Oregon Scientific AWS888 Color Weather Forecaster with Clock

Color Weather station with atomic clock

Strengths: Intuitive set up,weekday alarms

Weaknesses: Auto dim does not work as suggested in manual

Summary: So far, this has been everything I had expected it to be.

There are a couple of things to be aware of if you intend to purchase this item.

The screen is very bright, and although it has a light sensor that is advertised as helping adjust the screen brightness when the room darkens, I have not been able to see that it does anything to adjust the brightness of the screen in any way. But, having said that, I do intend to use it as an alarm clock. There is a setting available to tell the screen to go blank between certain set times. During those times the screen is dark, you can see the time by touching any button. The screen will return to dark after a few seconds. And, it will light up when the alarm sounds.

One thing I really like about the clock-alarm is that I can set weekday alarm times. I really find it a pain to have to remember to turn off a standard alarm on Friday night, and turn it back on on Sunday. With this clock, you just set the alarm for weekdays, and the rest is automatic.

I had worried about all the advertised sounds the clock-weather station included, but those can either be turned way down, or off completely. The alarm has an independent volume control for its starting volume.

The screen is bright and easy to read in all light. I did not buy this for the animated parts of the display, but they are fine. Typical of LCD display, you do get a bit of distortion at increasing angles off of direct viewing. For the first distortion, the color shifts, but you can still make out the display. At an increased angle from that, the display is all but gone. The refresh rate of the screen is more than adequate to keep up with the changes of the screen information.

For those who have spotty reception of the atomic clock control signal in-doors, this may have a way around that for you if you can get a signal outside your house. The atomic clock receiver is actually in the separate "temperature humidity sensor" unit. Putting that outside in range of the main unit, the sensor will get the time updates, and relay the time, temperature and humidity at the sensor back to the main unit.

The manual is adequate if you have limited expereince with this sort of device. But, if you may be able to figure it out without the manual. The screens are intuitive. The are easy to navigate through up and down arrow toggles, and enter keys.

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GADGET LOVERS DISAPPOINTMENT

Strengths: COLOR SCREEN

Weaknesses: NON TFT LOW RESOLUTION SCREEN, AUTO DIMMING DOES NOT WORK

Summary: This is the second time I have purchased this weather station and both have had the same problem. The photocell that activates the auto dimming funtion doesen't work, living the screen at a fixed level too bright for night viewing confort. So although I initially intended to place it on my bed side night stand I ended up moving it to my home office.

The screen is non TFT, it has a poor viewing angle and the pixels switching rate is way slow. Making moving images appear to be dragging accross the screen in a ghost like fashion.

The time/date and the temperature sreens CANNOT be displayed at the same time, but rather alternate back and forward at a speed set by the user during the initial set up. But you can also choose on screen to be displayed at all times.

I like the overall concept of this cool gadget, color screen, auto time stting, but I think Oregon Scientific should have done a better job in designing this unit.

Not recomended!

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