Customer Reviews

iHome iP98BR Dual Alarm Clock Radio with Dock for iPod and iPhone (Black)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hi,

I bought this clock four (this is important) months ago from a brick and mortar store (not Amazon, which is selling it for about $50 less. Darn.)

The design is very good, and the interface is intuitive. It comes with a nice remote control, which is handy, although some of the buttons could be better arranged. My only other design complaint is that the tuning/volume "slide wheels" are made from the same slick surface as the rest of the unit. This makes it harder to turn with your finger than it ought to be. But these are minor quibbles with an otherwise well designed product.

Here's my real complaint: after about two months, I wasn't able to play music from my iPhone through the iHome, which let's face it, is pretty much the reason I bought it. I already had a very nice Sony alarm clock thankyouverymuch.

I really thought the problem was my iPhone, and it took me a couple of weeks for met to get to the Apple store and have the Genius test it out. He ended up trying the phone out on an identical iHome in the store, and bingo, the phone worked fine, which means my iHome was the problem (Strike 1).

I called iHome customer service, that afternoon, and they were closed (Strike 2). Apparently their customer service people aren't interested in heard from customers in California past 4 PM eastern time. Then I emailed them, and received a prompt reply the next day (better!).

It turns out that iHome products only have a 90 day warranty! HELLO? 90 DAYS? I was 95 days in. Even though the unit clearly failed during the warranty period, I was outta luck. (Strike 3)

I was giving the option to have the unit repaired for a $30 fee, which shipping both ways at my expense. By then, I'm halfway to the cost of a whole new unit.

The level of quality and warranty length are just unacceptable. I would not purchase this unit again, despite my happiness with the unit while it was working.

Pros:

- A convenient way to charge your iPod or iPhone on your night stand

- Sound quality is a 4 out of 5 stars, with clear highs and and adequate bottom for a clock radio

- Handles all iPhone audio (except calls), including video and internet radio

- Clean and simple remote control with good across-the-room range

- Backlit buttons and display have several light levels, dimmed at the touch of a button

- Solid construction, compact

- Line-in for additional source

- Does indeed block out Edge/Wifi iPhone interference (in my personal experience, you milage may vary) as long as you're in iPod/iPhone mode. There is some inevitable interference when in radio mode. This is the nature of RF, folks.

Cons:

- No internal AM antenna, so you'll need to use the included loop

- Input select button cycles through AM, FM, and Line Input but not iPod/iPhone. The iPod/iPhone is selected as the source by pressing the play button or if the iPod/iPhone is already playing audio before being plugged into the dock. This is fine if you plan to use only the iPod functionality. If you're an internet radio listener, you'll need to get the station streaming before plugging in. Not a big issue, but worthy of note.

Overall, this is a pretty good iPhone dock. I use this almost exclusively with my iPhone 3G,and so far it's done a good job. As an alarm clock, it's very full-featured, which is a great set of features. The sound out of it is far beyond most alarm clocks, but not quite up to the quality of some of the more expensive docks.

The remote works pretty well, although you kind of wish it could do a little more. It can really only handle the iPod functions. It would be great if it could control other apps, like Pandora for instance. Probably a limitation of the iPhone interface.

The GSM shielding works pretty well, I haven't heard any of the static I hear with other products.

Two big downsides for me which is why it gets 3 stars:

- When I plug my iPhone in, it says that this accessory is not meant for use with the iPhone, and asks about turning on airplane mode. You can just say no, but it's really irritating for it to come up all the time.

- Like all the other iHome products, the only thing holding the iPhone is the dock connector. This really has been fine for other iPods, but there are times I need to touch the top of the iPhone (say, when controlling Pandora) and the lack of any back support on the iPhone is really disturbing. There really should be more supporting it.

Overall, if you need an expensive alarm clock that will control your iPod's, it's a great product.

Update 3/28/2009: 3 1/2 months later, one of the buttons on top broke. Basically with normal use, the button kind of started to fall into the unit. Not the kind of quality I look for in a $110 alarm clock. And with a very short 90 day warranty, it's not going to get fixed.

At this point I'd say that, if it breaks beyond use, which seems likely now, it will not be replaced with the same model. I can't change my rating, but it would go down to one star if I could. A $110 alarm clock should last far longer than 3 1/2 months.

Update 12/12/2009: About a year later. More buttons are starting to break. The rotating scroll wheel now hardly ever actually turns. Very disappointed about the quality. A definite negative on the recommendation.

