Customer Reviews

Sony ICFCL75iP Speaker Dock with Alarm Clock, Radio, and 7-Inch LCD for iPod/iPhone (Black)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

11/04 Review Update. I have been having a lot of problems with the Dock for this product, which is really a shame. Its great in all other ways but I keep it at my desk at work and so I am always taking my iPhone on and off the dock. The dock is sort of flimsy plastic and it slides around very freely when extended. So when you are trying to put your iphone on the dock, the dock is sliding back & forth and so I have to hold the dock with one hand to keep it still while I try to dock the iphone. If you don't get it docked just right, the iphone complains this unit is not compatible with the iphone, etc.. I think this is due to the pins not lining up right. Its really annoying. I dropped a star off my review.

Also, forget trying to keep your iphone in its case, the dock unit is not adjustable (online other sony clock radios that offer iphone docking). As the main thrust of this unit is to be a dock for your iphone or ipod, its a shame Sony didn't spend a little more time on making the dock more sturdy and capable of keeping your case on.

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Just got this in - some initial comments that I will update later. So far I am really blown away by what Sony has crammed into this thing. It is by far the ultimate ipod desk or bedside accessory. Sony is really pushing the limits of an ipod/iphone accessory here. Looking at my review, you see a lot of cons - I think its because this unit pushes the limits so far that people will have thoughts on how it could be improved. Nothing is 'wrong' with this unit really, its just some of my personal preferences I think.

Despite some of the design flaws, overall its a fantastic unit. However, it might get promoted to my desk as opposed to bedside. I don't know that i really need a video screen bedside & a digital picture frame. At my desk tho, that would be much handier.

Pro's:

LCD Screen is extremely bright & crisp - you can play video from the ipod or iphone or from internal memory or a memory card or USB stick! I would have no probs watching tv episodes or even a movie off this screen. You can even watch youtube videos on the LCD playing from the iphone. You can choose full screen or fit to screen for video and stills. Video screen integration with the iphone is simply put, exceptional.

The unit has a memory card slot and a usb slot plus 1gb of internal storage. You can play stills, music & video from the internal storage or the memory card or the iphone. Extreme flexibility.

You have decent playback controls on the unit to control playback from the iPhone. Buttons are hard to see when "in bed" as they are flush on the unit's base, you'll have to just learn where they are I guess.

4 brightness settings for the LCD screen including "nightmode". My wife would kill me if this thing lit up the bedroom. Nightmode essentially just puts the time on the screen very very faintly, so faint even in total darkness its faint - I like it!

Built in battery for when you lose power - nice touch. Supposed to have auto time set but it didn't work for me. I had to set the clock manually.

Slide out tray for your iphone, etc. seems to be able to hold my iphone in its case - great news. Tray is not the best design tho.

Track & playback information displays on the display when you play music from the ipod - very cool. No album artwork on the unit however.

In settings you can see the "software" version which says 1.0. Maybe this implies we'll get updates for it that you can load via memory card? That would be nice. There are a few features that could act differently. Fixing nightmode and adding album artwork would be great.


Cons:

No remote. Seriously Sony? Not even for basic functions like volume and play / pause? Serious lack of thought for a pricey item. My last Sony ipod clock radio had a great remote & was almost half this price. Sad face. This is a really glaring omission.

Speaker quality is pretty "tinny" - I was under impressed with the sound coming from this unit. My last Sony iphone clock radio had great speakers and cost less than $100. So the trade off is I get a video player but my music quality drops a lot. Again, tho, clock radio - not meant to be a full sound system.

The iPhone / iPod dock could have been better made. It feels flimsy and I have to use both hands to dock the iphone. One to hold the entire unit steady and one to place the iphone in the cradle. The dock locks when you push it into the body of the unit but when you extend it, it does not lock into place and slides back & forth. I sense a potential point of failure here.

It seems you can't delete the internal "demo" photos or video. Sounds silly but I don't want to see "demo" pics on my slide show. I figured out that if you play the slideshow from a memory card it skips the internal pics. There are about 6 pics of "kids" and landscape that always repeat if you play the slideshow from the internal memory. Very annoying that if you play the slideshow from the internal memory you are stuck with "demo kid" and stock photo shots in your mix.

