Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read the other reviews pretty extensively before buying this, and almost all the drawbacks mentioned really are drawbacks. But in the end, what matters is whether it works for you, person considering buying it. I'm keeping mine, and I'll describe why by listing the shortcomings: 1) Settings remain at last adjustment: You can use the clock as a lamp whenever, and the lamp brightness is adjustable; but whatever you adjust it to while using it as a lamp, that's the maximum brightness it will come to the next time you use it as an alarm clock. So if you want maximum brightness in the morning (I do) but find that that's too bright for use as a reading lamp (it really kind of is), you'll have to readjust the brightness to alarm level before each time you turn it off as reading lamp. And the same goes for volume: if you want to use the radio independently of when you're waking up, whatever volume you adjust it to, that's the volume it'll wake you up at when your alarm next goes off. This is not ideal. You can either live with the inconvenience of constantly readjusting the settings, or you can do what I do: have a separate reading lamp next to it on your night table, and do people even listen to the radio while hanging out in their bedroom? I don't. 2) Digital clock display is too bright even on the dimmest setting: I do have mine on the dimmest setting, and while it's a bit darker than most other alarm clocks, I agree that it would be nice if there were an even dimmer setting available. Not a deal breaker. 3) It might eat away 15 minutes of sleep time: a common complaint in the negative reviews is that the light wakes you up before the sounds go off, so you lose ~15 minutes of sleep. I believed that would happen to me too, so on the first day, I set my alarm 15 minutes later than usual, assuming the light would wake me up about halfway through the 30 minute artificial sunrise. It didn't, and I was about 15 minutes late to work. But maybe you're a lighter sleeper than me; doesn't matter. Figure out when during the 30 minute sunrise you naturally wake up, and adjust the alarm time so that you're waking up when you want or need to. No big deal. The only problem is, if you're a deep sleeper like me, you don't actually see the 30 minute sunrise. By the time you wake up, you catch a brief glimpse of bright light before shutting it off because you have to go brush your teeth in the next room or whatever. I don't know if it made a difference that the light kept getting brighter while I was asleep. I know I woke up happy, but maybe that's just because the wake up sound was bird songs. I freaking love songbirds. 4) Touch display makes it difficult to find the buttons: when left alone with the lamp off, only the time displays (and a little alarm symbol if your alarm is on). When you wave your hand in front of the clock, teeny-tiny touch buttons light up around the clock, too. Are they hard to find? Not when the lamp is off. They're small, but you remember where each one is after one use anyway. However... in the morning, when the 30 minute sunrise has just ended, and you're trying to turn off the alarm but the lamp is on its brightest setting, you're kind of staring into the sun to try and find the alarm off button. That is tricky, and annoying, and hurts your eyes. I'm not a fan. But it's only one second every morning, I'll live with it. 5) The clock being unsteady: it's really not. It is, however, very lightweight--so even though it's perfectly steady just standing there, if you whack it really hard to snooze it, it would probably fall right off the table. I don't wake up full of hulk strength though, so that hasn't been a problem. I like that it's lightweight. 6) The plastic it's made of feels cheap: what? No! It feels very lightweight, but otherwise the clock feels sleek and futuristic, not cheap. I mean, yes, it's made of plastic. But so is most of my laptop, y'know? 7) The LED bulb is not replaceable, and there's no battery so if there's a brief outage you'll have to reset the time: I'm not worried about an LED bulb burning out any time soon, especially since I'm not using this clock as a lamp outside of wake up time. But yes, having to reset the time each time there's an outage will be a pain. Still not a deal breaker. 8) You really have to read the manual to know how to use it because it's not intuitive: well, I'm a manual reader by nature. The manual that came with this clock was incredibly short and sweet. Read it once, it's super easy to follow, and it'll take 5 minutes. Overall impressions: - Sunrise is missed because I sleep through it, so I'm not exactly relying on this clock to get me through winter--I got a light box, too. - Bird sounds are wonderful. - I love that the sound volume, brightness at wake up, and brightness of the clock display are all adjustable. That's way more customizable than my previous $15 alarm clocks. I don't mind that the sunrise time can't be customized. I don't mind that the dimmest clock display setting could be dimmer. - I actually love the feel of this clock, the smooth touch display, the fact that the buttons light up when you bring your hand close to it. UPDATE: I went about 2 weeks without my alarm clock, using my cell phone's alarm function instead. After the first few days I found myself regularly hitting snooze in the mornings. When I would get up and turn the light on, it would take my eyes a while to adjust. I felt groggy. Then I was reunited with my sunrise alarm clock and BOOM, no more wanting to hit snooze, and I'm waking up happy and not groggy again!