Review on Emerson CKS1800 SmartSet Radio Display by Ricky Lahoti

I like this watch for my purpose. I wanted a muted green display for the bedroom where my wife doesn't like light while she sleeps. I gave it three stars because I wouldn't be so happy with it otherwise. It has some nice features like keeping time during a power outage and you can set an alarm for Monday through Friday only or Saturday and Sunday only. But I have two cons: 1. The display is not bright, even on a strong or bright it is barely readable in a well-lit room. On dark settings you can only read in a fairly dark room. (Again, this was a plus for my particular situation, but most people probably won't like it). 2. The controls are far from easy to use. They're not intuitive at all. I'm a retired engineer assembling computers and it took me 5 to 10 minutes of poorly written instructions to figure out how to use it. I have stayed in many motels and always use small alarm clocks and never had a problem setting the time or alarm on a small clock radio until I came across this one. Be that as it may, each button on the top performs a dual or triple function and isn't clearly labeled. The first time I tried to quickly set an alarm before bed without instructions, I gave up after a few minutes of fiddling and used my smartphone's alarm clock instead. In order to set the alarm to just wake you up the next morning, I had to read and try the instructions because the instructions weren't clear. Don't even think of this clock for motel room, guest room, grandma or someone who isn't tech savvy when you expect them to set an alarm. It's not bad for a user like me once you understand this. But even for me, since I'm retired and only set an alarm occasionally, I'll keep the instructions close by.