Customer Reviews

Logitech Pure-Fi Anytime Premium Alarm Clock for iPod and iPhone

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I've been looking for an alarm clock for my iPhone 3G since I bought it in June '08! Finally I found this one, and it is perfect.
- Charges iphone without interference, no weird "not compatible" message
- sounds great! perfect for the bedroom
- 2 alarm presets
- Motion Sensor! This is cool, you just wave your hand over the top instead of having to find the sleep button. Best feature!
- Dimmable display
- remote control
- looks great

I highly recommend this alarm clock to anyone with the new iPhone. Charge your phone while you sleep, wake up to your favorite music. The best!

The item itself is pretty nice. The motion sensitive snooze and back light activator is a nice touch. The housing for the product is the glossy black plastic that is the trademark of iPods and their related accessories. The orange glow clock and lights is a nice change of pace from the ubiquitous blue that's been going around for the last few years. It even comes with a remote control, which can be stored on the back of the unit when you're not using it. A nice touch that is overlooked by most manufacturers.

The item allows for setting two alarms. In theory when the alarm goes off you can wave your hand over the top right of the unit and it'll engage snooze. Which, nicely, has a feature that allows you to set the snooze length. The wave hand snooze, did work. However, the unit I had, about 50% to 70% of the time the alarm would auto-snooze itself about 2 seconds after it began sounding. Another reviewer posted about this identical defect. So, I'm not sure if it is an overly sensitive motion detector, or what, but a two second alarm will be bad news for me in the morning :)

There are a few good reviews about the product, so if you want to try one out and hope its not defective, it's a nice product. I would have kept it, had it not been for the auto-snooze.

I have been using this about a week thus far and really enjoy it. I have an iPhone 3G and it works great for charging it, playing Pandora or MP3s, and as an alarm clock. The ability to float my hand over it to snooze is really nice. Since the buttons on top are dimmed until your hand is hovering over the device is nice in the evenings when you don't want extra gadget lights distracting you when it comes time to sleep.

It has 3 programmable buttons on it which is fine for me as I have only 2 FM radio stations I care about in my area. This may be an issue for others who have more they like to pan through. Also note that the remote control is for the iPod application on the iPhone and will not work in controlling Pandora.

I only gave this 4 stars for two reasons. One is how my phone fits into the device. Not as snug as I would like as when I am touching the screen, for instance in Pandora for ratings, it rocks back into the alarm clock instead of being held solid. I have tried the other docking cups too, no luck. The other reason is price. While the price is really good, especially compared to what you pay in other stores, I still think for the sound quality and volume you get could have been better.

Overall though, I am not disappointed and have had zero issues with it.

This item is great. I recommend it.

I bought an iHome alarm clock in an attempt to use our 5th generation iPod Video as the music source for the alarm sound. After a lot of messing around and testing and days of troubleshooting... it simply did not work. Supposed to, but didn't.

This Logitech Anytime unit is wonderful. Right out of the box I followed the simple quick-start instructions and was up and running 5 minutes later. But most alarm clocks are like that. The real test is getting the iPod as the alarm source. In the next 5 or 10 minutes I was able to test my iPod's use as an alarm source to wake up to my playlist's music. It works flawlessly.

There are two alarm time settings this unit remembers. Useful for two different people that need to get up at different times, or you can use the second alarm time as an "oh crap 1-hour later alarm really really get out of bed" for example. They're Alarm #1 and Alarm #2. Each one has it's own time setting as well as it's own source setting. So you could have alarm #1 set at 5am with the iPod as the alarm sound source (or the buzzer or the radio), and alarm #2 set at 8:30am with the buzzer as the alarm source (or the iPod, or the Radio). Both can use the same source so it's totally configurable.

The unit is really small. Smaller than a loaf of bread in a bag for example. It's speakers play the music really well. The sound is distinct and nice. I'm sure that there are people that will compare this unit's speakers with larger "iPod speaker systems" and conclude that they could be better, but you know what?... they sound just fine. No crackles, not a light tingy sound, not too rich and deep... just good enough to enjoy music and more than good as an alarm clock.