You have to go into the settings to switch to video playback for the iPhone, it would be nice if you could switch to video easier than that. Also, if you stop playing video or use another function on the clock, you have to go back to video settings and switch to ipod video again. I'd like a button on the unit to do that.

I can't figure out how to turn the clock off when watching a video from the ipod, it displays the time in the lower right corner. Would be nice to be able to clear the screen while watching a video.

It seems you can't enter 'nightmode" when listening to music or using the "sleep timer" function. The screen stays on the lowest regular setting which is quite bright in total darkness. I'll have to play with it more - maybe they can patch it. This is a pretty big issue, what's the point of a sleep timer if the thing is lighting up the entire room.

The unit has no audio in (fail) and no headphone jack. It could really use both of these but you can plug in your iphone headphone while watching video on the screen.

I really was pleasantly surprised by everything this small unit can do. My only complaint so far, is that the buttons are a bit complicated when you first see and use them, but it all makes since once you get the hang of it and realize what it can do.

I have tested playing both an Ipod classic and an Ipod Touch and the dock works fine with both. I have also tested playing back the IPod for both music and movies. It works great.

I haven't tested loading any images, movies, or MP3's to the on board memory (1GB) but I was able to plug in an 8GB SD card. It played the MP3's on it with no problems. I have not tested the USB port yet.

Some other things I like about this unit:

The screen can be dimmed or turned off almost entirely for sleep.

It has two alarms that are easily adjusted, turned on/off when needed.

You can set your own background wallpaper.

The sound quality isn't too bad considering the size of this unit.

The time readout is easy to see and it is easy to see if the alarms are set as well.

Overall, this is a smart looking and a versatile addition to my night stand.

Like most users here, I was really disappointed when I first started using this device. The fact that you could not omit or delete the sample pictures from scrolling was unbelievable. Then, the unit would freeze up every few weeks so I was never too confident in it as an alarm clock. To top it off, I could change the display mode, but it would change back to the default mode whenever the alarm went off. It seems like Sony simply did not spend any time testing this unit and just rushed it out with the understanding that a firmware update would resolve the issues.

Well, actually, that is what happened. I was ready to throw this thing out the window (I already threw the box out or I would have returned it). But then I downloaded firmware 1.05 from the sonystyle support site. Now it seems all the issues have been addressed. You still can't delete the sample pictures but there is an option to omit them from the cue. It remembers your display mode, and it hasn't frozen up yet....

Thank goodness, this was how it should have been when it was first launched. For everyone who regrets buying this clock radio because of these bugs, but would love it if they were addressed, download the latest firmware update and you will finally have what you want!

Pros:
1) Play iPod video.
2) Play iPhone/iPod Touch youtube video.
3) iPhone full compatibility.
4) USB and memory card expansion.
5) Play xvid avi video on USB (and I assume memory card as well).
6) High resolution LCD screen.
7) Vibrant image display on LCD screen.
8) International voltage and AM step setting.

Cons:
1) Unnatural and inaccurate contrast and color reproduction when playing video. A similarly priced portable dvd player will beat it hands down, as well as the screen on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
2) No adjustment for contrast and color.
3) No remote.
4) No way to hide current time display when playing video.
5) Too much plastic for the price.
6) Cannot delete sample pictures. They will show in your photo slide show.
7) MSRP is high in some countries, e.g. CAD 199 (~USD 190). GBP 150 (~USD 250). AUD 299 (~USD 280)

Remarks:
A unique product that hopefully will get better in its 2nd iteration. One of the few portables that can play iPod videos. Philips has portable dvd players in its range that accept iPod but they are all low resolution screens. iLuv has another portable dvd player coming out but requires awkward placement of iPod inside the case. This Sony is the only model that is iPhone compatible.

First, I don't know why a previous reviewer gave it one star without even having one to review. If you have a problem with a seller, give the seller one star, not the product.

