- Illuminated sides add mood lighting and a light-enhanced alarm wake-up
- Dual alarm settings, extendable snooze, nap timer
- Wake to radio or buzzer alarm
- 15 radio station presets
- Adjustable display brightness
Based on the description, I *thought* that the clock would gradually ease me out of sleep, with a warm soothing light and soft music. The Amazon product description talks about a "calming effect" and adjustable illumination. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Instead, when this thing goes off it is like the apocalypse has finally arrived. The harsh, alien, LED lights will blink on and off, and if you combine that with the godawful alarm tones, you will find yourself leaping out of bed and looking for a weapon of some sort. Infuriatingly, you have NO control over this blinking feature, other than to turn off the light completely.
Right now, I bet you are thinking to yourself: "Well, at least it looks cool..." Alas, no. It seems that Sony could give Maxim magazine some tips on airbrushing. The clock looks NOTHING like the picture. The sides of this thing are pure, bright white, from top to bottom. But what really stung me is the LCD display. In Sony's artistic rendering, the display is pure black and the numbers are pure white. This grossly misleading picture caused me to assume that the clock would just light up the numbers, like older clock radios do. This method produces easy to read numbers during both day AND night while producing a minimal amount of extra light at night. In reality, the entire display glows blue-white and the numbers are a slightly lighter shade. During the day you can barely see the numbers and at night you can read a book by the light this thing puts out. Thankfully, Sony included a low setting for the screen, which is OK for night, but makes the clock completely unreadable during the day.
Then there are the buttons, buttons, buttons. This thing is covered with buttons, and in what I am sure is some fiendish attempt to drive me to insanity, the buttons you will use the most are located on the back of the unit, where you cannot see them. Prepare yourself for countless moments of frustration as you fumble around the back of this thing pressing buttons until you get the right one. And while doing so, be careful not to bump the analog (not digital!) wheels that control the radio volume and light brightness.
This clock is a huge disappointment, not just because of the reasons above, and not just because of the grossly inflated price, but because it teases you with cool features that just don't deliver. Avoid this clock at all costs.
Buy Sony ICF-C773 Dream Machine AM/FM Clock Radio With Fifteen Station Presets Now
First of all... getting alarm clock, with really "original design" isn't easy. I've spent many hours looking through many websites looking for a decent one finally finding Sony ICF-C773.I think I was expecting too much from it. After opening the box, I was very dissapointed with its look. The picture shown on Amazon website is misleading! Sides of this clock are purely white, and "glow effect" is... well... horrible. This watch I think was designed ONLY for bedroom clock/radio AND it looks decent only when the light in the room is off otherwise, better don't look at it.
(-) Digits are small... very small... you need to be very close to see them.
(-) Buttons are ALL OVER this clock, at the back. Unless you remember (!) all of them, you have to actually rotate the clock to see which button is where. Setting up the alarm is really a pain in the........
(+) The only plus I found is sound quality, which is nice. High and mid tones are very clear for such small box. I was suprised honestly, but well... it wasn't for free.
(-) Clock comes with 5 alarm melodies, and ALL of them are horrible (90's?). My cell phone has MUCH better sounds than this clock. AND WHAT'S WORSE, THERE IS NO WAY TO SET UP THE VOLUME OF THE BUZZER!! At least there was option to set-up alarm to radio...
(+) Good radio reception. But that wasn't the reason to buy it.
Overall... don't buy it! It's way to expensive for what you get!!
After fighting with it, I returned this clock, and decided to spent money elsewhere... I recommend that you will do the same.
Read Best Reviews of Sony ICF-C773 Dream Machine AM/FM Clock Radio With Fifteen Station Presets Here
The clock, radio, and light functions spontaneously ceased working 3 months after I started using this clock radio; as far as I know, nothing happened to the clock radio to cause it to break.When it still worked, it was confusing to program, and required one to reprogram all stations, clock, and alarm times any time the clock was unplugged or the power went out, as there is no battery back-up. The light alarm is a bit annoying, as it flashes on and off, rather than coming on steadily. By itself, the light is too dim to use to read.
Amazon will not take defective product returns after 30 days, so if you purchase a clock radio that breaks after a month, you will have to ship it at your own expense to Sony, and they'll replace it with the same lousy clock radio ("refurbished").
Want Sony ICF-C773 Dream Machine AM/FM Clock Radio With Fifteen Station Presets Discount?
I for one think this is a gorgeous looking clock radio. I can't help but feel Sony took some cues from the ipod when designing the exoskeleton.My disappointment would be the abysmal LCD. You can barely read it head-on. You'd have to view it from a bird's viewpoint for the digits to be legible. I doubt it'll be legible from afar either. I've seen other clocks with a similar LCD and it fairs much better even with the illumination turned down.
0 comments:
Post a Comment