Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Does one thing well, everything else poorly, October 22, 2009
I own this product (the Philips HF3490), although most of the review also applies to the Philips HF3480 as well, with the exception of the iPod functionality, of course.
First, let's cut to the chase: this product does one thing really, really well. Luckily for this product's rating, its single proficiency is its main selling point: waking you up with a gentle progression of increasingly brighter light. Over the course of 30 minutes, the lamp in the alarm clock will get brighter until it reaches the maximum brightness setting you have selected previously. I find that the amount of light that I need to wake up varies - sometimes I wake up about 15 minutes in, other times, it takes the full 30 minutes to wake me up. So, I just leave it on its maximum setting (20) and wake up when I wake up.
BRIGHTNESS INFORMATION: I find that the technical information that Philips provides on the bulb is a bit difficult to relate to, without any context. This bulb is rated at 300 lux - not bad, but that brightness is typically given without context. It is 300 lux at *45 centimeters* - only about a foot and a half of distance. 300 lux is a pretty standard indoor room brightness. However, since brightness drops off by the square of the distance, a doubling of the distance (to 3') will halve your brightness. What this boils down to is that the light inside the lamp is roughly equal to a 60W incandescent bulb - good enough if the lamp is on a bedside stand, but because of the covering on the lamp, it might not be bright enough for you if you place it on a dresser across the room.
BULB REPLACEMENT: The reviews here that are claiming that this alarm has a LED lightbulb are clearly mistaken. You only have to look inside the holes in the top of the unit to see that it has a compact fluorescent (CFL) lightbulb - not an LED lightbulb. The manual that comes with the unit even says not to throw it away with your household waste - I can only assume because of the mercury inside the bulb. Now, I haven't disassembled the unit, but it does look like a standard (14W?) dimmable CFL - the sort of thing that you *might* be able to replace at the end the bulb's lifespan. I can't say for sure, of course, since I don't want to void my warranty.
Unfortunately, I think this product does quite a few things poorly, so the list of Cons is pretty long:
* iPod Functionality: The iPod functionality is pretty limited. It basically just plays whatever you're currently listening to on your iPod. I purchased the HF3490 over the HF3480 because I wanted an extra dock to charge my iPod Touch in at night. When you plug the iPod in, the unit will always switch to the iPod input and start playing whatever your iPod had last left off at - even if your iPod was stopped. Whenever I plug my iPod in for charging, I have to stop the iPod and then switch back to the radio. Needless to say, this is pretty irritating.
* Alarm (Wake-Up) Sounds: I really want to like the wake-up sounds - especially the birds and the drums. The birds are cheerful and the drums have a good beat. However, the clips for these sounds are annoyingly short - I would be surprised if they are longer than 30 seconds in length. As such, they tread that infuriating middle-ground between purely repetitive (beep beep beep beep) and music - after hearing the same clip a few dozen times, you will really want to get up and MAKE IT STOP. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing in an alarm clock is purely a personal preference. :)
* Sound Quality: Why they chose a rear-fired speaker is completely beyond me. Now, maybe I'm just spoiled by the sound from my previous alarm clock (a Tivoli Audio Model Three), but the sound emerging from this alarm clock is just bad. Pushing the alarm clock up closer to the wall improved things somewhat, but in general, the sound is muffled and muddy. There's a reason why audio systems fire bass from the rear/side and other frequencies from the front/top - because it sounds much clearer.
* Button Layout: This is a complaint that a lot of reviews here have, and it's true: the way the button/knob/lever system works is far more confusing than it needs to be. I've had this alarm for a while now, and I *still* press the wrong buttons from time to time.
* Radio: I get surprisingly good reception with this unit's built-in antenna. My house is made out of stucco, and it can be difficult to tune into radio stations without static. However, this unit has no AM tuner(!!) - only FM. If you're like me, and like to lie in bed while reading a book and listening to the baseball game on AM, you're out of luck. No AM for you!
To sum it up - this product is great for waking you up on those dark, winter days. I live in Minnesota, and it's a real treat to wake up in the morning and not feel bone tired because of the darkness. Just be aware that it's a good wake-up tool, and pretty poor at everything else. I would absolutely recommend the dockless version over this one.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall, happy! But- could use some tweaks!, October 22, 2009
I had been searching for a light-up alarm clock for some time. I've always had good experiences with Philips products (even Magnavox!) and though this is a pretty expensive alarm clock, overall I am VERY happy with it. Takes a minute to fully understand how the 3 wheels on the side work, but once you lock into the process, it is very easy to use and program.
Good stuff:
*You can remove the iPod base and just use the lamp if your tabletop space is limited.
*You can adjust the brightness of the display.
*Dock charges the iPod (initially, I thought it just played)
*Sleep timer!!!
Things I wish had been better thought out:
*When you place your iPhone/iPod on the dock, it automatically opens up your music and begins to play. Sometimes I just want to charge the phone, without having to struggle with turning off the music.
*You cannot set the light level for the alarm-- so whatever the last brightness you had used the lamp at, that is the brightness that you will wake up to. The light has a range from 1-20, and at night, I would love to set the light at about 5 and use the sleep timer... then in the morning, I'd like to wake to a light level that hits about 15. Unfortunately, that is not possible-- if I set the light at 5 at night, then I wake up to 5 in the morning. Not a huge deal, but a noticeable drag in my life. :)
Overall, I'm very happy with this product-- I wish that Philips would tweak the circuits to allow for a more customizable use experience, but given the choices out there-- I would still buy this again if anything happened to it...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Junk, October 26, 2009
Great idea if the product actually worked for more than a week. The lightbulb stopped working after 7 days of use. You can not replace the lightbulb so I had to return it. Thankfully I purchased through Amazon.
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