When the iPod is set as the source and the alarm goes off the unit will automatically look for a specific "Alarm 1" or "Alarm 2" playlist in your iPod. If it finds one of them (for the associated alarm in question) it'll play music in Shuffle mode from one of those playlists. So you can totally customize what music should be used as alarm music. If however you don't have those playlists on your iPod the unit will just resume playback from whatever playlist was last played from.

When the alarm time goes off, the music doesn't just abruptly start playing. The unit will start off the music quietly and slowly over the course of a few seconds increase more and more the volume until it's at the wake-up audio level.

The way to stop the alarm is really neat. You simply wave your hand over the top and a little sensor will detect the motion and shut off the music. It's also the way to illuminate the controls if you need to see them in the dark for some reason.

The unit has a backup 9volt battery that it uses for remembering the time settings if the power goes out. If the power does go out and the music source was set to iPod, the buzzer will sound instead because it won't have enough power to run/command the iPod.

If the unit has power from the wall it will charge your iPod, although if the iPod is actively being used to listen to music it won't charge until the iPod itself is off. The iPod mounts to the unit via the standard Apple Dock Connector slot on the bottom of the iPod itself. There are different snap-on mounting guides to help different iPod models all stay put and mount properly.

The orange lighted display is very clear and easy to read at night.

This unit has more features than what I need. I needed an iPod alarm clock and it's great! I've tossed my iHome unit because this Logitech Anytime unit works flawlessly. I recommend it.

Unfortunately, I got one with a defect. The alarm goes off for all of 2 seconds, then spontaneously stops. I tried it out multiple times, even unplugged it after I came across a review that mentioned the defect on iLounge. The review mentioned that unplugging it sometimes helps. Not here. Sat on phone with Logitech for an hour and they found the same defect in the one they had there! They said to return it to Amazon since I'd just bought it. Apparently, the defect isn't widely known yet so they haven't recalled the ones that don't work properly.

Oh how I waited in anticipation for this unit, thinking it would solve my iPhone 3G needs and be such a relief not to stab wildly at the unit to snooze it. I suppose, in the case of the latter, it does.

Even with my Griffin Elan Form case on my iPhone 3G, the phone still fits in the dock perfectly, and charges without issue. The sound quality is pretty good, though, bizarrely, for such a thick unit, the sound quality from my Pure-Fi Anywhere speakers is actually BETTER, despite being much smaller.

The Pure-Fi Anytime set SCREAMS cheap. Now, I realize that for the price this unit costs, it doesn't need to be gold-plated, but it really feels very plasticky, and even the buttons are obnoxiously loud when pressed. If you have a spouse or partner that might have slept through your awakening music (which does gracefully spool up in volume when the music starts at your alarm-set time..), they won't sleep through the CLACKING of hitting the volume buttons, that's for sure. And, again, being a very plastic little thing, it picks up lots of hairline scratches, even with only a day of light use. Many of these scratches are visible out of the box.

I do enjoy the LCD screen, which is easily read, and only the actual numbers light up, not the whole LCD screen. The dimming levels make it actually usable at night, where you want the least amount of light leakage possible. A good job here, Logitech.

But, all these things aside, the deal killer is Logitech's blatant refusal to properly shield their electronics. Those with Logitech's Harmony 1000 remote will know only too well: you put the remote into the charger and it makes the most OBNOXIOUS sound while the screen on the Harmony cycles a few times, before dissipating finally into silence. Alas, if only the Pure-Fi Anytime's problems were so short-lived. The unit emits a disturbing hissing sound, even with no iPod or iPhone anywhere nearby. At first I thought it was speaker hiss, but no, it's actually coming from somewhere in the bowels of the unit.

A call to Logitech, and their unwillingness to to ship me a new one without my paying to send back this REVIEW copy did not leave me impressed. You'd think since they were sending out units for people to review, that they'd be VERY interested in keeping those reviews positive. Apparently not.

Ironically, I didn't experience the issue others have reported, - the alarm turning off after 2 seconds, but that's the most positive thing I can say about my particular unit. Perhaps I got a duff one? Perhaps not. But judging by Logitech's poor electrical history in my world, I would be surprised if they weren't all like this.

2/5.

*EDIT* March 5, 2009.

