Customer Reviews

Philips AJ3231 Mirror Finish Clock Radio

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pros:
*Gorgeous contemporary design with mirror and stainless steel look. The LED display magically floats in the mirror.
*Very low level brightness yet perfectly legible and without glare. Many alarm clocks are way too bright even on dim settings. If the brightness of alarm clocks bothers you, this clock should work well for you.
*Easy to figure out without instructions which makes it a viable option for guest bedrooms.

Cons:
*When adjusting the alarms, there is no indication on the LED display which alarm you are adjusting. Compounding this problem is when you turn on an alarm, there is no way to see what time the alarm is set for. It's far too easy to adjust one alarm and turn on the other by mistake. This is a MAJOR negative. The display also doesn't tell you if the alarm is set for buzzer or radio. The lack of information on the display makes it impossible to adjust in the dark.
*No fast reverse. To adjust times, there is a fast forward button and a slow reverse button. I like clocks that also have fast reverse which makes changing alarm times easier and quicker.
*Slide controls are small and difficult to use. The distance between settings is very small so it can be frustrating.
*Buzzer volumes are not adjustable. Alarm 1 is set at a low volume which is very quiet and might not work for sound sleepers. Alarm 2 is slightly louder but it's still quieter than any other alarm clock I've used. With both alarms, you do have the option of waking up with radio which is volume adjustable and gets very loud.
*No gradually increasing alarm volume.
*Radio is not digital. Not a major issue but the dial is small so it's hard to know what station you're on.
*No nap function.
*The audio cable in the back doesn't stay in the holder and flops around annoyingly. I have since cut it off.
*Snooze not adjustable (set at 7 minutes).

Overall, this alarm clock would work well in a guest bedroom where style is of paramount importance. For your main alarm clock, you should consider something with better functionality.

I have been looking for "the perfect" clock radio for quite a while and I think I found it!

A marvel of engineering and design -- it's light, airy, amazing looking yet sturdy and substantial at the same time. This is so well designed! I find that the buttons are in the right places, easy to get to and intuitive, they feel very substantial and not flimsy and cheap like so many other electronics today. I don't know how they were able to make a piece that is so substantial and solid feeling yet airy and light and unobtrusive looking. A really great job done though! I am quite impressed and very pleasantly surprised, this feels like a product that will last, which sometimes seems like a thing of teh past- toay everything is made to toss...

I love the non digital radio station dial-- I live in a mountainous area where it's very hard to get any reception, and the manual tuner is a must. And this one is well made and sensitive -- I actually get several stations with this, which I have never been able to get with others I have tried.

On top of it the light display is brilliantly done! The mirror finish is really cool it's a smoky color so not like a shiny standard mirror. And the time is displayed in a golden color that makes it really easy at a quick glance see what time it is whether it's light or dark in the room, yet at night it's very unobtrusive. Living in the mountains we have no ambient light (except the moon when it's full) coming into the bedroom. So, any light source really pops out and I have a hard time sleeping with that in the room. So I have been looking for one that didn't keep me awake. I have tried several ones with adjustable displays but ended up having to toss a piece of clothing over each one I have tried, which makes it a useless time keeper. This one was just perfect.

I really, really like this clock radio and can highly recommend it.

The last thing I want to do when I wake up is look in the mirror. However, even thought this Philips Alarm Clock's face is mostly one large mirror, it still looks sleek. The time is shown through the mirrored surface in bright yellow with adjustable brightness. It looks great, stands vertically about six inches and has all the basic features of a typical alarm clock. However, don't get too excited.

My previous alarm clock was easy to just reach over and slam the snooze button until I was ready to wake up. The snooze here is not so easy to find being a small tab on the top. There are two alarms (typical) that you can set to the radio, a buzz (one second beep tones) or off. They are difficult to set as the front display does not show you which setting is which. The font is very hard to read, being a tiny gray typeset on a black background. The other side contains the volume wheel, a radio tuner for AM/FM and a small dial to find radio stations (Look at the photo I included for size comparison). There is also an AUX setting as you can hook up your iPod/MP3 in the back. The cord for the iPod/MP3 is supposed to fit snugly around the back, but the slot it was designed for is too short, so the cord hangs loose. The top has the small linear tabs for `On/Off', `alarm reset' and `sleep'. The largest tab is the `Repeat Alarm/Sleep Off' on top. Its very compact, but not the easiest to set up. Do note that you need bright light to work any of the setup functions; not a dark room.

Aside from the small settings and type, this Philips Clock does look nice with the mirror finish and yellow clock shining through. That is it's sales quality. The materials are all plastic and I wonder if it could survive a drop to the floor. The 1.5" speaker is not Hi-Fidelity. Other than the appearance, there isn't much else going on here, so you might think about keeping your current alarm clock. It just looks good. Think about that with the price.