I got this off my wish list for my graduation. I've used it for about a week now. I originally placed it on my wish list because I heard that this was the first iPhone-compatible alarm/radio system that eliminated the problem of cell signal interfering with fm signals. It's the really loud "bleep-beep-beep" noise that you hear when your phone is too close to the radio. I won't get technical in this review since I don't know much about why that happens, and I'll write this review from a point of an average consumer.

First, the system has pretty good sound quality given its compact size. The design is quite cute, not to many buttons and self-explanatory. The remote is very helpful. You can set the length of the snooze, have two alarms, set them to weekdays, weekends, or all 7 days, and wake up to radio or to music in your phone.

It's all good, except I still occasionally hear the interference when my phone is near the unit or connected to it. It's no longer the "bleep-beep-beep," rather it's more static-like noise, but still very loud.

The interference is not as frequent as I hear in my car stereo, but the fact that it still occurs really bugs me. It's very sporadic too. I'll hear it in succession (say, 3 times in 30 seconds), then not hear it for an hour. I haven't been able to find a pattern.

So it seems like i'll have to wait again for another product that will solve this problem. Because this one hasn't yet.

I was excited to have an iPhone clock radio so was eager to buy this product.

First problem was that the interference problem was not completely solved and sometimes it didn't recognize it as an iPhone accessory so I still get the prompt to put the phone into airplane mode.

Design problems are many and it just seems they didn't really think it through. The wheel controls are illogical and the light dimmer is annoying. You have to go through 7 brightness settings to get it to the lowest brightness. If you miss, you have to go through all 7 again. That's usually still to bright so I turn it all the way off. In the morning the radio comes on to wake me up and since the dimmer switch is also the snooze bar I have to turn the radio off to see what time it is. There is more, but the short summary is it's poorly designed.

As for quality it's a wreck. One wheel no longer turns so I can no longer control my iPhone through the device. But that doesn't matter because the doc connector now no longer works so I can't even plug my phone into it. I've had this for 3 months and it's pretty much completely useless at this point.

Very disappointed

I own one of the original iHomes as well as a later model I purchased for my son's dorm room. I had stopped using the first one, but when I tried it again, it would not respond to controls and did not produce sound. The same thing happened to my son's iHome. It's just not worth the risk of failure, don't buy this product, it's too expensive to waste that kind of money! You can't count on it failing in the first 90 days of warranty coverage!

This thing would have been perfect - beautiful design, great sound, perfect features. But after about a month, it stopped recognizing my iPhone and wouldn't wake to the iPod playlist. Apparently, lots of people have this exact problem.

The new IP99 from iHome is a nice clock radio. However it isn't much different from the first model they put out 4 or 5 years ago. It looks a little cooler, has some increased functionality, but basically works and sounds the same as my older model iH5. For me the most upsetting thing about this product is the fact that it says right on the box that it is "MADE FOR IPOD" but it does not come with a support insert for the 80 or 120 Gig iPod Classic. It comes with 4 inserts (iPhone, iPhone 3G, Touch, and Nano short/wide version). The instruction manual directs you to the website to "Purchase additional inserts if yours is not provided. The inserts are available on iHome's website for $5.99 plus shipping. I realize most people buy this product for its iPhone compatibility, but a lot of us still have Classics that we would like to charge on a product that claims to be "MADE FOR IPOD". If you have a Classic iPod you may want to consider another product, or be ready to shell out another 10-12 dollars for a 10 cent piece of plastic.

I don't use an iPhone with this, but with the Touch it works great. I have my Touch in a slim case and it fits snugly in the cradle. The speakers have good sound for a clock radio (much better than the iHome versions made for iPod only). The dual alarm system is nice, and the whole system feels like it was put together well and with good materials. Can't say the same for a lot of the crap I compared it to when shopping around. The numerals on the clock are big enough for geezers like me who wear glasses - as I can read the time at night without them. The clock illumination can be too bright at night, but all you have to do is tap the snooze bar and it dims (4 brightness levels?). For the price and performance, I don't think there is a better deal on the market today.

I have bought two of these and both have infuriated me with the problems with playing music or using my Ambiance app on my iPhone 3G. It worked the first time, then froze the second time. Or it sporadically works. To reset it you have to unplug the thing and take the batteries out and leave it sit for AN HOUR to reboot or whatever. You are lucky if you can get the music to play even if it doesnt freeze. Seriously, its nuts.

And to make the thing play to begin with you have to have the phone off before docking, wait for that annoying "incompatible with iPhone" screen to go away then navigate to your songs or app while docked. You cant just set up the tunes in your hand and plop it on there. Again, its nuts.

When its working, it sounds good and stuff, but it has been really frustrating using this product.