Customer Reviews

Philips DC6210/37 Kitchen Clock AM/FM Radio Dock for iPod/iPhone

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My iHome iH36W under cabinet iPod dock clock radio that I used daily recently started failing to recognize that my iPod was docked. It was an early design, so it couldn't charge my iPhone or iPod Touch. When I started shopping for a replacement, I was pretty shocked to find that this Philips is the only currently available under cabinet iPod/iPhone dock. It sounds good, better than the iHome, and it gets the job done, but it's not perfect.

Pros: Good bass for what it is. FM reception is better than my two previous under cabinet clock radios. Works with all iPods and charges the iPhone and iPod touch. Holds an iPhone even if it has a case. Time is automatically set from the iPod/iPhone, nice! Dock protects iPod/iPhone from kitchen splatter.

Cons: Not cheap. Limited height range--I wasn't able to get mine as close to my cabinet as with my previous Sony and iHome under cabinet radios. There's a gap, but it's not too bad and it gives me a place to store the manual. Different mounting hole pattern than my previous under cabinet radios. My cabinet is starting to look like Swiss cheese. LCD could be more readable, it looks washed out from head on. It's clearer when viewed from an angle. Clunky iPod/iPhone dock is big and unsightly. Much deeper than my previous under cabinet radios and it uses a wall wart power supply. I had to punch a hole in the wall behind it to make room for the protruding power supply plug. I get horrible AM interference which renders the AM radio useless.

I think most people will be happy with this. It's a convenient place to charge your iPhone when you are home, and your iPhone will fit even if it has a case. I haven't tried it, but I could see looking up recipes on your iPhone while you cook. As with any electronic device, there are some weird design choices. I usually listen to music via apps like aol radio and Pandora, but if you punch the iPod/iPhone button it immediately starts playing stored content on the iPhone. That kind of threw me off because I had the aol radio app running but I'd pressed the stop button, so I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from.

There are two significant design flaws with this unit. First, the depth of the unit from the front to the rear of the power plug in the rear of the unit is 13". My kitchen cabinet is 11 5/8" deep. That means the unit sticks out in front of the cabinet by 1 3/8 inches (which is very ugly). With no power plug, the unit will barely become flush with the front of the cabinet. Philips should have accomodated most American cabinet depths! Second, as the unit mounts below a cabinet, it will be below eye level when one is standing and above eye level when one is sitting. The display is not visible from very much above or below the display level. Thus, you have to bend way over to read the display. Very uncool, Philips! It is a real shame such basic dimensional and human factors have been ignored as the sound from the unit is very good. Think very carefully about your mounting location before buying this unit. I have appreciated Philips products for many years now, so this one was a real (unpleasant) surprise.

Overall very pleased with this item. The radio receives signal great, and the ipod dock works perfectly. I had to take my ipod out of it's protective plastic case to work in the dock, but that wasn't a big deal. Has great sound. Easy to install.
My only complaint is the LED display is hard and sometimes impossible to see from alot of angles. You have to be looking at it just right to see what time it is, especially when you are close to it. This doesn't keep me from being happy with the purchase though!

My husband and children bought me this radio as a birthday gift last year. I am constantly in the kitchen and love listening to my music while I'm in there. I had a CD player before, but needed something that could play my iPod AND fit under the counter to save me space (which I treasure). This is awesome! We listen to it at least 3 times a day and pull the iPod arm down constantly. It's still coming down great and locking back in place with ease. I swear by this radio and tell all my friends about it. No complaints. Great job Philips!

I bought this unit for my wife for Christmas, and she loves it. She especially likes that it charges the phone while docked, and she can also use the front controls and remote to control playback on Pandora radio. The sound quality is really good (much better than the unit it replaced), and it has lots of nice features (time with day of the week display, etc.). However, there are a few items that I would add to the other reviewer's information:

1. Using the iPhone in an Otterbox Defender case does not fit in the holding tray/enclosure (although the Defender case is larger than most other cases). To keep from removing the phone from the case every time, I bought an extender cable and cut a notch in the case for the cable to run through, and mounted a small "wall basket"/pencil holder next to the unit where the iPhone now stays when docked. This also allows easy access to the iPhone for use as a phone and other functions (calendar, notes, etc.) when docked.

2. Like others, the height adjustment doesn't accommodate very low profile under-cabinet spaces. There was a large gap with the provided spacers. As a fix, you could either cut these down to a shorter height to make the unit fit closer to the cabinet, or make new spacers (which is what I did).

3. To address the previously reviewed depth issue (the adapter plug sticks into the back of the unit causing it to stick out farther than the edge of the cabinet), I just carefully cut the flexible "bellows" off of the adapter plug wire which gives another 1/2" of space to work with. This was enough to get the unit back far enough to be flush with the edge of our cabinet. I was also considering a trip to Radio Shack to get a right-angle plug to either make an adapter or replace the existing plug.

4. LCD display has a rather narrow high-to-low viewing angle (not left to right). If I am very close to the unit I cannot read the display, but my shorter wife hasn't had an issue. However to the unit's credit, from across the kitchen the display can be viewed just fine (which is how it would probably be viewed most of the time).

Overall this seems to be a very nice unit with some nice features at a good price, but a few "items" (I won't call them issues) that can be overcome with some creativity during installation.

My husband bought me this for Christmas. I was so excited because it was exactly what I wanted. I made him install it right away. It worked great for about 8 months. Now, the music often pauses for no reason, the thing always tries to put everything on repeat and buttons don't always do what they are supposed to. Unfortunately, because the way Philips structures their warranty, we don't qualify. You have to register the product within 5 days of purchase. Five days after purchase the thing was sitting under my Christmas tree. How was I to know.
I used to hold Philips products in high regard. I will add them to Black & Decker as brand names to avoid.

it works well with the 3 different ipods our family uses (nano, classic and touch 3rd gen). The power cord plugs into the back, making the entire unit a little longer than a standard cabinet. To make it not stick out I opened up the case and ran the wire in from the side. Except for the location of the power cord, I am very pleased.

I love this under the counter ipod dock. My previous one had poor am/fm reception. This one sounds great - both radio and ipod. I also love that the dock itself folds back up, so my kitchen doesn't look cluttered. I love it!!!

This is a great under-cabinet radio. The sound on it is great, really good base. But there are a few issues with it that I just can't look past.

The dock where you plug in your iPhone/iPod. The device fits in there snugly. But the door on the front shuts to the dock with magnets. Unfortunately, the magnets have a bad habit of coming out of their place. So the door continuously falls open. I tried to put them back in place by using 3M VHB double face tape. Same thing. The magnets that it connects to on the dock are too powerful, and just rip it out of place. So when you are not using it, and have the dock locked underneath, the door falls open and looks bad.

The other problem is with the clock display. You can't adjust the brightness or color. And where it mounts on the cabinets, it's next to impossible to read at certain angles or during times of the day where the sun hits it.

Those two aside, it's a great unit. Great reception on the radio. Great sound on the iPhone/iPod dock. I'd buy it again. So if you can look past those two problems, I'd say go for it.

This product is all I wanted in an ipod under cabinet docking station. First off, installation was extremely easy although I did need to add two by fours because of the depth of our cabinets. Extensions were to short even on tallest setting. Product works extremely well with multiple ipod styles. Would definitely recommend this product. It gets extremely loud for parties.