Philips HF3461 UK Philips Reviews

Review of the Phlips HF3461

 

By Perry Duke (York)

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If you're thinking about buying one this may help.

 

First: If you haven't already tried wake-up lights, and find getting up to normal alarms is jarring, then I recommend these. They really do seem to help, in winter at least (though bear in mind winter doesn't last forever). This one does that job easily as well as the Lumis I've used, and is in some ways better, though worse in others.

This review compares the Philips to other light alarms, not to other alarm clocks.

Here is the review:

The bad
- It's quite big, and frankly a bit ugly.
- User interface not the best - e.g. too many turns needed to adjust light & volume
- No radio presets, so if you want to change, you use the search function
- Radio OK for talk stations, but not audiophile quality.
- My radio makes a nasty squelch noise when switching on (as it searches for the station?)
. (n.b. not as bad as I'd feared if using to wake up, as it fades in,
. so squelch not too intrusive on waking up)
- Both the light and sound come on at the volume you left them at.
. (so if you need 100w of light to read, but 60w to wake up, you'll need to adjust. Every night.)

The good
- It works. Wake up light fades up perfectly. It wakes me up gently.
- Mine seems to be absolutely silent when radio etc not on
- 100w light means it works as a bedside light, which others (e.g. Lumi) don't, really
- It uses a (fairly) standard bulb
- I found radio reception OK to good (compared to last alarm clock)
- Less space than light + alarm clock (tall = small "footprint")
- I found the digital read out and "alarm on" lights not a problem when dimmed

(caveat emptor - if you've very sensitive, might be problem, but I found the dimmed settings much less bright than I feared - noticeably less the than my wife's lumi's green LED display, for example. The designer has at least clearly thought about it - they're not "full strength" LEDs)

Observations
- The design follows function, so is probably excusable:
. It looks like this so that you can have a relatively small unit with a 100w bulb - which is actually quite clever
- The shade has vents to let air through, well designed to conceal the bulb, and handle the heat
- Albeit made of plastic, it's more robust than I'd feared from other reviews. It's functional - not a style statement. Not Sony quality.
- I found 'birdsong' sounds OK/good, and the beep is much better than most - quite gentle
- The frog pool and ocean sounds are a bit weird, I can't imagine using them
- No "fade down" to sleep function, no "white noise function"
- Fade-up times are not adjustable
- You have to cycle through alarm modes to switch off the alarm for weekends
. (as opposed to "shut up, I'm awake now")
- It's tall, and snooze buttons are on top - can be hard to get at.

 

Overall:

If you want functionality, at £60 (current offer) it's not at all bad. It does exactly what it says on the tin - 100w fade-up light and workable radio - and does that well.

I agree with other reviews, however. It's an OK to good product, particularly in the design of the key function (which excuses a lot - this is what you're buying it for), but it doesn't have the attention to detail that would mark it out as something exciting. It doesn't do anything it doesn't say it does, and has no "gosh, that's neat" features. However, no-one has a product that does have that out there at the moment - which means this one may be the best on the market for now.

If you're looking for a functional light alarm with a radio (and particularly that works OK as a bedside light) then at £60 I'd recommend it. As long as you can live with the limitations. I might even pay the full £100 if I had to, just for the functionality. Until Sony come out with a better one, that is ...

 

review via Amazon

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