Annoying

I put up with this radio for a few months, but that's all I could manage. The buttons are fiddly (I'm 29 with 'normal fingers' as far as I know) and it was a pain to change the alarm time. I also had a few occasions when the clock time would change whilst I was trying to alter the alarm, despite there being some distance between the relevant buttons. Usually I noticed this and corrected it, but one day last week I didn't, and it woke me up an hour early. The radio quality was also average, often requiring re-tuning, whereas I have other portable radios than are much better.

The only positive thing I can say about this product is that it is robust. When it woke me up an hour early I through it out of the window, and it survived the fall from the first floor with only minor damage, and will now be used as a greenhouse radio! I now have a Sony that seems much more user friendly.

Great sound from a small device

Summary:
A comprehensive iPod and GoGear dock and alarm clock that has good quality sound for both radio and iPod but an interface and buttons that let down the excellent functions.

iPod Function:
It's an iPod dock (or Philips GoGear for which there is special dock attachment that needs to be swapped with the iPod one that is already inserted) which comes with a multitudes of different dock adapters (all of which are marked underneath so you know which one to choose). It's not designed to be used with the iPhone but it does work fine with my iPhone (I have a 3G which sits fine in the dock marked"Classic 60GB"). When docking the iPhone the phone does warn you that the accessory is not optimised for the device and there may be cellular interference. I use mine to charge the phone overnight and so I turn the phone onto Airplane mode. Airplane mode turns off the cellular and wi-fi functions so you don't have to sleep with your head next to a strong mobile signal and so you don't get disturbed by e-mails, texts or calls as you sleep!

Alarm Options:
There are two alarms that can be set and you can choose to have them both set to on. It's easy to set the alarms using the buttons. After reading other reviews I was expecting a loud alarm but but it is not particularly loud unless you let the alarm (radio alarm or iPod alarm) run and run. The radio and iPod alarm options start quietly and get progressively louder. When the dock is selected as the alarm option the iPod will start playing where it left off last time. The `buzzer' option is more of a beep than a buzz and if the dock is placed at a bedside then volume is perfectly adequate to wake. However, it is not particularly loud and the volume does not change, it stays the same for as long as the alarm is on.

Interface:
While the speakers are excellent, especially for such a small device, the interface (the screen and buttons used to change options) is much less impressive. The buttons are all hard plastic which feel cheap when clicking them to change options. The buttons around the iPod dock area are small and difficult to distinguish between unless you are looking at them but they don't control the functions that you'll need for switching the alarm off or snoozing the alarm. The screen is OK, but as many other reviewers have said, the brightness options are too limited and most people will need to turn the screen off for sleeping. It's not difficult to do, there's a single button to press and you can scroll through the full brightness, half brightness and no backlight options with each press of the button. The time and date show as blocky LCD read-outs but the other options have smoother graphics for display. The remote control is effective and is handy to have if you plan to use it for regular music playing - great for a teenager's bedroom I would imagine! The remote is silver and would be better in black so it actually matched the device.

Great little clock radio!

If you are looking for a clock radio which is simple to operate and reasonably priced then look no further than this one. Its ideal for those who don't want a clock with lots of complicated settings; its easy to set up and I have found it to be a reliable little alarm clock/radio.

Be careful - battery backup is suspect

I purchased this alarm clock about a year ago from Amazon and unfortunately did not test the battery backup within the return period, and later found out it did not work. If you decide to buy one, test this out straight away. I think I ended up getting a defective model. Otherwise, it is a very nice alarm clock.

Chaep tat-avoid

This thing has just died on me, no doubt the power supply has gone wrong as it's the usual thing with these sort of products, made as cheap as possible, a well known manufacturer sticks a label on it to con us into thinking it's a quality product, when it did work, the dab reception was terrible with an ugly wire aerial and no socket to fit a better one,and. no it's not my area, others work fine next to it, I don't usually write reviews but felt I must warn others not to waste your money

Looks 'cool', but it's nothing 'special'.

I have a weakness for Alarm Clock Radios - I love waking up to 'Classic FM' - but I like variety, and so I own several different Sets. I first saw this a couple of years back (a lot cheaper than it is now oddly!) and really liked the look of it. I finally got around to purchasing one recently.

I have to say; having got several Clock Radios to compare this to - in terms of 'price' this is not cheap, and it's not as good as some I bought that were a great deal less expensive! In fact; the purpose of the Projection Clock puzzles me a bit on this one, since it is not on 'permanently', which means you have to lean over in the dark, fumble to press a tiny button at the side that is not easy to locate, and it stays lit for a few seconds. Nothing wrong with that, except that its far easier to simply reach over and press the big button on the top, and the whole Clock face lights up - easier to do - and easier to see! Why would you prefer to fumble at the side, and then by the time you lie back to look up at the ceiling where the time is reflected - it's already gone out... Don't understand it... Seems a little pointless to me...

