The Mpow Projection Clock has a large, curved display to help you read the current time from multiple angles. The adjustable projector displays the time on a wall or ceiling, which is a valuable feature if you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night wondering what time it is. There's no wake-up light function here, so if that's important to you, look at our guide to the best sunrise alarm clocks instead.
The alarm clock display has three brightness levels: bright, dim and off. The large blue numbers are easy to read from across the room and are less distracting than clocks with red numbers.
This alarm clock has a dual alarm feature that allows you to set different wake-up times for you and your bedmate. Each alarm can play an FM radio station or a traditional buzzer. The Mpow remembers up to 15 radio stations and saves them as presets so you can quickly switch back and forth and wake up to a different genre of music or morning show. There’s an antenna on the back panel to increase signal reception to cut down on static
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Also, the back panel has a USB charging port for your phone or tablet. This is one of only three alarm clocks we tested with a charging port, including the Timex XBBU and Philips AJT4400. Wall sockets are a valuable commodity near a bedside table, and alarm clocks with a charging port brings a charging station closer to the bed. The Mpow has a lithium button cell backup battery to save your time and alarm settings during a power outage, but the backup battery doesn’t allow the alarm to function – it requires AC power to trigger the alarm and display the time.
The sleep timer on this alarm clock works well with the FM radio. Listen to your favorite radio station while you fall asleep before the clock turns itself off. The timer sets for 5-90 minutes in 15-minute intervals. The volume settings for the radio are separate from the alarm volume settings, so you turn the radio down while you fall asleep and crank it up to as high as 76 dB for the alarm. This is one of the loudest alarm clocks we tested, which is an important feature for deep sleepers that have a hard time waking up to faint or quiet sounds.
Summary
The Mpow Projection Clock is affordable and has some of the newest alarm clock features we recommend, like an adjustable projector and USB charging port. The large curved display is easy to read from across the room. If you like to listen to music while you fall asleep, the adjustable sleep timer function is a handy feature.
