Wake up at 8, 8:30 in Newfoundland

Author's Rating:

Pros: Works well, cheap, easy to use

Cons: Time zone coverage for Canadian model doesn't cover all Canadian time zones

The Bottom Line: 
A plain dependable radio, but make sure it works properly in your time zone.

Author's Review
The Sony ICF-C218 works great as a clock radio. It's cheap and has adequate sound. The time is preset by Sony; a lithium battery keeps the clock going if the power goes off. The time can be changed manually with some difficulty, but the average user doesn't have to do that; the time remains accurate even after power failures, and the time zone, which does have to be reset after every power failure, can be changed quickly and easily.

That is, if you don't live in Newfoundland.

The Canadian version of the ICF-C218 does not allow the user to set the clock to the Newfoundland Time Zone, despite Newfoundland being part of Confederation since 1949. This means that every time the clock loses power, the user in Newfoundland has to manually reset the time - and as I mentioned, changing the time manually is more difficult than with a normal clock. It does, however, allow the user to set the clock to the Yukon Time Zone, a time zone that has not existed in Canada since 1975. (I am also not satisfied that it can be set to work without daylight saving time, which would be necessary for it to work in Saskatchewan.)

Sony, what the heck is going on? Is your company getting time zone information from a 1948 World Book? Or are these radios being built in The Land That Time Forgot? And if so, can we expect an endorsement from Generalissimo Francisco Franco soon? Sheesh.