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Technology.

30 November 2021

Top five digital radio alarm clocks for 2021

Find a brilliant digital radio alarm clock that’s easy to use and a delight to wake up to. We pick our top five radios to put by your bedside.

Oliver Trebilcock

In this article

And here are three to avoid
How to choose the best alarm clock radio
Features to consider for a good night's sleep
Other features to look out for

Getting up in the morning can be a struggle, especially if you’re waking up to the sound of a shrill alarm. Investing in a good digital alarm clock – one that wakes you gently with a soft crescendo – will help you start the day on the right note.

We've picked out five of the best digital radio alarm clocks, with a range of designs to suit your preferences. Some are made specifically to be brilliant bedside companions, and others are general-use radios that scored highly for their suitability as DAB radio alarm clocks. And we've also highlighted three Don't Buy radios so you know what you need to avoid.

Only logged in Which? members can view our recommendations in the table below. If you're not yet a member, you can get instant access by joining Which?.

Best digital radio alarm clocks

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81%
£129.00
This high-end alarm clock radio has premium build quality and is ideal for the bedroom routine, with a large, clear screen, alarms with snooze function and a sleep timer for those that love to listen at night as they’re falling asleep. It even supports Bluetooth, so you can stream your music wirelessly through the radio’s speakers. It’s not quite the best-sounding radio we’ve tested, but the sound is very good and spreads out well throughout the room. It’s a radio for those looking for stylish looks a cut above the cheap plastic found in many radios. Login to find out how easy our expert lab found this radio to use, and how good the maximum volume of this radio is.
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79%
£79.00
This affordable, compact radio excels – few radios sound this good. It has a beautifully warm tone that elevates a wide range of musical genres and means speech is wonderfully clear. It has 10 DAB and 10 FM presets to store your favourite radio stations. There’s also Bluetooth, aux-in and a headphones socket so you can connect various devices, and it’s suitable for any room in your home including the bedside.
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73%
£99.00
This DAB radio comes from a one of the best-sounding ranges of radios on the market. It offers all the common DAB/FM radio features you’d expect including bedside alarm clock functions, presets for quick-access to your favourite settings, as well as a headphones socket and even a line out socket. It’s remarkably competitively-priced compared to rivals, too.
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69%
£259.99
For those seeking a higher-end bedside radio, this compact radio with a beautiful build is an excellent choice. Sound quality delivers, plus it has a convenient CD player for your personal music collection, and Bluetooth to stream audio and access internet features from your smartphone.
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Pricing and recommendations correct as of December 2021.

Not found the product for you? Browse all of our radio reviews.

And here are three to avoid

Not all radio alarm clocks are equal, and even dedicated ones supposedly designed purely for bedside use can perform their task poorly. These are some of the worst radios from our testing that were seemingly suitable for alarm clock use. We've seen digital radio alarm clocks with impossibly small snooze buttons, tiny hard-to-read screens and ones with such low volume you might not wake up at all. Be sure to avoid these duds if you see them on the high street or online.

Three radio alarm clocks to avoid

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49%
£99.99
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking big brands and spending more saves you from the duds. This DAB radio is frustratingly fiddly to use. Buttons are small, poorly labelled and often fail to register your commands, and the awkwardly-placed display is one of the worst we’ve seen on a radio. The battery life lasted barely a third of the time the manufacturer claims in our tests, and the sound is unpleasant, thin and muffled.
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46%
£49.00
This DAB/FM radio may have stylish retro looks, but it narrowly avoids getting a Don’t Buy. Available for around £50, it would be an expensive mistake to buy this radio for use as an alarm clock, with the low maximum volume making the two independent alarms and snooze function useless if you’re a heavy sleeper. Despite having stereo speakers, it sounds poor, with a rough and scratchy sound that lacks life and bass. On closer inspection the build quality is quite poor as well, and having the screen on top of the radio makes it hardly ideal for use as a radio alarm clock. It’s not worth the money. Login to find out which radios we would recommend instead with vastly superior sound quality.
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40%
£40.00
While designed primarily as a bedside alarm clock with two independent alarms, this small low-cost radio simply sounds awful. It’s the kind of radio that would annoy your partner each morning if they’re already awake. It has a thin, tinny sound with a lack of any bass or even higher treble frequencies. The screen can be hard to read as well as it isn’t very bright, and isn’t convenient to use either. You can’t display both the time and the radio station you’re listening to at the same time. The button layout isn’t good either, making it easy to get the volume and radio station buttons confused – which can make for a frustrating morning experience. Login to find out how power-hungry this radio is, and for a breakdown of how it performs across various musical genres in our test results.
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How to choose the best alarm clock radio

A good digital alarm clock can cost anything from £50 up to £250. If you like using your alarm clock radio’s snooze button to grab a few more minutes’ sleep, it’s really important to consider its size and how easy it is to reach. Ideally it should be placed somewhere prominent like on a bedside table, so you don’t struggle to find it when you’re drowsy.

Don’t forget to also look at the size of the other buttons and dials, and how they’re labelled. Some radios may look sleek, but you’ll quickly get frustrated if they're style over substance.

And if you like falling asleep to the radio as well as waking up to it, look for a radio alarm clock with a sleep timer that turns the radio off after a set period of time.

Features to consider for a good night's sleep

Choice of alarm: Most bedside digital radios offer a choice of alarm sounds, including your favourite radio station, a buzzer or a bell tone, so you're not stuck with an alarm that doesn't work for you or you begin to sleep through.
Dual independent alarms: Many dedicated DAB radio alarm clocks allow you to set multiple alarms independently, which is ideal if you and your partner wake up at different times or if you want to set a later time for the weekend.
Large screen: Dedicated digital alarm clock radios have a much larger screen than typical tabletop or portable radios. If you want to be able to check the time at a glance, pick one with a large, clear display. In addition to showing the time, some radios show track titles, programme names and what’s coming up next.
Screen brightness: Screens need to be bright enough to read but not so bright they keep you up at night. The best DAB radio alarm clocks will auto-adjust their screen brightness to match the room, and let you select different levels of screen brightness manually.
Clock design: Most will let you choose whether to show a 12 or a 24-hour clock. Some models have automatic clock updates, so you won’t need to adjust them for daylight-saving time and can be confident they're very precise.

Other features to look out for

Charging your portable devices: Some have handy USB sockets to charge your portable devices, without taking up another mains socket.
Bluetooth streaming: The latest DAB radio alarm clocks often support Bluetooth, which allows you to stream any audio you like from your smartphone, tablet or other Bluetooth device through the radio's speakers.
CD player: This is useful if you have a treasured CD music collection
Wi-fi for music streaming: Radios with wi-fi - called internet radios - often support music streaming services such as Spotify (may require subscriptions)