The fit and finish was very nice. The mirror is stylish but I really don't want to see my ugly mug early in morning.

The orange LED was a nice touch. Not as bright as the 'regular' green LED's on most alarm. On dim mode it doesn't light up a dark room.

The MP3 mode leaves something to be desired. If you're in the room with your MP3 player hooked up your OK listening to tunes, but I like waking up to certain music in the morning. I don't know about your MP3 player but I cannot leave it on all night without the battery dying by morning.

It's a cool alarm clock but only adequate for an MP3 Player.

This clock has a nice, modern look with large amber colored numbers. The alarm buttons are horribly designed, however. You can snooze, but cannot turn off/change the alarm without picking up the whole clock. The buttons are flush with the body and don't slide easily so you more or less have to pick up the whole thing to do anything to it. Not fun when you're half asleep. The body tips forward easily too.

Good bedside alarm clock. Easy to read digits. I think the amber is easy to see in the dark yet easy on the eyes.

I was looking forward to receiving the clock, as we were not happy with an alarm clock we had and wanted to replace it. As other reviewers noted, the clock is nice and has an appealing contemporary look. I really like the ability to dim the LED so the light is not as glaring in the dark and the LED is a pleasant amber color. Another desirable feature is the dual alarm settings; it's always nice to have one alarm for your most common schedule and a second one for non-typical days. An additonal feature with the dual alarms is one has a low tone and the other is a bit higher, louder one. When they trigger, they start off quietly and build in volume over the course of a few minutes; another reviewer said just the opposite, but the clock I received definitely had this feature.

However, there are a number of annoying issues which take away from the above features and greatly reduce the usefulness of the clock. Some of these include (not listed in any particular order):

1. You cannot choose which alarm tone (higher/lower) to use for the dual alarms. Additionally, the highest volume for both alarms is so quiet, I doubt it would wake some people. This is especially true if you have a noisy fan or hvac unit; the alarm could easily be drowned out by extraneous noise. If you are a deep sleeper, this alarm clock would probably not wake you up. Both alarm settings do have the option to use the radio or mp3 player as the alarm but only the radio volume is adjustable.

2. The selection buttons for the alarms are not easy to manipulate because they are tight and small, making it frustrating to set the alarm function you are wanting.

3. Upon opening the box, I found the audio cord just hanging down even though there is a track for it to tuck into along the back of the clock. The track does not hold the cord in very well, and the cord is a bit longer than the track, so it pops out after a few minutes even if you do manage to get it to snap it at first.

4. One of the most annoying features to me was the time setting buttons. The clock has a fast forward button but only a slow reverse button. It is easy to overshoot your time quite a bit because the fast forward is really fast; then you have to push the slow reverse button dozens of times or hold it and wait patiently for it to get where it needs to be. I found it easier to just fast forward again in order to get closer to the time I needed if it overshot too much.

5. The snooze button is not easy to hit; the bigger button on top is the repeat alarm and is in the middle. I don't know about most people, but if I have to be awake and cognizant enough to find and hit the small snooze button then it pretty much defeats the purpose. The inability to adjust the snooze time is not a big deal, except I have always found most clocks to use 9 or 10 minutes; the snooze time on this clock is 7 minutes.

6. As mentioned by nearly everyone, the radio station selector is analog. 'Nuff said on that.

There are a few other more minor annoyances, but overall the clock seems to be an enigma. While it has a nice contemporary and appealing look, many of its actual features are very outdated such as the analog radio selector, manual time settings (including DST), etc. If you like the way the clock looks, then it would be fine in some rooms to use just for its basic clock feature. I would not recommend this as an alarm clock to anyone.

It's a nice alarm clock and it looks great but the actual time and alarm setting process is a bit of a pain. The buttons on the side are hard to use but if you want a good looking alarm clock it's a great buy.

This is your basic bedside alarm clock updated in appearance and some function for the 2000's.

Pros:
*Looks really nice with the mirrored front and large numbers.
*the large numbers are easily readable from across a normal bedroom.
*It has a straight power cord to the wall instead of a power brick so it doesn't block off other outlets.
*My 13 year old daughter was able to make it work without help.

Cons:
*The time adjust could use a fast reverse as well as fast forward.
*The radio uses a tiny analog dial to tune with on the side of the unit. If you are in an area that has a lot of radio stations close together, this will be frustrating because you will have trouble separating adjacent stations.

Overall, decent value for the money. I have an iHome clock radio, too, which has a lot more functions and sounds better, but costs three times more and takes up more space. This is a great choice as the alarm clock for the guest room or for your kids.

The description was incorrect. The radio is not a digital setting. It is a rotary dial. So we returned it.