Sonic Alert SBP100 Sonic Boom Portable Vibrating Alarm Clock
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Product Reviews of Sonic Alert SBP100 Sonic Boom Portable Vibrating Alarm Clock
Product Review: Nice, but room for improvement
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been using this for a while now, and while I really love it, it definitely has its quirks and downsides. The vibrate feature is tremendously loud, and just has that "inefficient" quality to it, like a lot of energy is being wasted on whatever it is that makes it so loud. The audible alarm is not very loud, and while it's nice for my hearing spouse to not wake up thinking the smoke alarm is going off, it would be nicer still if there were a switch for a high-volume alarm. I do like that it will vibrate AND beep; I had read that you could set it to vibrate OR beep, and really the combination works best for me, so that was a pleasant surprise. I also like the test button. I can see what time it's set for, and feel/hear what the alarm is set to. I get up at different times of day, all week long, so this is a helpful way for me to confirm that I did, in fact, set it right.
The package said that you can put this under your mattress, and indeed I can do that and it wakes me, even through my 15" mattress. The trick, however, is getting the fool thing back OUT from under the mattress to turn it off! You have to get out of bed to do so, which is great if you needed to get up, but not so pleasant if you're like many people, who go through a routine of hitting snooze a couple times before being ready to face the day.
The clock is also meant to go under your pillow, but unless you're a side-sleeper who loves really thick pillows, you don't want it square under your head. I keep mine clipped to the corner of my pillowcase, and leave it dangling off the side of the bed. The light is just a little green bulb that shines upward from the front of the clock. You cannot use it to read the clock unless you tilt the clock face to its upright position. You also cannot read the text for the buttons in the dark, because the light does not shine on them at all. This is okay if you can find your way by feel, but I am not good at that, and I have accidentally set the time instead of the alarm, or vice-versa, in the dark. I think the light is sufficient for the most part, but it won't suit everybody's needs.
The snooze button is easy to hit if you just reach out and wrap your hand around the whole unit. The button is on the front edge, so if you grab it like that, one or another finger is bound to hit that button. The downside to this is, if you're talented at hitting snooze in your sleep, this may just make it easier to do that. The non-travel clocks might work better in such a situation. Or, if you don't depend on the clock for hearing loss, put it on your dresser (or whatever) and see if the vibrating against the dresser surface will wake you.
Overall, there is definitely room for improvement (and I've heard some of these issues are handled much better in the non-travel models that Sonic Alert makes) but this is one of the better travel alarm clocks I've seen in a while.
Product Review: Not 100% Solution
Summary: 4 Stars
If you need an alarm that will wake you but not your spouse this is a good choice. It does a good job of waking you by shaking the bed if you put it between the box spring and the mattress. However, it does not completely solve the problem of waking you and not your partner. It shakes the bed too well and will likely still wake both of you if you put it under the mattress. (We have a queen bed. I'm not sure if it is a problem with kings.) I would recommend putting it in your pillow case where it will less likely disturb your partner. I don't feel the device itself through the pillow and it wakes me when it goes off.Product Review: Not Dependable
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased the clock while deployed to Iraq as a back up to my audible alarm. For those who sleep with a lot of "white noise" (generators, ECUs, helicopters, etc.) standard audible alarms aren't loud enough to wake you up.
The Sonic Shaker SBP100 has the shaking setting that works well either under your pillow, or clipped to the bed frame. It shakes enough to wake you without being loud enough to wake your CHU-mate or anyone sleeping two rooms over. And it's small enough to be portable and comes with a padded neoprene case for travel.
The first problem that I had is that the company wouldn't ship to APOs so I had to ship it to my home address and have my wife forward it to me.
Once I got it, I noticed that when I put the batteries in the clock it didn't work until I got the batteries inserted "just right". Either mine was defective or it's a bad design. I found that the batteries would shift either while I was sleeping or for no apparent reason and the clock would either reset or die. There were a couple of mornings that I awoke late. I lost confidence in the clock and found a louder alarm clock (much to the ire of my roomie).
Bottom line, the clock wasn't dependable enough for me to rely on to consistently wake me. It's a great idea for someone with a lot of ambient noise or with consideration for a roomie, but the Sonic Shaker didn't prove dependable enough.
Product Review: OK for a while -- then just works when batteries first put in
Summary: 2 Stars
I am hard of hearing and travel for a living. I cannot just rely on hotel alarm clocks. (Some hotel alarm clocks are low-volume and others are impossible to figure out -- but a different review.) I bought this and used it successfully for maybe 12 times. Then its performance became inconsistent -- not what you want in an alarm clock!
They instruct you to travel with the batteries out so it won't go off in the luggage bay and get you arrested. After a while, the clock would work only after I had first put the batteries in, but would not work again until I took the batteries out. (I THINK that was the pattern.) I wanted to test it upon arrival, but couldn't because I kept having to take the batteries out. I became frustrated and lost confidence. Too bad.
Product Review: Pretty Good Travel Clock
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall I liked this product. The design has its good points (the clip is a nice addition and i like that you can use the clip to put the clock up as a hanging clock)and its bad points (the buttons/switches could have been better designed - a bit clumsy). I LOVED that the product comes with batteries INCLUDED so its working out of the box. I also liked the nice bag that came with it although note that it is different from the bag in the photo (the bag I got was a zip-up circular bag made out of cloth.).