Best Buy alarm clock dual alarm auto set

Best iPhone/iPod Docking Clock Radio, June 4, 2009

By 

KWJ (Los Angeles) – See all my reviews

  

I searched a long time for a combo clock radio and docking station for my iPhone. Although there are several on the market, I wanted something that took up as little space as possible on my night stand, had a display with large numbers, would charge my iPhone, play music from my iPhone as the alarm instead of the radio, and was easy to use.

I FOUND IT!! This Sony clock radio is great, and has TONS of features. I like the large illuminated display, which has different settings depending on how bright you want the light at night. Setting the alarm is very easy (you can go forward and backward through hour and minutes, without having to run completely through the cycle like most clocks), and there are TWO alarm settings. You can set an alarm for weekdays to get you up for work, and then a separate alarm for the weekend. Pretty cool.

The snooze button is nice and big on top of the unit, and let’s you take the standard 10 minute snooze, or you can keep pressing the button and lengthen the snooze time up to 60 minutes in 20 minute increments. A nice feature.

There’s a sleep feature timer so you can listen to radio or iPhone/iPod music while you fall asleep. For the alarm, you can have a buzz, AM or FM radio, or a tune from your iPhone, and it works great.

Buttons on the front and side are nice and large so you don’t have to grope in the dark, and there are a variety of customizable settings.

The best part is the hidden slide-out docking tray. Pop it out when you want to charge your iPhone/iPod or listen to music through the clock’s speaker, and push it back in when you don’t need it, making the unit’s footprint as small as possible. The docking tray comes with adapters to fit iPhone or iPod. I use mine without either adapter because I have a protective case on my iPhone, but it still fits in nicely.

In reading back my review, I sound like a Sony employee, but I’m not. Have no connection to the product, other than I’m a satisfied customer, and would recommend this unit highly to anyone looking for a docking station/clock radio for their iPhone or iPod. There are too many other features to go into here. Have fun discovering all the great things Sony thought of to include on this unit.

Thanks for a great unit, Sony!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comment (1)

Radio reception is weak, otherwise a terrific iPhone/iPod clock radio, August 6, 2009

First off, I want to say that I like almost everything about this alarm clock and that I went to a Best Buy first and tested it (music and all) right next to its bigger Sony sibling (the one with the CD player, called Sony ICFCD3iP CD Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone) as well as the iHomes and Logitech and other competitors. Essentially this one came out the winner in every way IF what you’re looking for is an ALARM CLOCK. This is not a speaker system by any stretch (it’s not even stereophonic, one speaker), it’s not designed to party to or have it produce massive bass sounds. I know this is obvious to most of you but there’s always some imbecile who doesn’t seem to realize that a little alarm clock barely bigger than your iPhone can’t possibly be a stereo system.

As an alarm clock, I loved this little system precisely because it does so much and takes up so little space. The LED lights are not too bright when you go to the lowest setting, the sound is definitely loud enough for you to hear even if you’re in the next room at high volume, the iPhone dock is easy to use and can be used with a case on your iPhone. It also looks good and it’s nice that the dock cradle slides in, overall it looks A+.

Since I also compared this one in person to the Sony ICFCD3iP CD Clock Radio and tested them both simultaneously, I can offer you these observations if it’s helpful to you. I ruled out the iHomes, by the way, because all systems that make you stick your iPhone on top like that are horrible looking, maybe that was cool in 2007 if you thought having an iPhone is cool and you want it brandished like it’s a trophy, but that now looks tacky, dated and cluttered. This comparison is between this Sony product vs the one with the CD player:

–Size: I liked the CD player one more because I actually thought this one looks a bit too small. This is purely personal preference, if smaller is better for you then go for this one.

–Layout: I call this a draw. One thing that’s better on the CD player one is that since it’s bigger, there was room to put the tuner and the preset switches on the sides of the device rather than on the back which is not as convenient. You probably won’t use these two switches much though so this probably doesn’t matter much. One thing I liked better on this one is that hitting the snooze as you’re groggy is pretty safe, but on the CD one, since the opening for the CD player is right in front of the snooze button, you can very well accidentally open the CD tray violently if you hit the snooze and aren’t careful.

–Speaker, sound: Basically a draw for me. The Sony descriptions on Amazon, and indeed even on the boxes of the two products, tell you nothing about power. I had to look under the devices themselves (which got me bad looks from the salespeople) to find out that this alarm clock’s speaker is rated at 10 watts. The CD player’s speaker rated at 16 watts. Normally I’d say this means the CD player clock is better, but oddly at similar volumes in the store, I actually found this alarm clock’s speaker to be better defined than the bigger one from the other Sony, and almost as loud. The bass was slightly better on the other one though. But since this is an ALARM CLOCK and not a speaker system by any stretch, I frankly didn’t care either way, they’re both plenty loud to wake up to music or the radio to and close enough in quality despite the different wattage.

–iPhone dock: here I expected them both to be the same, but I was surprised that the iPhone dock trays are not designed the same, and that this Sony’s design of the tray was actually better than the CD player’s. The CD player’s tray hangs in the air, in that when it opens up there is space under. So when you put your iPhone in you kind of have to grab the tray or else the whole thing tilts, it’s not a good setup. The tray that comes out of this clock, on the other hand, has the end of it flush with the clock’s bottom and whatever table it’s on. So it’s much more secure and you can just dock your iPod on it with one hand and not worry about a thing. So the clear loser is the CD alarm, as this one is better designed. Both can fit an iPhone with the case on by the way, just don’t use the tray inserts that come with this.

–LED illumination: here too this Sony beats out the CD Sony. Both clocks have three light settings. I put them side by side and tested them both. The upshot is that the bigger one has much brighter LED lights. When I compared both at the lowest setting, the bigger clock was still pretty bright and would be annoying in the dark (unless you’re scared of monsters at night and want a night light). At its lowest setting, this Sony here was still just a bit brighter than I would have liked, but not nearly as annoying as the CD player’s light. This is a big reason why you see good reviews of this Sony here while the…

Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comments (15)

Great clock and antenna, June 15, 2009

By 

L. Ziegenbein – See all my reviews

  

I wanted to add a quick note about this clock radio because most of the other reviews for clock radios don’t address the issue that was the most important to me- the strength of the antenna. I was looking for an alarm clock that would get better reception in our bedroom than the one we presently own. This clock is able to pick-up stations that are either too fuzzy to hear or don’t even come in on our current clock.

I also like that the iPod dock slides out, so that I don’t have a large piece of machinery sitting on my bedside table! I am very pleased with this clock radio and my husband is going to be thrilled on Father’s Day!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comment