Sound quality - again; got just as good (and better on a couple of cheaper Radios) on ones that cost considerably less, and so unless like me you like 'collecting' Alarm Clock Radios - or you just fall in love with the look/style of this one (and it does look good) there's no real reason to opt for this particular model over any other in my opinion...

do not buy

I bought this in jan08 to record and copy to disc. it started turning itself on and cutting out the tv within a couple of months. i managed to stop that but the timer sometimes recorded or not (I thought it was me. I have sky plus so i only used this occasionally when i went on holiday or as a backup to Sky. Now it is just not working!i spoke to philips and they told me to try one thing which did not work so now i would have to take it to a service centre i am going to bin it but do not waste your time and money on thisPhilips DVDR3590 - 250Gb Hard Drive DVD Recorder

Great Clock shame about the software/build quality

Product was faulty straight out of the box, could not add photos and auto brightnes switched display off. Email sent to Philips to which they responded,"beyond economical repair". Sent back for refund.

It's OK

It's not a bad product in general and I'm reasonably happy with it. It looks great and the weather and clock functions are accurate enough for me. I placed my weather sensor outdoors facing North to get a better reading in general and with this was able to"rotate" (in unit application) the readings to get a constant more accurate output on indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity. The negatives for me are (hence the 3 star) the need to unplug the unit from the mains to turn off the weather indicator (little light top left corner that indicates by colour code the weather type ie sunny,rainy, snow etc). If the unit is plugged in this is constantly on and is so bright it lights up a dark room. In this instance you need battery power which then turns this light off, unless there is an update to the system which is very annoying to light sleepers. The other annoyance is the amount of buttons and controls needed to make any changes to the unit. Persnonally I wouldn't buy the unit again unless Philips makes some changes to their next model but for the time being it will do.

wrong item sent

This was a present for my husband and they sent me a continetial one with a transformer and a two pin plug was a dissapiontment for myself and my husband

Words cannot describe...

...How much I hate this clock radio. The weather forecaster is a joke. It has never in the 18 or so months since I bought it been anything even approaching accurate. The red thunder storm light has never once lit up, in spite of all the storms we have here in Italy. It is simply awful.

The mains lead now keeps falling out of the back of it and so it runs just on batteries. For some reason when it runs on batteries, the lamp doesn't work so you can't see the LCD display in the dark. Not that you could see it when it was lit up due to the weird angle the clock stands. I had to tip it up at the back with a pile of coins to be able to see the display from my bed. The only good thing is that you can tune the radio digitally. This clock came so close to being hurled out of the window today. The time/date and radio set up is silly and confusing (but that may be because I'm reading it in Italian). Why can't it run on 2AA batteries instead of 4AAA ones that no one has hanging around the house? Save your money and just buy an ordinary clock radio. The"weather station" is cack and not worth the extra money. Every Philips appliance I've bought lately has been really poor quality. This is the last Philips item I'll be buying.

Philips AJL308 Clock Radio Photoframe

This is a superb idea from Philips, an LCD clock radio with built in photoframe and MP3 playback capability all in one! The screen is bright and clear and easily be adjusted (brightness increased or decreased) at the touch of a button to suit your mood. It also features built-in subtle ambient sound effects including ocean and forest sounds to help you relax and fall asleep. There are also some beautiful background screen colours to choose from so you can constantly change the look and sound of your clock radio, excellent! A handy calendar positioned at the lower left of the screen will keep you informed of today's date. The alarm features some very realistic sounds or you can simply wake-up to your favourite radio station.
Plug-in your SD card to view all your favourite photos in small or full screen format. Why not wake-up to a picture from your latest holiday or loved ones, this is a great feature!
The USB socket allows playback of MP3 music and video clips from your portable USB device.
In conclusion, this is no ordinary clock radio, there are so many superb features you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. HIGHLY recommended, well done Philips!

OK but..............................................

Takes a bit of time to set up but worthwhile in the end.

Doesn't seem to do a slideshow in"clock" mode, you can change the picture manually though, but will do one in photo mode which also gives you a full screen picture.

When sorting pictures for this it looks like you will need to spend some time resizing them, especially if you want to use the widescreen mode rather than normal.

So only 4 stars because of these problems and because the setup could be easier than it is, even thinking of getting another one for a christmas present for someone now the price seems to have come down a lot.