Philips AJ3400 Wake-Up Alarm Clock with Radio for Bedside or Kitchen, Big Display, Dual Alarm, Brightness Setup, Battery Back-Up, Black

I am really pleased with this clock radio. All the controls are easily accessible and easy to use. Having presets is so much easier than fiddling around with tuning. The sleep option means you can get the radio to play from 15 mins to 2hrs. The display is big, seriously big, so that even my very shortsighted eyes can see the display in the middle of the night without glasses. This is a first! To complete the picture it looks nice and doesn't take up too much space. Yes it is a good buy and less than a lot of radio alarms on the market.

confusing

Maybe I mis-heard, but my wife said she likes “a massive CLOCK in the bedroom”, so I bought this.It is huge! Probably twice the size of any previously owned clock radio, which obviously makes it a breeze to read the time through squinty, bleary eyes.The radio is simple to digitally tune, and holds on to the station very well; the dual alarms a doddle to set (either radio, or buzzer).Nice feature is that the alarm slowly rises in volume increments, starting almost inaudible, it rises in stages and is a great gentle wake up. It also means that when it goes off for me at 04:50am, I’m woken and the alarm turned off before it manages to wake the missus.One gripe though. When you switch it on to just listen to the radio, it starts at a really loud pre-set volume...don’t know why, it doesn’t appear to be adjustable, but if you’re in bed early morning, or late at night, and you’re looking for a bit of gentle listening, be aware that you’re going to be sharing it with the neighbours for the time it takes you to frantically find and press the volume button.

Well I was looking for something cheap and cheerful to replace my aged and much-loved Bush "Dream-Breaker" (which sadly lost its voice) and this seemed to fit the bill. While not being suspiciously cheap it seemed good value for something with a respected brand name. In its favour is the big display (which is dimmable if required); the ease of setting the time, radio presets and two different alarms. Despite the big display, the unit is quite small and very light; taking up far less space on my bedside table. What I didn't like are the slim buttons on the top of the unit which are not easily identified unless you actually pick the thing up and turn it on its front to see what the buttons are. I suppose that will get better in time, once I learn where things are but for now it's a little annoying. However, the main disappointment was the sound quality. There is room for a far bigger and better speaker than is actually present and the one it has gives a cheap, thin sound which I won't want to listen to for long. It's not a patch on my old Bush which (in its prime) had a splendid tone with depth and presence. This will suffice for waking me up but I will have to look elsewhere for listening pleasure.

I was a little nervous as this product had a number of mixed reviews regarding setup, brightness, buttons and sound. This is the best radio alarm clock I've had, the sound is fine. The brightness is comparable to others and the buttons and setup is much easier than other alarm clocks I've seen in stores. For £20 you couldn't ask for more.

Likes: For hard of hearing probably okay. Full treble and zero base.Dislikes:Display: The choice of two brightness settings. Bright and really bright. I have a cheaper clock that has 6 settings for less.Radio: The volume is a joke. The lowest setting 1 is blasting. It actually has a zero setting, no sound, just switch the radio off??? I wanted just a hint in the background as I fell asleep to the timer. What happened to a rolling button of sound??Where's the 12 hour am/pm setting???? Not in the instructions, but when setting the alarm the instruction shows a PM indication?? Never went that far with it. So it seems to be a 24 hour clock. No issue but could be easier to find if it is there.Buttons: layout could be better.Price: Too high.Not fit for purpose, returned.Can't believe Philips badged this.

I really like this radio alarm clock, good bold figures for the time and its not lightweight so wont fly off the bedside table when you hit snooze. One flaw and it is very annoying is that the writing above the buttons is a) tiny, b) very faint and c) is actually fading rubbing off with use already. You can barely see what the buttons are for and as I said it is very annoying.

There are some good things about this clock, the display size is good, the radio is good, but there are some really stupid things about it too. For example, the buttons are impossibly small & close together, not easy to negotiate when you're half asleep. Also, we like to wake up to Radio 4 at 7am. This is easy to set, except that the radio/alarm comes on at FULL BLAST nomatter how you had previously set the volume. So, half asleep, you hurriedly reach for the volume rocker switch to turn it down before it wakes the neighbours too, except that when it's in alarm setting, that rocker switch becomes the alarm on/off switch. So you hit what you think is volume down & get radio/alarm off. But we want the radio on!The best way around it we've found is to not turn off the radio/alarm, but to locate the radio on/off switch, which is in the middle of a bank of identical buttons, & turn that off instead. Then turn it back on again, but as a radio not a radio/alarm. In this setting, the volume rocker switch functions as such & all is well. By this time, having fumbled for your glasses too, you are wide awake. But I guess that's what an alarm clock is for.We're not happy, we would like to send it back but can't as there's nothing ostensibly wrong with it, we just don't like the stupidity of many of the design features.The -/s outweigh the +/s for us. Might buy a cockerel instead. At least the hens would be happy.