I'd been waiting for this little clock-radio to finally hit the market. Ordered it on Sony's website (Amazon didn't have it till just now), then ended up buying at another retailer because Sony was backordered. Sony's list is $149.95, so anyone selling for more than that is trying to make a buck on the popularity and scarcity.

I've only had it two days, but here's what I know so far.
Pros:
* it DOES get dim enough to sleep - I was worried as other preview reviewers commented on the brightness
* it has nature sounds (which was a criteria for me)
* it is a photo frame viewer, which shows slide shows of your photos
* it wakes you to radio, ipod/iphone, nature sounds, a 10-second recording (funWakeup), music stored on it, or buzzer
* sound is much better than other clock radios I've used
* button interface is good, unlike other clock/radios I've used
* connects easily with my iphone
* has atomic time, so don't have to set the time
* has digital radio - stores preset stations

Cons:
* it's a little hard to get a bunch of photos off a USB stick to internal storage - you have to select each photo individually
* it's a little hard to make all those photos I just copied display as the wallpaper/slide show - you have to select each photo individually
* hitting the snooze button in the morning brings the brightness back to full brightness - I want to sleep more! (I'll have to get used to this)

I'm still learning how to use it, not that it's hard, I just haven't had much time to mess around with it yet. But so far it's been everything I was expecting. Great little photo frame/clock/radio.

I wanted to love this item so badly. I really did. But it fails on so many levels.

1. The dock is horrible. I just cannot emphasize how bad it is. Plugging in my iPhone over and over again only to get the "accessory does not work with iPhone" message drives me absolutely bonkers. Rebooting the clock fixes it, but come on - rebooting your clock?

2. You can't browse or select which playlist/song/video to play on the clock itself. You have to select them on the iPhone. The clock functions as little more than an external speaker.

3. The USB port is not for a USB thumb drive. I don't know what it's for, but to get new songs/pictures onto the clock, you need to use a memory stick or SD card.

4. The pictures that it comes with cannot be removed. The nature pictures aren't horrible, but I don't want a picture of somebody else's kid showing up in my slideshow.

5. The screen is either too bright that it's distracting in a dark room, or basically off so that you cannot see it after the sun comes up. A light sensor or even just a dumb timer to turn off the super-dark night mode would have gone a long way.

6. The manual is poorly translated and all but useless. Some of the messages the clock displays are in funny engrish as well ("If the same file has already been added, the file is overwrited"). This is just sloppy.

7. It doesn't display the artwork when playing a song off of the iPhone. For music copied to the clock, it will display some of the artwork, but it won't display all of it (despite the artwork displaying fine in iTunes).

8. When playing songs that have copied to the clock's internal memory, it thinks they are all longer then they really are. The progress bar is therefore not very useful.

Before this list devolves into just a list of bugs, allow me to summarize briefly: It's junk. Considering how poor this thing functions, it is way overpriced. I highly recommend against it.

First off, go to Sony and update your unit to 1.03! Imagine that, updating your alarm clock firmware. Almost as weird and updating your tv.

The unit is excellent, very easy to use. Bright crisp screen. Most of the initial issues mentioned like not being able to delete photos etc have been resolved with the latest update from march 3rd.

Pros:
HUGE easy to read clock, for those of us with not so great vision without glasses.
Dimmable so the big bright lcd screen doesn't light up the room.
Easy to use and the controls are very straight forward and simple.
Cool features like having your child or someone else setup a "get up" message along with showing a picture. Maybe some of us may not like that.
Wake up to nature sounds, like birds, ocean, rain etc. A little less jarring then a buzzer.
Doubles as a digital picture frame and video player
Great iphone dock, wake up to your iphone/ipod music
Firmware updates to fix issues
Sony eSupport website is great, easy to use.
Did I mention its an alarm clock? (very good at that too!)

Cons: Expensive, this is an alarm clock, right?
IPhone/ipod dock isn't that well constructed or solid feeling.
Speakers are a bit hollow sounding

Overall I love it, and I am very happy with the purchase, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you sony, and amazon.

