Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White

This Philips Wake-Up Light with Colored Simulation alarm clock/bedside lamp is a eco-friendly addition to the sunrise alarm clock line because it has an LED light that never needs replacement, at least for 20 years.

The light a *cool* white light when turned on fully, or you get a cool peachish glow when it's on low. The light is too cool for my taste and I actually prefer the light from the older model because of it's warmer glow produced by a halogen bulbs. Also, the light seems to be aimed forward, so I get more shadows in my room, along with the cooler color. It's like the difference between the LED Christmas lights and the regular (incandescent) lights--one has an odd glow (LED) and the traditional is warmer and more natural looking. I truly wish LEDs looked better because they use so much less energy. If you like the light of the LED, this might just be the perfect wake-up light for you because of all it's awesome features.

The colored sunrise/sunset is closer to an amber orange than reddish. It's an odd color, but it's nicer than plain white. The best thing about this particular model is that the sunrise can be timed at between 20 & 40 minutes (previous model Philips HF3471/60 was limited to 30 minutes). Also, the dusk simulation can go as low as 5 minutes which is great for people who read until dozey.

If you like to snooze, this model has a pretty cool feature: you can touch any part of the face and it will snooze for 9 minutes. Because it's touch sensitive, so you don't have buttons on the front, but more of a touch screen-type face. There are buttons around the rim for setting the alarm and beginning the dimming process.

Another great feature is the clock face settings. I prefer to sleep in a very dark room and can get bothered by any light, including alarm clock faces. The Philips light gives you four options brightness, and their dim is quite dim. Plus it's a mellow orange, which is the color that is the least bright in a dark room. It also auto-dims, so when your lights are out, the clock face automatically dims. Smart, clever design. The time font looks fuzzier than the older model, and at night it is really pleasant. Side by side, I prefer this model's fuzzier type face.

It has 5 sounds to wake up to: bird chirps, jungle sounds, New-age sounds, some lovely Satie-style piano and wind chimes. All of these choices are appealing. It begins quietly, then gradually increases in volume. The sound choices are all so mellow that even at the loudest setting it's way better than any beep.

I've used these dawn-simulation alarms for 16 years and owned two BioBrite Sunrise Clocks, a Verilux Lamp/Alarm clock, an old Philip's model and the Philips HF3471/60. Philips is the brand I continue to go to because of their quality, design and warranty. BioBrite and Verilux just couldn't compare in either quality or features, and especially in longevity.

This newest Philips model has a few awesome features:

* Touch snooze, you can literally touch any part of the front of the light

* Modern, cool design, that is bright enough to read by so you don't need another lamp

* Philips makes the best wake-up simulation lights, this model being the best to date because of it's user-friendly features.

* This model is very intuitive and easy to set as soon as you plug it in

* Colored sunrise/sunset

* Two easily set and distinctly separated alarm settings

* 20-year LED bulb

The negatives:

* I dislike the color emitted from the LED light, the white is too cool for my taste. It's a deal breaker.

Everyone in my house has a Philips wake-up light and we all prefer them to traditional alarms. You don't need more than one of these per room, especially with this model which has two alarm time settings. Also, I've never had to replace a single Philips halogen bulb (previous models) and I own two older styles of Philips' wake-up lights.

This lamp is an expensive investment, but apparently the LED bulb is supposed to last 20 long years. I'd recommend this model ONLY IF you like the color that white LED lights emit. Otherwise, I'd recommend an older Philips model. They have fewer features, but a warmer glow.

(2008 HOLIDAY TEAM) I live in Seattle, which means I can go months at a time without ever seeing sunlight. Starting around late-September, I start waking up in the dark. By the time November hits, I wake up in the dark, go to work in the dark, spend the day inside an office building, and go home in the dark. It can be depressing.

I bought the Philips goLITE BLU Light Therapy Device a few years ago to see if it could help with the winter blues, and I was amazed at how well it works. It is like a concentrated shot of sunshine that wakes my body up in the morning and gets me ready for the day. I love it, and have learned to trust in these Philips light devices.

I have been wanting one of these "dawn alarm clocks" for awhile now to help with another problem; waking up in the pitch dark. No matter what time I go to bed, or how many hours I sleep, my body tends to reject the idea that it should be getting up when it is as dark as the inside of a closet. I have to put my alarm clock across the room and drag myself out of bed. It doesn't make for fun mornings. Could Philips help me again?

After using this "Philips Wake-up Light" for about a week know, I am happy to say that it is equally awesome. This is exactly what I have been wanting. Somehow, waking up in a lit room makes all the difference. And I dearly, dearly love the slow brightening. This isn't a sudden shock to your system, like someone flicking on the light switch. Your body is brought naturally out of sleep with a rising light level, so by the time you open your eyes it feels like it is time to get up.

