Top positive review
2 people found this helpful
Good value. Reliable w/two alarms, decent radio sound, FM pre-sets and battery backup. Highly recommended!
By Dan F., WI on Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2016
I paid $10 for this on Amazon Prime. Worth every penny, but probably not much more. As others have mentioned, I had to actually read the instructions to set the time, radio stations, etc. Boo, hoo. No big deal. It took all of 5 minutes. This clock has a battery backup (in the event of a power loss) that will still maintain the correct time, keep all your settings, and trigger the alarm at its set time. To me, this is an important feature. (I have a $100 Sony HD radio that loses every setting whenever we lose power, which in Wisconsin, can happen often.) It has settings for two different alarm times which is nice but not unusual. The non-radio alarm is not crazy-loud (as some are) but it's enough to wake you without wanting to hit the damn thing with a hammer. The radio comes on full loud, but as I don't use it, I don't have an issue. (Do you really want to wake up to a deodorant commercial?). The radio uses a hanging string-type antenna that works okay (I'm about 20-miles outside of Milwaukee) and even brings in the one college radio station that exists here, and without static. (If you want the antenna to work, though, it must be fully extended.) No bass to speak of, but the sound is crisp and clear. Works for me as I didn't buy it for "fidelity", just for the news. The one issue I have is that it has 10 FM pre-sets, but you have to cycle through them all to change stations. For instance, if you are on pre-set 2 and want to go to pre-set 1, you have to move up through ALL the pre-sets (even if you have set none) until you come back to number 1. A "back" button for the pre-sets would have gone a long way for me. Nevertheless, I think for ten-bucks this is a great bargain. For a bit higher price, it's still worth having (unless blinking colons bother you (see top-rated review). Not disturbingly bright, works reliably, has battery backup and decent radio reception and sound.
Top critical review
104 people found this helpful
This was the product designer's "Blaze of Glory" before he quit
By Chuck on Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2018
Save your money. PROS: Large display with choice between Light and Dim. This is the reason why I bought it, but I didn't realize all the drawbacks until it was received. CONS? UGH... let me count the ways: 1) CONTROLS. All controls come from seven rice kernel size buttons, all the same size, same shape, all in a line and all on top of the display where they're unidentifiable unless looking down on it and you have light to read them. Philips, did you realize people view this from eye level when waking up? WOW! BRILLIANT! 2) DISPLAY. Blinking colon on the display. Solved by using bits of electrical tape over it. 3) VOLUME. When turned on it's preset by Philips and is always LOUD. There is no way to change the default so the radio must always be manually adjusted. 4) VOLUME #2. Even on softest setting it's still too loud. 5) PRESET STATIONS. How do you erase a station that you incorrectly preset? Can't even find an answer to this either. 6) PRESEST STATIONS #2. To change stations through the presets you must toggle through all ten to find the one you want and you must memorize which station was set to each number. ie- As you toggle, stations are ID'd as "P01, P02, P03... ". It takes five seconds for the station to be identified before the "P01" numbers change to station frequencies. 7) FM only? My local NBA team and the university sports are on an AM station. I knew it going in, but was this so difficult or expensive that AM should be eliminated? Philips cut corners. And my #1 complaint?... 8) It's hard to comprehend that a product is designed this way. The radio volume on the wake alarm is preset LOUD by the factory. THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE IT to default to a lower volume. There is a DIY workaround on YouTube for dismantling the clock and soldering in a diode. Maybe Philips will reimburse me for a soldering set? I'm not sure what century this was designed in, but modern electronics are designed to at least be minimally configurable to users' preferences. Philips failed. All around this Philips product is one of the more terrible designs of an electronics product that I've encountered.
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