Memorex MA4203BK Clock Radio with Flip Down Dock for iPod and iPhone

• Flip-down universal charging dock for iPhone or iPod
• Dual alarm clock settings (wake to iPod/iPhone, FM radio, or buzzer)
• Digital FM radio with station presets
• Displays day, date, & time
• Snooze and dimmer functions

For the most part this alarm clock is great. I got it to use with my iphone as a clock radio with internet radio, and in that function it works almost great. The clock face isn't too bright, it charges my phone, it even sets the time from the phone automatically if you hold the set button. Setting the alarm is a little finicky sometimes, you can easily cycle past the setting you wanted, but it's easy enough to go back. But the one thing that makes this completely useless is that you CANNOT SET THE ALARM VOLUME BELOW 6!! That might be a bit meaningless out of context, the volume scale is digital numeric, goes from 1 to 20 or so, but 6 is quite loud, especially if you are sleeping. I want the alarm to be at volume 3 or so, but in alarm settings it stops you at 6. Maybe the Memorex engineers think they shouldn't let you set the volume too low, but you know what not all of us need to be screamed at to wake up, and a gentle serenade is more than enough for me.

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Small in size but loud enough to wake me at 4am! This clock has a couple of cool features, you can set the days that you want the alarm to go off and it auomatically sets the time by syncing with iPhone.The led lights are bright enough so that you can see the time but they don't brighten up your bedroom. The flip down charging station is slick too.

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The clock is great. The alarm is quite loud. Can wake up to alarm, Iphone or radio. Has sleep mode and snooze button. It charges Iphone3G, Ipod 1st Gen and 2nd Gen; I haven't tested any other, but I'm pretty sure they'll work. The instructions to change the clock time is not so good though. In order to reset the clock, you have to deactivate the alarm first and then just hold the set button to sync your Ipod/Iphone. This is not stated in the manual, so I deducted a star for all the time it took me to realize this. Overall, though, it's a great clock. You should definitely get one for you and the ones you love.

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This alarm clock was possibly the most frustrating piece of equipment I have ever purchased. I bought it to use as my everyday alarm clock, with the nice bonus of having a nice place to charge my iPhone every night and play my iPhone music to wake me up.

First of all, the time drifts slowly. In other words, after a month of operation, you will be approximately 20 minutes too slow, which is just just unacceptable. Yes, one could adjust the time by advancing 1 minute every 2 out of 3 days, but this is not what I expect from a clock.

But why not use the auto-sync feature, you ask? There is a feature that allows the clock to sync the time with the iPhone time, surely that will alleviate the problem, right? Well, in order to sync the time, you need to have the iPhone connected, disconnect the AC power, reconnect the AC power, and press power. That will sync the time, but again, for an alarm *clock*, is it asking too much to not have to re-sync the time manually every few days to make sure the time is right?

Then we get to setting an alarm. The button needs to be held before the alarm time can be set. So you hold the button until it starts blinking, then use the +/buttons to change the hour, then minutes, day, and other options by pressing the same button. In theory, at least. In practice, you hold the button until the alarm time starts blinking, but when you let go, it seems to register 1-4 additional button presses, so that by the time you let go, you can't edit the time anymore. It took me about 20 tries to have the opportunity to edit the hour for my alarm. There is clearly a debounce problem with the button, I am not sure if it was my unit, or poor design.

I became so frustrated with the device that I gave it to my brother and warned him about the issues. Despite the fact that I had warned him about how frustrating the alarm might be, he took it and encountered exactly the same problems as I did. By the end of the night, he was on the verge of running over the alarm with his car.

This alarm clock sucks. You have to babysit it to make sure the time is right. The buttons aren't debounced properly so it is frustrating to update the time. If you try to reset and have it resync with your iPhone, congrats, you have the correct time, but good luck resetting your alarm options again.

My $15 Sony alarm clock syncs with the atomic clock and needs virtually no setup or maintenance. Instead of buying this product, I would recommend that you buy a regular Sony alarm clock and keep your iPhone charging cable on your nightstand if you want iPhone charging. You will have to live with the fact that you can't listen to your iPhone music as your wakeup music, but this alarm clock radio it is not worth the frustration or money. Do not, under any circumstances, purchase this alarm clock.

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Overall, this is one of my favorite alarm clocks I've ever had.

Reasons for this:

* It's nice and compact so it doesn't take up much space on a bedside table.

* The iPhone/iPod charger is retractable (another space thing) and also leaves space so that you can keep your phone case on and still be able to get a charge (another alarm clock/charger I had did not allow for that).

* The brightness can be adjusted to a fairly low level so that it's still visible but doesn't give off a glare in a dark room.

* It allows you to play music off of your iPhone/iPod through it's fairly good speakers.

The reason I'm only giving it 4 stars instead of 5:

The buttons are a little confusing and take some getting used to and some consulting of the instruction guide (at least for me). It's fine once you get the hang of it but I think it could have been designed to be a little more user friendly.

UPDATE: even after "getting the hang of it" it is still surprisingly difficult to program this alarm clock changing the time took me about 5 minutes. The interface could be a lot clearer. Also, I think it keeps time a little slow it had lost about 4 minutes after only a few months of use.