There are plenty of options on this wake-up light, and I think everyone will need to fiddle with it awhile to see what works for them. The first time I used it, I set the light to full brightness and had it aimed for my face. It is bright!! Glaring!! So I ended up moving it across the room, and aiming the light at the far wall so that the light appears more natural and reflects off the wall. You can set the duration for a couple of different times. I haven't found much difference personally between the 30 and 20 minute settings. I suppose it depends on how light sensitive you are.

Along with the light, there are a couple of different alarm sounds, including a radio. The sounds are OK ... some bird song, a little white noise, some wind chimes, jungle sounds, and a couple of music pieces. I have been using the bird song, which I like. But the sounds were something I was disappointed with. I have another alarm clock that slowly raises the volume of the sound the same way this wake-up light slowly increases the brightness. It seems like a no-brainer to connect the two, so that the nature sounds come in slowly with the light. But that option is not available.

I also found programming the clock to be a bit of a pain. Like many modern instruction manuals, there are few written instructions, just images to guide you through the process. It took me awhile of tapping buttons to figure out how to get the clock and alarm set, and what my options are. It isn't as intuitive as it could be. But once it is set, it is set, so this is only a minor headache at the beginning.

There are some other cool features here. I love the touch-to-snooze feature. It almost makes it too easy to head back to bed! And I haven't played around with the "dusk" mode yet, as I generally don't have the same problem going to sleep as I do waking up. But it seems like a good idea. The light is definitely bright enough to read by, and I could see reading in bed while the light slowly dims as a good way to get sleepy.

So a few minor quibbles, but over all awesome. This is one of those devices I wish I had got years ago. It has improved my gloomy Seattle mornings immensely.

Buy Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White Now

I really did my homework on this one and weighed the pros and cons against the other models as well as competition's offerings. In the end, I went out on a limp and gave this one a shot and so far I am impressed.

Initial observations were that it seemed to be of a solid build quality with just the right amount of features for what I need. The instructions are pretty straight forward and if you've ever used a digital clock in your life you should be able to work your way through this with ease.

The first morning however, I did not awake to the light. Instead, I had birds chirping ridiculously loudly in my ear and a blinding light in my barely open eyes.... Ok, not what I was looking for at all.

Ok, I went back and tuned down the volume and increased the duration of the increasing light.

2nd morning a little better response. I awoke to the light, but it was already at almost peak brightness and then the birds started in.

(I figured I would give it another shot without making changes this time)

3rd morning significantly better. I realized I am training myself to become more sensitive to the light and my body is responding to the recreated sunrise better.

Some additional findings.

1. You have to be either facing the light or laying on your back with the light close enough to your peripheral to penetrate your eyelids and wake you naturally.

2. If you go to bed overtired or do not get enough sleep, this light WILL NOT work for you. I have tried it and found that I didn't wake up until the shrieking of my backup alarm on my cell phone and then I was being blinded and scream at by birds.

3. The 2nd Alarm is most likely useless for two people. I got all excited thinking she could use it as well, as she gets up an hour after I do. The problem is, in our queen bed, the light cannot reach from my nightstand to her eyes to have any effect on her waking up naturally.

4. Most of the sounds suck. There are only 3 that will serve as calming enough to fall asleep to or to wake up to naturally.

---I will update with more as time goes by----

Read Best Reviews of Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White Here

12/10/2012 Update I've had the new alarm in place for a few days now and all appears to be working well. Once again, I can't compliment Philips enough for their outstanding customer service. You can purchase this product with the assurance that it comes with top notch support if you ever encounter a problem.

12/4/2012 Update Philips saves the day. I called Philips (on a Sunday no less) and explained my issue to them. A very courteous and helpful rep assisted me. She carefully looked into the issue and possible causes before she deemed the lamp to be defective. She immediately shipped a replacement which is scheduled to arrive within the next 48 hrs. Everything from her wonderful attitude to the prompt service was stellar and in these days of waning customer service, not a small consideration when making a purchase. In any event, I felt the actions of Philips worthy of mention and look forward to trying the new light and functional snooze. The prompt problem resolution also improved my overall rating/view of the product.

12/1/2012 Update Apparently, my touch to snooze issue appears to be a defect. Others have pointed out that theirs works just fine from touching the front of the alarm. We haven't used the snooze in a while because we use both alarms and given our respective wake-up times, they pretty much act as a pseudo snooze anyhow (which solves our button dilemma since my wife just turns off the light after she wakes up first). I recently received a comment on my review from another user yet again reaffirming that the snooze works fine when they touch the front of their alarm. Well, I just tested my snooze nearly a dozen times. I tried touching both the top (light) and bottom (buttons) regions of the front. I touched it with little pressure, moderate pressure, one finger and every combination of fingers up to placing my entire palm on the front. It simply does not work. I also tested the snooze using both alarms 1 and 2 and it worked with neither. One curious thing I did just discover is that touching the rear only works if I touch it a certain way. Directly touching the rear of the clock (and nothing else) does nothing; however, when we reach around to touch the rear of the alarm from the bed, it works. The only theory I could somewhat prove is that our wrist apparently brush up against the outer edge of the alarm face when we reach toward the back of the alarm. I now believe it is this outer edge of the alarm face that is sensing our touch, not the rear. So to clarify, the outer edge of the front seems to work to snooze but nowhere else on the front works. And even though that part works, it's not as consistent as I initially believed it to be. If we used the snooze feature more, we would have noticed this earlier. Quite honestly, I'm disappointed given my previous experience with the reliability of my prior generation wake up light. The worst thing to experience after having numerous problems with a product in the past is to try the product again and realize it's defective right out of the box. I still like the light but the reliability forces me to drop it two stars. Maybe my own little star system will break it down better:

