Best Digital Clock Radio

Wake up to music instead of a loud alarm, or place a Bluetooth enabled digital clock in your home office to listen to your playlist while you work. Here are the best digital clock radios.

(Image credit: Amazon)

Clock radios don’t have to be used just in the bedroom. Several look good in your home office, in the kitchen, or the family room where you can listen to music, set timers, and keep track of time. Here is a guide of several kinds of digital clock radios that come highly recommended. 

Best overall

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DreamSky Alarm Clock Radio

All the bells and whistles

The DreamSky digital clock lets you enjoy your favorite FM radio channels. It displays the inside temperature, current time, and the time you’ve set for the alarm to go off. You can set the alarm as a loud tone, or wake up to your favorite morning show playing. The DreamSky clock radio has a sleep timer and an eight-minute interval snooze feature, and its display can be adjusted to your desired brightness. There is a USB charging port on the back of this clock so you can power up your cell phone or other electronics. This digital clock radio is compact enough to take with you as you travel. It is powered using the included DC adapter with a six-foot-long wire or with three AAA batteries. 

Best projection clock

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ELEHOT Projection Digital Clock and Radio

The writing's on the wall

The ELEHOT digital clock and radio lets you save up to 60 FM radio stations, and it has auto-scan to help you find them all. The current time displays on the clock with a soft LED light, and it will be projected onto a wall or the ceiling big enough to read easily. This projection will work up to 12 feet away from the digital clock. You can set two alarms on this clock and charge your cell phone at night using the included USB charger. It comes with a spare battery, so if you lose power the clock will remember your time, radion presets, and any set alarms. It has seven different alarm tones, and you can assign a different tone for each alarm. You can also wake up to the radio. 

Best premium

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Echo Dot 3rd Gen with clock

Not your standard clock radio

Everyone is familiar with Alexa and the variety of tasks she can do. With this version of the Echo Dot, you still get access to your Amazon music collection, radio stations, both live and prerecorded, games, and a wealth of information. The time displays on the Echo, but you can always ask Alexa to tell you the current time, or the time in any time zone. You can set multiple alarms or timers, and because of its compact size, you can move it to any room in your house and it will remember your settings. Even if the power goes out, the Echo won’t have access to online information, but it will still keep the current time and set off any set timers or alarms. 

Best all-purpose

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Emerson SmartSet Clock Radio

Good for the home office

The Emerson SmartSet digital clock radio can be used in the bedroom and has an alarm if you do. But its larger display, Bluetooth connectivity, and a USB port that supports charging any mobile device make it a great clock for in your office, on the kitchen counter, or in the family room. You can listen to the radio, though only FM stations can be picked up, and set up to 20 of your favorite stations. The SmartSet technology means once you set your time zone and current time, this digital clock will always remember it, even if it looses power for an extended amount of time. If you’d like to use the Emerson digital clock radio as an alarm clock, you can set two different alarms. There is also a handy light that you turn on for some quick light, or use as a nightlight. 

Best for kids

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JALL Sunrise Alarm Clock

A fun clock for the little ones

This fun digital clock is shaped like the sun and glows yellow like the sun, too. It has six other light colors that it will cycle through, or you can decide on just one color to be displayed. The color and light will start very low and gradually become brighter within 30 minutes of the alarm going off. You can set the light to glower brighter faster. This clock features two alarm settings that won’t interfere with each other. When you turn off one alarm the other will remain set. The digital clock display is at the bottom of the clock, so it doesn’t get in the way of the light. The JALL Wake Up Sunrise clock includes both an FM and AM radio frequency and prerecorded nature sounds that help you relax and fall asleep. 

Best bedside clock

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i-box Bedside Radio Alarm Clock

The traditional alarm clock radio

This digital clock is a great gadget to keep next to your bed. It lets you listen to FM radio stations and create 10 presets of your favorites. Two alarm settings can be set to play two different radio stations to wake you and your partner up, or you can choose to have one go off with the radio and the other with a traditional alarm tone. The i-box digital clock has a USB port to charge electronics, and a QI charger to power up your electronics wirelessly. You can use both chargers simultaneously. It has Bluetooth connectivity and will work as a speaker to broadcast your playlist. This bedside radio clock comes in two colors, black or gray. 

Digital clock radios: It's about time

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The best digital clock is the DreamSky Alarm Clock Radio. You can listen to FM radio stations and preset several so it’s easy to listen to the one you want at any time. You can adjust the brightness of the digital display, charge your phone with the included USB port and play your playlist from your mobile device by connecting via Bluetooth. There are several alarm settings including traditional tones or the option to wake up listening to your favorite radio station. It’s easy to take this digital clock radio with you on trips because it can be powered using AAA batteries. 

For something a little different, try the Jall Sunrise digital clock radio and alarm. It broadcasts both AM and FM radio stations and has a large display for the time. If you use the alarm, this clock will use its soft light to gently light up your bedroom over 30 minutes to help you wake up more easily before the alarm sounds.

Nikki Johnston
Special Project Writer

Nikki writes for multiple Future Publishing brands covering topics from antivirus to kitchen appliances to SAS. She has over 15 years of research and writing experience, including eight years of testing and reviewing consumer products. Nikki earned bachelor’s degrees in both English and Political Science with a focus on empirical research. In her spare time, Nikki serves as a member of several school councils and volunteers for a local arts board.