The new Sound Oasis S-850 travel alarm clock/sound machine looks modern and up to date. It feels very solid. There are very few buttons on a machine that has 19 sounds, yes we said 19 sounds! It has a rotary volume dial for that “there’s no light to find the buttons” moment. The clock face lights up with a nice blue color when the snooze button is pushed and stays lit for about 4 seconds on battery power. It has a nice “home” and “away” feature that keeps you from having to change the time and alarm time if you happen to travel to the same time zone often. It also shows the home time, if you selected away, in smaller font on the face. A nice feature if you’re plan on calling home and can’t remember what time it is there.

We were able to get this unit up and running without having to look at the manual! We did have to look at the manual for the instructions on how to delete the memo though.

Sounds: We found the sounds ranging from good to excellent on this unit. The 19 sounds are:

• Ocean Surf-Just waves, no sea gulls
• North Woods-A variety of different birds
• Thunderstorm-Rain and thunder
• White Noise-Just white noise
• Night Train-Just a train
• Spring Rain-Just rain
• Island Surf-Waves with seagulls…a lot of seagulls!
• Bonfire-The crackling of a fire
• Stream-Just a stream sound
• Hidden Cove-Similar to Ocean Surf, no birds
• Wind-Sporadic gusts of wind, about 150 MPH justs!
• Asian Garden-Sounds like rain with a harp playing
• Song Birds-Yep, birds
• Harbor Swell-Waves with the sound of some wind mixed in
• Bamboo Chimes-We’ve heard this playing at a museum exibit
• Summer Night-Frogs and crickets
• Cooling Fan-Love this one! Sounds like a fan
• Rainforest-A stream with some exotic birds
• Jet Lag-A soothing melody with birds chirping
• Memo-20th sound, but does not repeat

The memo function allows you to make memos totaling 15 seconds. This is nice for those who remember something as they are falling asleep to need to make a memo of it. It also works for your sweetheart to leave you a nice surprise message.

Features: This unit comes with a wall plug or it can run off of 4 AA batteries. The speaker is about 1.25 inches in diameter and does a nice job of delivering sound. The really cool feature we found is a lock switch on the back of the unit. This locks the unit so nothing will change on it and you won’t suddenly find yourself
standing in the hotel lobby with a beeping bag. The unit also comes with a vinyl slip in travel bag.

Verdict: We like this unit. The only issue we found is that the volume does not get as loud as we would like. This can be rectified though by placing it closer to you.

Ratings
Average
Overall
Price
Features
Reliability