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268 of 274 found the following review helpful:
 Mostly Good Sep 22, 2010
By John P. Sullivan
For the most part, I really like the Philips Wake-up Light. The modern design is great. The lighting itself is beautiful. The product features are adequate. The orange LED display offers four levels of brightness. The control buttons blend in nicely with the trim. The snooze button, appropriately, sticks out like a sore thumb so if I'm still drowsy I can just reach over and activate it without lifting my head all the way up off the pillow to find it.
The elegant halogen illumination is the heart of what this product is all about. You can use the Wake-up Light as a bedside lamp and adjust it to any of several intensities. Powering down, it smoothly transitions to darkness. Awesome!
The radio sounds nice, comparable to your standard clock radio. Unfortunately, it's FM only, and I'm one who likes to make the most out of my space. With no AM band to choose from it loses a bit of value for me.
As a wake-up light, this product is fantastic! With the unit placed within a couple feet of your head, it does a fine job at convincing you that the sun has risen. There are three choices of alarms: FM radio, chirping birds or a "beep" as it is referred to in the manual, but it really sounds more like a lazy kettledrum concerto. I love waking up to the chirping birds...very natural.
If you're typically miserable when being abruptly awakened to dark surroundings, then I highly recommend this item. It's a luxurious waking experience, which can contribute to a more positive start to your mornings. It really is a cool thing to have.
222 of 229 found the following review helpful:
 Wake Up Like Cinderella! Sep 29, 2010
By Tate
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R14EC98KVJW0CT ***6 Month Update*** Had a lot of questions about burning out lights and whether or not I still enjoyed the alarm clock, so I just thought that I'd offer a quick update to my review. At nearly 6 months, I still use the alarm clock every day and have yet to be dissatisfied and my original review still stands. The light bulb has so far not burnt out and that's even with me using it for hours at a time as a reading lamp (note that the bulb is replaceable should it ever burn out). The bird noises still sound natural and pleasing to me (I was afraid I'd eventually associate bird tweets with groggy mornings and want to kill anything with feathers) and, in fact, I still occasionally wake up and think: My goodness, some bird is going to town out there... before realizing it's only my alarm clock. As always, if there are any further questions, please leave them in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer them.
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With the exception of the somewhat alarming price tag, this alarm clock alternative is actually really wonderful! I've been using it for a while now and find it every bit as effective at getting me up in the morning as my old BEEP!!!!!! BEEEP !!!!!!!! BEPPPP! alarm clock, without the mini heart attack I used to have every morning. Annnnd, in addition to the pleasant factor, it's also very handy. I've found myself turning on the lamp constantly in the middle of the night should I need to get up. The FM radio is really impressive, too. The device has great reception (comes with a wire antennae) and has surprisingly good audio quality. The video doesn't do it justice exactly, but there's actually some pretty good bass.
Here's a rundown of what I love about the Philips wake up light:
- Pleasant way to wake up
- Easy to use controls
- Lamp multi-purposeful
- Excellent quality radio
The only cons I can see are the price - a little hefty for an alarm clock, but you know if it's worth it. And the fact that it's a fairly big device and won't travel with you easily. It may not sit on your nightstand well, either, depending on how much room you have - BUT since it doubles as a lamp and radio you can actually replace those things with this one compact contraption!
Overall, I'm in love! I'm not at all a morning person so anything that can start my day better is worth its weight in gold.
117 of 123 found the following review helpful:
Great for sun wakers, alarm could use more features. Oct 14, 2010
By jennahw
I HATE getting up in the morning, and this thing has made it a little less painful, especially as we move into the winter months when it's still dark when I get up. I've always been able to wake easier when the sun is up, and that's the philosophy behind this wake up light.
Set a wakeup time, and the light will gradually start brightening to the setting you've picked over a span of about 20 minutes. You can choose the light brightness you wake up to - brightness goes from 1 (very low) to 20 (ridiculously blindingly high). Mine is set at about 7, though it could be a couple notches lower (maybe when it's not dark out when you need to get up, you need a higher setting). This gently and effectively wakes me up. I usually wake up before the brightest part (which is why I need to adjust it), but can easily go back to sleep for a bit as it brightens up and then wake up with the final brightness at the alarm sound, and I feel much less horrid than I usually do when I get up to a radio alarm.
If you need it (you don't HAVE to have it on), you can also add a sound. The sound only comes on at the alarm time (say, if you set your alarm for 7, the light will start at around 6:40, but the alarm sound won't come on until 7), but gradually gets louder. You can wake to FM radio, chirping birds, or (what I picked) the "lazy kettle drum band" as another reviewer described it. All very nice and not jarring.
