Sangean WR-22

Wow it has been a long time since I’ve posted on here, oops! Anyway, today I’m going to give my initial impressions of my new Sangean WR-22 bluetooth FM radio / alarm clock. I purchased it so that I could be awoken to music in the morning (or news, depending) rather than the super obnoxious “beep beep” of my old buzzer-alarm clock. Much more pleasant to wake up to!

Pros:

• sound quality is great for only having one speaker, a little bass heavy but that can be adjusted
• setup is pretty easy with the menu and spinning tuning dial for selection, however turning on and off an alarm (say for a day you have off work, or don’t have a set wake up time) is kind of a pain
  • you have to scroll through all the alarm settings to turn it back on again, as if you were setting up a new alarm for the first time. no quick toggle to turn on/off a saved alarm
• easy to read screen, button layout pretty simple and well labeled
• looks sharp and modern, but not too over the top. Top and front pieces on black model appear to be glossy painted metal, as opposed to brushed metal or coloured wood
  • might be a magnet for finger prints…
• granularity of volume control (a pet peeve of mine) is just about right; small notches!
• bluetooth is easy to pair, although I’ve barely used it. Haven’t used USB or Aux yet, but I’ll try those out at some point.

Cons:

• no quick toggle to turn saved alarm on/off
• options for screen-dimming could be more granular
• option for leaving only clock display on constantly would be really nice for bedside alarm clock usage
• sleep timer setting should use scrolling tuning dial instead of holding sleep button (control scheme inconsistency with other settings)
• unfortunate that you can’t charge a USB device which using another mode, or while the radio is off (standby mode). Would be perfect for charging a phone overnight…