“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!,” a voice yells at me. It’s 6:30 a.m. and it’s my own voice yelling at me. I recorded it on Ikea’s Slabang alarm clock a few nights before. I’ve also recorded the dog barking, my wife, and other sounds at various times. Recording your own sound for an alarm is truly a novel feature for a cheap $6.00 alarm clock.
The Slabang clock is nothing more than a small, brightly colored, digital clock with an inexpensive LCD display. But, our little red Slabang clocks work well at a basic level. Slabang can display traditional 12-hour or the 24-hour time. It has a snooze button on the top and small buttons on the rear to handle time, alarm stting, and the recording functionality. As a clock, Slabang works well and keeps good time. Our Slabang alarm clocks have run for over six months without our needing to change the three AAA batteries. This alarm clock will fit anywhere you need a clock as it measures about 5-inches wide, 2 and 3/4-inches high, and 2 1/2-inches deep. It has a rubber armored body that protects the alarm clock well if takes a tumble off your night stand.
Insomniacs will be glad to know that, if they want to want to see the time in the darkness, they need only mash the snooze button to activate a backlight for a few moments. As medical researchers have found that the glow of our chargers, clocks, and other electronic devices may actually be keeping us up at night, the lack of a glow may be a big advantage. However, if you’d like to simply crack an eyelid open to glance at the time, you may find the lack of permanently illuminated numerals to be a problem. During the day, the black blocky digits on Slabang are quite readable as they stand 1 and 3/16 inches high.
Another issue with the Slabang alarm clock is that the small buttons on the rear of the clock can be a little difficult to work with when you are tired. On a few occasions, our Slabang clocks have failed to go off because we didn’t push a slider on the back over far enough to engage the buzzer or the recorded alarm. On other occasions we inadvertantly recorded blank noise over our alarm recording by accidentally pressing the record button while setting the alarm time. Ultimately, we may seek out a clock illuminated numbers and simpler controls at some point in the future. In the interim, Slabang has been a great value.
Overall, the ability to record your own alarm is a surprise and delight in a clock that only costs $6.00.
Sources:
Personal Experience
Other articles by this contributor:
Ikea Can Furnish a Living Room for $500 or Less
A Guide to Hooks at Ikea
The Secrets of a Seasoned Ikea Shopper
