functions (doling out extra sleep in four-minute increments), and we found it effortless to use, even with our eyes closed. The Riki’s prominent face has half-inch-tall numerals and large hour and minute arms, so it’s easy to read-even in dim light and from a distance. The only alarm clock among our picks with a design-award pedigree, the sedate beechwood Riki was designed by Japanese modernist Riki Watanabe, whose work was known for being simple yet functional. Why it’s great: If you want a dependable alarm clock with a timeless analog design that’s dead silent and easy to use, the Lemnos Riki checks all of those boxes.

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The developers recently added Bluetooth speaker functionality and are promising Spotify connectivity and additional sounds as features that are “coming soon.” We’ll update this guide when-and if-these features appear. For instance, we discovered one night that there were a few more soothing classical compositions to wake up to than we’d had the day before and that alarm-scheduling options had been expanded.

But on a regular basis this clock can get additional features delivered via Wi-Fi updates. The Loftie isn’t “smart” like other smart alarm clocks, in that you won’t be served the news or the weather with the aid of a voice assistant. The two other buttons are for setting the alarm, accessing brightness and volume settings, setting the duration of the sleep timer, and choosing alarm tones. You won’t be able to read using the light, but it’s bright enough for when you’re fumbling for your glasses or going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. There’s an adjustable night-light hidden at the base that’s easily turned on and off, using the large button on top of the clock (it also works as the snooze button).

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We also liked the clock’s all-black exterior (it comes in a white and black option, too), which is free of distracting lights or branding.

But it’s clear, and it automatically sets the time once connected to a Wi-Fi network. Of clocks we’ve tested, this one’s display isn’t the largest or the brightest. And though the clock’s single-speaker output can be a bit tinny for playing music, it can get surprisingly loud and is just fine for alarm tones and answering Google Assistant prompts. Fortunately, the clock’s two microphones (one in the front, the other in the back) are very sensitive and able to discern commands, even when we used a hushed volume at night.

To set the alarm, adjust the volume, or turn on the night-light, it was always much easier to summon help with a “hey, Google …” instead. There’s also a tap at the top to enable the snooze feature, but it sometimes required another touch to register. Unless you’re looking at them from above, the buttons are discernible only by touch, and I often fumbled at night or in the early morning while trying to turn on music or adjust the volume. Even though the clock is outfitted with four evenly distributed buttons-for volume, turning on music, and the alarm settings-they are obscured from view due to the angled wedge design. Most everything this alarm clock can do is hidden, accessed using its built-in Google Assistant voice controls or with the Google Home app.

Philips desktop clock radio