When I saw this dock with its relatively large screen for viewing movies, I had to have it. I've been waiting for an all-in-one player like this for some time and am overall very pleased. However, if you must have mind-blowing sound, or want more features. you may want to wait for the next generation in this product line.

The sound is pretty much like any dock radio--being a Sony it's better than a $20 dock you'd pick up at the grocery store, but the sound won't knock you over. It's not theatre-quality, and you can't expect that with speakers as small as these. There is a trade-off for the 7 inch LCD display so that you can see movies better. There is no place to plug in headphones--the first of a few chinks in the armor. You could plug directly into the iPod, but if you're playing from a USB or SD card and want headphones, or better quality sound via audio output, you're out of luck.

I don't know why they decided to include an external AM antenna in addition to the dangling antenna already permanently attached to the unit. It's not hard to attach it if you need it; I just kind of feel like it's pointless. I don't listen to AM radio any more, let alone much regular broadcast radio at all, but I sure could have used a remote that they didn't bother to include. Yeah, it's a bedside/desktop kind of unit, and yeah, how lazy am I that I don't want to reach 18 inches over and change the volume directly on the unit?

The problem with this is that it has a dual alarm system--you can set two wake up times for two people. However, with no remote, person #2 has no way to turn off the alarm from their side of the bed, so person #1 with the dock on their side has to turn it off. Something tells me the "fun wake up" feature may not be so fun after your Significant Other has to turn the alarm off for you those first couple of mornings. The other handy thing about remotes is that they're often more simple to operate than the actual interface on the unit.

You may need to get the manual out the first time you operate the interface, and you may need to hunt for directions to change your iPod to "video out" to output the video to the dock rather than playing it on the player. Once you've played with it a couple of times, you won't need the manual any more. It's pretty straightforward. I only tried a couple of home video MP4s on an SD card and a memory stick to see if they would play, and they wouldn't. I didn't try "importing" them or any further tinkering because this just isn't a feature I will be using a lot to play movies.

This dock can also serve as a digital picture frame (a very nice extra feature!), displaying photos as a slide show, and has different brightness settings. However if you are light-sensitive and will be using this in the bedroom, be forewarned that even the lowest brightness setting can be disturbing. I can't seem to turn the clock off for watching movies--this may be a matter of figuring out the settings, but it also doesn't obstruct the picture much in my opinion. Some people may find this more bothersome. What bothers me more is the lack of control over aspect ratio--it seems most movies are stretched one way or another, and I can't find a happy medium or "auto" setting where it would just play the movie at its original aspect ratio so that images are not stretched. The picture is otherwise very clear and pleasant to watch as far as 7 inch screens go.

Finally, on the dock itself where the iPod plugs in, it could be built better. You push in to pop it out--this is painfully slow, and when it does come out, it doesn't lock into place and seems awfully flimsy to me. It comes with custom trays that aren't labeled, so it's a guessing game as to which one to use for your iPod, and forget leaving your iPod in its case. This is an issue with just about every iPod dock out there, though.

Even with all its faults, I love this as a desktop all in one kind of iPod player. It fits my needs very well. If you've been waiting for players like these and are chomping at the bit, I would say go ahead and get this unit now for a desktop, but wait for a second or third generation version with more features for bedside and other uses, such as for a small room or kitchen. There's a trade-off of sound quality and power for the LCD screen, and people who use their iPod more for music would do better invest in a unit geared specifically for sound. 4 stars because it's great for me, minus one because I feel that it could have included more and better features.

Right to the point. I don't care about not being able to erase the stock images and other minor details. If that was the biggest problem with the thing, I'd give it a 4.9. It's a totally unreliable alarm clock! It frequently (weekly) crashes. Just as its trying to 'sound the alarm' it crashes. The alarm does not go off. The screen goes completely black and none of the buttons function. Need to pull the plug and reboot. If you can't count on it as an alarm clock all the fancy features mean nothing.