Logitech finally came through and replaced my unit. While my replacement makes no odd noises, the sound is just very "tinny," and compared to the excellent Altec Lansing Moondance Glow Speakers, I just really can't recommend it. A side-by-side comparison reveals failing in all areas of the spectrum by comparison. 2/5 still stands, unfortunately.

I had in iHome product but really hated the screen with the time display- it was way too bright even at the lowest setting, and difficult to read at most angles. This Logitech alarm clock is really easy to read and the light levels are perfect. I read many complaints about the sound of this system- but I think it sounds perfectly fine for an alarm clock. Of course it's not going to be a living room entertainment system or compare in audio quality. Also looks much nicer in person than the images provided. I use it with my iPhone 3G at night, so it charges and then wakes up to music on the phone. love it!

After approximately two months of using this product every day, I can recommend it as a very good alarm clock with iPod capability.

My expectation for such a device is that it has to function very well as an alarm clock first and foremost, and then the iPod integration after that.

I am happy to report that it does a very good of being an alarm clock. The only feature that I miss from my previous alarm clock is a gradual volume on the buzzer. I'm a light sleeper, and it doesn't take a loud noise to wake me up. For an alarm clock advertised as "premium" such a feature should be included. Fortunately, the iPod integration helps in that regard, which I'll get to shortly.

The dual alarms work very well, and having the choice of buzzer, radio, iPod, and auxiliary input for the alarm is welcome. The motion sensor makes it easy to use the alarm clock at night, and waving your hand over the display to snooze is an ingenious way to make use of that sensor. The snooze button is also easily reached without looking at the unit.

The iPod integration is well done, in my opinion. It charged my 5th gen 30GB iPod with no problem, and I was able to navigate the menus using the iPod, the buttons on the unit, and the remote control. There are three shortcut buttons on the Pure-Fi Anytime and on its remote that give you fast access to three playlists (labeled 1, 2, and 3) that you pre-configure. You are also able to set two alarm playlists (alarm1 and alarm2) on your iPod, which will play if you select iPod as your alarm choice.

The audio quality of the Pure-Fi Anytime is standard clock radio fare. Given its price, you're not going to get a lot of dynamic range from the speakers, but this isn't any different than other clock radios in this price range. At very low volumes, there is a soft white noise that is noticeable, but it is not overly distracting. During normal listening, even at soft volumes, I haven't noticed it.

Overall, I am impressed by the integration of clock radio and the iPod that Logitech has done here. I like that the iPod is nestled into the unit instead of sticking up from the top like so many others. There is no chance that you will knock the iPod from its base while fumbling for the snooze button.

The only cons I can come up with are that the glossy finish does attract fingerprints (but it does match my black iPod nicely), the AC adaptor wall-wart is larger than I've ever seen for a clock radio, and certain keypresses will cause the clock to emit a rather large beep as an acknowledgement, which can be unsettling if you are trying to set something after your partner has gone to sleep already.

Good alarm clock operation, good iPod integration, remote, and decent sound quality make this an alarm clock worth owning!

I had purchased a different brand that had the "gradual" wake up that actually blasted me out of bed within a minute. I returned it for this model and this is just the product I wanted. Nice looking model and easy to operate. The motion sensor is cool when you want to snooze. It is easy to see the time without lighting up the whole room with the blue screen that some other units have. The Ipod sound is great from something that fits nicely on the nightstand and the FM reception sounds pretty good. I have a sleeve on my Touch so I used another dock. I like the way it sits down in between the speakers and I won't knock it off while operating it. You can create a special alarm playlist to wake up with. The remote is pretty small but I don't expect to use it much although a nice feature to have. So far I haven't experienced the problems that other reviews mentioned.

Nice product with a nice price, though after 3 weeks the sound suddenly changed and all music sounded like a 'radio station slightly out of tune' even when playing the iPod. Exchanged it for another unit which started doing exactly the same thing after 3 weeks. Couldn't find any info on this on the internet so returned the second unit too and am now looking for another ipod alarm clock (won't buy Logitech though, even though I've always been happy with their products).

The AC adaptor is HUGE btw, and the 'glossy black finish' is a fingerprint and dust magnet and needs cleaning every 2 days.

It has some nice features though, like the buttons lights turn on when you move your hand near the unit, and you can also wave your hand over the unit to activate the snooze.