I really like this alarm. It wakes my hubby up as well on days that I'm working and he's not, but the regular alarm woke him up, too, and this is less jarring to both of us. I much prefer it to the sudden jolt of the alarm, or even a gradual sound alarm alone. I used to find myself waiting and bracing myself for the sound of the alarm if I half-woke-up not too long before it, but now I can actually go back to sleep and not feel like I have to prepare myself for it. When you hit SNOOZE, the alarm sound goes off, but not the light (I'm honestly not sure what happens if you snooze and you don't have an alarm sound set, though!).
It loses one star because for the price, the alarm could be more fully featured. It's missing some simple features: dual alarm, weekday/weekend settings, auto reset (though you can train yourself to do this manually by flicking the alarm switch back down every AM after you turn it off), digital FM tuner, and memory for the light level so that the alarm can be at say 7, but the light alone at 15.
You can also use the lamp alone or the radio alone, so I was able to condense 2 things on my bedside table (alarm clock and light) into one, and this one is fairly attractive (some of these light alarm things are pretty ugly).
Extra note: the LCD setting also has 4 brightness settings, which is nice. I can't stand a super-bright LCD, and the lowest one is fine for me.
Hope that helps. I really like this thing. Though it's WAAAAY more than I would normally pay for an alarm clock, it's made my mornings so much nicer that I'd definitely buy another one if I needed to.
35 of 35 found the following review helpful:
Makes waking up in the dark a little more bearable. Oct 21, 2010
By Brian G
I've had this Wake-up light for about a week now, and I am very satisfied. I get up very early and always have a hard time getting going. This light greatly helps ease the transition into wakefulness.
While using this wake-up light, I often gently wake up just a few minutes prior to the audio alarm sounds start, which gives me the luxury of lying in bed for a few more minutes as I think about the upcoming day before I need to get out of bed. I really enjoy the bird-chirping alarm sound as well as the beeping which actually sounds more like a steel drum. I haven't used the radio, so I cannot speak to its quality.
Additionally, I feel much better when waking up to a lighted room. I know longer have to fight the urge to hit the snooze button over and over again.
Final note: I decided on this model after reading the reviews of a similar model (the Philips Hf3480). The reviews of it were initially very good, but a disturbing number of reviewers had come back to edit their reviews. Apparently the light bulbs were burning out quickly and could not be replaced. On this model, light bulb is replaceable, so if it burns out quickly, it will not be too much of an inconvenience.
Edit (on April 11, 2011): After about 6 months of use, the light bulb is still going strong, and I still love waking up to the light.
Edit again (on December 20, 2011): The original light bulb is still going strong. I'm still extremely satisfied.
29 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Best at this price. If you need something like this, it does the trick Nov 03, 2010
By Nelly J
Though it's expensive compared to many lamps (or alarm clocks), the Philips HF3470/60 is still at the lower end of the budget spectrum and offers excellent value for money.
Why it's great
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- Does what it says on the tin. Wakes you up in a state of near-perfect calm. I supplement the light function with the 'bird' alarm sound, which is delicate but assertive, and like the light builds from a low to more intense level. Haven't used the regular 'alarm' sound, or radio function
- The aesthetic quality of the light is very soothing. It's got a warm, buttery, heavenly glow.
- Feels solidly made (not cheap).
- Design is modern and clean - will probably work with most decor, apart from the most traditional. Light is emitted from its entire surface, which is probably a good way for it to get around. Still, it should be kept within about 1 - 1.5 feet of your head.
- Setting the time and alarm time is easy (but...)
One star taken off because:
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- Though you can use this as a night light, whatever setting you use is automatically used as the intensity level for the morning `wake up' light function. I like a dim light at night, and a bright one in the morning. Also, you have to manually turn it off at night, there's no timed 'sleep' function.
- It's probable that you'll accidentally turn off the alarm if you're careless when you flick the 'snooze' lever in the a.m., which means it won't work the next day. That one lever means radically different mornings for you - it's both the 'snooze' and 'alarm off' control. Check its position before going to bed! (Note for designers: in your next version at this price point, please just make two levers and put them in different places. Or make a lever and a button. Something!)
Nevertheless, I couldn't find anything comparable at this price. Cheaper models use 60 watt bulbs, which isn't strong enough. More comprehensive ones are just too expensive (Philips does a song-and-dance version that's also used for SAD, at I think triple the cost!). I shipped this to Canada and it was still cheaper than the next one up, locally.
Overall, this thing takes a bit of getting used to (again: before sleeping, 1) turn off the lamp, and 2) make sure the lever position is at 'on') but once it's set, is great at what it does.
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