Several month update: This clock freezes up occasionally (~once every 1-2 months), the slide show freezes in a software crash and the clock stops working til you recycle the plug. It happens too often to trust the clock to wake you up for work. Downgrading to 2 stars.

1 Month Update: Ipod dock stopped working. Only discharges the Ipod to completely dead. Won't charge, won't play music. Other than that, I actually like this clock a lot more than when I wrote the review, below. The alarms work great, my wife enjoys the natural wave sounds, the radio sound quality is pretty nice, the display is great. You can plug in a 4GB SD card as a substitute for an Ipod for under $10--so it's probably not the end of the world that the dock is junk, the clock looks nicer without the dock sticking out of the side anyway. Still, it's disappointing that Sony's build quality on that piece is so poor. The rest of the clock seems reasonably well made.

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Before I start ragging on this clock, let me say that I still like it. It's very hard to find a decent clock, let alone a good one, so it is extra disappointing when the clock could be great, but isn't. Given way too much work, you can wind up with a really nice set up, maybe the best overall clock out there. There are some great ideas with a generally good design and poor execution. If it sold for half the price it would make up for the idiosyncrasies.

First problem is the manual. It is written in poorly translated pigeon english, it is full of typos and is thoroughly incomplete. I know the bad economy has clobbered Sony, from the content of this manual, it looks they are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Next problem is the radio tuner which switches to some unexplained tuning band whenever all the presets are deleted, which they must be since they are preset by default. My local stations get substituted to some other weird channels, I think it could be the international FM band settings that the manual sort of mentions on the last two pages. Weird. It happens every time all presets are deleted. I found no way to recover to normal tuning except to unplug the power, unscrew the battery compartment cover and take out lithium battery out for a while. A menu reset to factory settings didn't fix it. Solution is to set at least one preset station before you delete the radio's default presets.

Next thing is the way the background images are automated and customized. It makes little sense. It is so convoluted that it's hard to explain why it is so weird. The default images (one is of someone else's a child) cannot be deleted, and often pop up when certain things happen, like an alarm goes off. If you play directly from a memory card or a USB device (it is nice that the clock allows this) I think you can eventually customize that kid completely out of your clock, given a lot of ironing out.

Other quirks:

- The brightness settings are hard to cycle, since there are four of them and night mode takes 5 secs to dim down. You can't really tell if you have night mode set without waiting.
- Night mode is actually too dim, a rarity for a clock radio. Angle of view is limited to about 20 degrees either side of center.
- No way to automatically change the brightness on a time schedule.
- No way to incorporate videos into your slide show. It will play videos one at a time, manually.
- Cheap iPod connector is hard to insert and feels like it might last a few months at most.
- Weird button layout and menu operation.
- Lots of settings, but not a lot of useful settings.
- No external speaker connection.
- Backup battery is non-standard lithium CR2032.
- Radio preset numbers are always in the order you set them, not just sequential. You can't delete them all to start over without the tuning problems mentioned above. If you delete some, the next one takes the lowest preset number available. Kind of a puzzle, but setting them properly can be done. Crazy.
- No sound controls, just volume.

Great or good things:

- Nice display.
- Three different layouts from which to choose. Two of the layouts show the day and date.
- Two very customizable alarms--wake to stored music, one of 3 recorded sounds (mic is built-in), iPod, radio, built-in nature sounds, or a buzzer (slowly increases volume).
- Each alarm can be set to sound everyday, just on weekdays, or only on weekends.
- Nice sound quality for the size, it even has a little bit of bass.
- Decent amount of internal memory included, but it not all usable and is used to store recorded sounds.
- Can play straight from an SD card or a USB storage device.
- Clearly shows which alarms are active and when they will sound.
- Quick set buttons for each alarm.
- Clear snooze countdown; set 10 minute intervals up to 60 mins.
- Clear sleep mode display, similar to snooze.
- One touch buttons to play radio, iPod, or USB/internally stored music
- Self-setting clock by radio sync

This thing should be great right out of the box. In the end, you can almost get to "great" after a few hours of work and experimentation and accepting a few unnecessary compromises.

It would get 5 stars if it was under $100.