Clock Radio

Wanted a clock that I could set easy and able to see at night, and the Philips Clock Radio AJ3500, big bold figures and bright, and with a battery backup, as had a few power cuts and my mains alarm clock at wrong time. Would recommend to anyone needing a alarm/radio to purchase this product

Wanted a clock that I could set easy and able to see at night, and the Philips Clock Radio AJ3500, big bold figures and bright, and with a battery backup, as had a few power cuts and my mains alarm clock at wrong time. Would recommend to anyone needing a alarm/radio to purchase this product

The clock display is large enough to see without having to put my glasses on. Is very easy to use and I have had no difficulty in useing it's functions.

This product features two separate alarms, either of which can be set to buzzer or radio mode. However, there is a problem in that radio alarm mode isn't affected by the volume wheel on the back of the unit. The volume wheel does affect the radio when listening to it manually, but when the alarm timer switches the radio on automatically it starts off quiet then over a few seconds it fades up to the maximum volume that the unit is capable of. This makes for a rude awakening and would probably annoy other people in the same household. Consequently I don't use the radio alarm mode, which is one of the features I bought it for. The time display is nice and large and easy to read. Radio sound quality is as should be expected from a small plastic unit. Don't expect hi-fi quality.

I bought this radio hoping for a quality device. How wrong can you be. The instructions rely on pictures which don't explain what you need to do. In particular, activating the alarms is proving extremely difficult. Whilst trying to lower the volume when the alarm went off (it automatically increases in volume for some inexplicable reason) we lost one of the alarms and cannot get it back now. Following the pictures to do what we think is necessary only allows the volume to be changed. No access is available to modify the alarm behaviour anymore. The alarm in radio mode only works for half an hour and is non- programmable. In this day and age, you should be able to set the length of time the radio is on to your own preference. If the radio is on when the an alarm goes off, it makes a horrible beeping sound and the radio is lost, thus interrupting a program you were listening to. This is nonsense. Most of these issues could be resolved by the addition of a couple more buttons but of course that adds to the cost so at the end of the day a good product has been totally compromised by a desire to increase profit. If the operation was really intuitive, there would be no need for instructions. It would just work.

HOWEVER,the most important thing,in my view,is Sound Quality. The AJ3500 clock/radio sounds dreadful rather like a poor Mobile phone,the Bass boost also does nothing to help.