Customer Reviews

Philips USA AJL308 Clock Radio with 7-Inch TFT LCD Color Display and USB/SD Card Slot

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

There is a lot to love about this product. It's sleek. It's stylish. It's bright, bold and clear. (It can be dimmed!) It's a clock-radio with two independent alarms that also plays audio files (.mp3 and .wma), video (mpeg4 and divx codices) and photo slide shows (.jpg only). It has built-in "relaxation" sounds to help you fall asleep. It has so much going for it! And just when you think it can't get any better...

It doesn't get better. It slips a little. You start thinking to yourself, "If only..." and "Why didn't they just take the next step?" Why isn't there a tiny bit of built-in memory so that I don't need a SD card or USB stick to be attached to change the cute-but-becoming-annoying default photo? Why can't I select an audio file on the SD or USB as my alarm music? Why only three built-in sounds for the "relaxation" music? Why isn't there an AM tuner? Why isn't there a headphone jack? Why can I only display JPEG-format images? For a widescreen 7" LCD picture frame, why is the resolution only 480 x 234? Why isn't there a back-up battery?

This is such a near-perfect little gadget that it's painful to see how close Philips came to making the best device on the market. Yet despite these flaws, it is still so wonderful that it demands four stars. Lucky for Philips, there don't seem to be any viable alternatives with all of the features it does have at this price point... yet.

And regarding the day-of-the-week issue: Philips posted a firmware update on their Web site on September 14, 2007, that fixes this issue. Visit the Philips Web site, type in "AJL308" to find the product page, select the Support link tab (just above and to the right of the product image), and scroll down to the Software section. There is a PDF read-me file and a ZIP file with the actual firmware update. Read the PDF and carefully follow its directions to update the firmware. You'll need a USB drive to transfer the firmware update to your AJL308, and it takes several minutes to complete the update, but once it's done the day of the week should be correct.

You'll be impressed when you take this unit out of the box...a very handsome design, until you turn it on. There are two fatal flaws, and several annoyances. First, even in "dim" setting, the considerable real estate on the 7" LCD gives off so much light that you can read a newspaper in the room (I tried it!). I would need eyeshades to sleep in the same room. (You get the choice of red, green, blue, and purple "wallpaper", but NOT black, which would have solved this problem, at least at night). Second, and I can't believe this: a full half of the screen in "clock" mode is taken up by the picture frame. However, you have three choices for that half of the screen (which you will be seeing all night long): 1. You can forever look at the picture of two people that Philips has selected to be your permanent roommates, or 2. You can load your own photo, BUT that will require you to have a USB memory stick permanently protruding from the left side of the unit, or 3. Buy a separate SD Card and somehow figure out how to get your picture loaded onto it. (The unit has no internal memory, so when you remove the memory stick or card, you can only see the default picture, and it can NOT be turned off!)

Now, the annoyances: This unit is multi-functional, but none of the functions are designed to work together. For instance, you may select "photo/video" mode and view your pictures in sequence (the random setting does not seem to work), which makes this a mediocre digital picture frame. However, when you return to "clock" mode, you will NOT see the slideshow of all of your pictures, only the first picture on the stick (you can't select), or worse, the default picture.

Next, you can not set view your alarm settings while in "tuner" (radio) mode. It's one or the other. If you want to change your alarm setting, you must select "clock" which turns the radio off, and vice versa.

I consider this product to be completely unusable as a bedroom alarm clock. It seems to have been designed by committee, with no one talking to each other, and no one having tried to live with the final product.

A previous reviewer pretty much pegged it: stylish hardware, nice screen, nothing else I've seen quite like it at this price point. But oh, where did they go to get the software??? Imagine: file names with only the first six characters displayed; no effective way to navigate among (thousands of) music or picture files; white borders on the sides of standard 4:3 ratio pictures contrasting glaringly with the glossy black frame; or, use the 16:9 screen format and just not show people's heads; no slide show in Clock mode and no way to permanently replace the default picture that someone at Philips at least seems to like; and then there's the randomizer that doesn't really seem to. The operation of the unit isn't exactly intuitive either, and the documentation doesn't cover all features. They could easily fix most of the shortcomings in a software update, but remarkably enough the Philips website doesn't have a way for you to submit suggestions or complaints (that's a 'future'). A great pity, because they almost got it right on this one.

Great looking product that is very easy to use. Would be 5 stars except for 1 major flaw...

When setting the date, the day display in not correct. For example, if you set the date to Sep. 10, 2007, it will display Sunday instead of Monday. Have had the same issue with 2 models now, and in store model had the same issue.

Other minor issues is that you must have a USB or SD card inserted (not included) to change the default photo the clock comes with. Not a big deal except that the USB port is on the side of the unit, so you will have an ugly USB sticking out of the clock.

There's much to like about this clock. For those who have not seen one in person - it's more like a digital picture frame that also shows time - very cool concept. There are only two things that I'm upset about. First - low resolution. To the point that you almost do not want to use it as a picture frame. What were they thinking??? Pictures look horrid when viewed full screen from a short distance. Another reviewer posted resolution numbers as 480 x 234 - I couldn't find any numbers in the manual, but I can't believe for $130 they didn't do better than that. Second - the background selection is only 4 colors - red, blue, green and purple. I do not like any of them. At least they could've included black background - I could live with that. All in all - I like it a lot, but the low resolution of the LCD screen is very upsetting.

I bought this so I could wake up to my own music on an SD card. The information is carefully worded to be vague about it. I did not see any way to set the alarm to the SD card and contacted Philips who said you can only view pictures and listen to mp3 in sleep mode or just on, no alarm setting. I was surprised and disappointed they went so far with a great design and then dropped the ball on something so simple.

It is a great idea, but has one fatal flaw: when displaying the clock, it cannot show a slide show for the picture by the clock.

You can use it for a slideshow frame, you can use it for an alarm clock, but you cannot use it for an alarm clock with a slideshow.

I returned it as a result of this.

Based on the reviews, you take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have the Philips AJL308. My better half purchased this for me, and to be quite honest, it meets all of my needs. There is one minor flaw and that is a strange high pitched humming sound whenever you play music. It only happens on the relaxation mode and the music mode, not the radio. If it continues, I'll return it but for now I'm in wait and see mode. I will say it has a very nice "Church Bells" alarm that is rather pleasant to wake up to. If you cannot sleep with light in the room, this product is certainly not for you. Even at its dimmest, the light is still enough glow to keep the light sleeper awake. The resolution is not thrilling, but its nice. It reminds me of impulse items at the check out. It's not something you really need but it does fill a void in your life you were not aware was there in the first place. Is it great? No ... there are plenty of flaws ... but if you're looking for an alarm clock that can display photos and play a few songs, it should meet your needs. It's "okay."

I was not able to use it!
- The backlight is so strong that I couldn't use it in the bedroom.
- There's no battery, so the clock resets after a power failure, making it unreliable.
Unfortunately I'm still using my old alarm clock and I don't know what to do with this product! It really was a BAD purchase...
And there are some details that make the product even worse: it plays mp3 files, but you can't use them as the alarm sound! Who projected this device????

Personally, I love this thing. However, if you don't set the backlight to shut off at the right time then you will not be sleeping like you want to. It would be great if I could get this thing to wake me up to my favorite tunes like I thought it would have. All in all, this thing is an alarm clock with an enormous display compared to others that is very bright and colorful. It doubles as a picture frame/mp3 player. I do rather enjoy the variety of alarm noises. If you love gadgets and are looking to get rid of your crappy old clock/radio this is the one for you.