Satisfaction with product performance: ***** (This is purely how I love the way it wakes me up. As I said, we barely use snooze anyhow, so it's not very influential in this rating)

Satisfaction with product features: **** (button placement and other minor dislikes knocked one star off)

Satisfaction with product reliability: * (This is the snooze issue also taking into consideration my prior track record with wake-up lights)

Overall Satisfaction: *** (I love the light but a defective unit right out of the box would be a little easier to overlook had I not previously experienced so many issues with a prior wake-up light)

(Original review follows)

I previously had one of the earlier Philips wake up lights (the HF3480), which was somewhat of a disappointment. Although I loved the way it woke us up with soothing sounds and gentle lighting that gradually increased in intensity like natural sunlight, it wasn't very reliable mechanically. The main issue was the bulb. The bulb never seemed to last more than about 6 months and it wasn't user replaceable. My bulbs blew twice over a span of a year. Both times the bulb blew, I had to contact Philips, get an RMA, ship the lamp back to them on my own dime and await a replacement. To Philips' credit, at least the replacements were new, not refurbs, but it was a pain nonetheless. The third issue didn't involve the bulb but the radio. It turned on by itself one day and refused to turn off. I tried everything. In addition to fiddling with the knobs forever, I unplugged it numerous times, even allowing it to sit for days without power. When I plugged it back in, the radio came right back on, so I fiddled with the knobs some more but could not get it to turn off. I tried to live with it and still use the wake-up feature, but despite turning the radio volume all the way down, it would still make static and crackling noises until I finally couldn't take it anymore. I was unwilling to ship the lamp back to Philips a third time at my expense, so that was the end of the road for it in our household. I didn't even make it through the two-year warranty. You reach a point where even a lengthy warranty isn't worth the aggravation of constantly shipping it back for repair or replacement.

So, after passing on the subsequent later models, I decided to give the latest version a try through Vine. They've completely changed the form factor and the bulb is different as well. The HF3480 looked like a desktop humidifier and had a soft white bulb that gradually brightened. This model is shaped like a large floodlight and has a multi-color bulb that not only gradually brightens, but changes colors to mimic sunlight. When it first turns on, it's a low intensity reddish color. As it brightens, it progresses to a more yellowish color before topping out in a brilliant off-white that very accurately mimics the shine of sunlight through closed eyes. As was experienced with the last wake-up light, I am almost always awakened by the light before the actual alarm sounds start. The sounds begin after the light reaches full intensity. To me, it's the perfect way to wake. It's gentle, soothing and much less harsh than a traditional alarm. Here are my pros and cons of the new wake up light:

Pros

-----

Gentle soft warm soothing light that more closely mimics natural sunlight than it's predecessors.

Choice of soothing nature sounds (birds, wind, water), AM/FM radio, or a very soothing musical alarm. I prefer the musical alarm.

Although it looks like a floodlight from the side, it looks like a round stylish contemporary clock with orange dot-matrix display from the front.

Easy to set and touch to snooze option is great, as long as you touch the right part of the lamp (the rear. Touching the front does nothing, as we found out the hard way when we lost out on a snooze because we couldn't figure out why touching the lamp didn't work)

Very easy to use combination of touch sensitive and conventional buttons (except for snooze. See below cons)

Solid 2-year warranty

Cons

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Shaky reliability history. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this latest version. I will certainly update my review as needed, good or bad.

As already mentioned, you must touch the back portion of the body to snooze. When "touch to snooze" is touted as a feature, it might help to make it crystal clear you must touch the back because the front won't work)

Buttons, particularly the one to turn off the light, are hard to find by feel. If you truly want to snooze, you need to turn off the light, however, the buttons are very tiny and closely spaced to each other along the top of the clock. Because this is very brightly front-lit, it's almost impossible to see the buttons while the light is on in a darkened room. Because of the close spacing, feeling for buttons usually results in unintended results, like turning on the radio, as we've done a few times. Unless we get lucky, we usually have to turn on the desk lamp and lean over to find the light button. By the time we do all of that, we're pretty much already awake and no longer need the snooze. So much for stealing a few more minutes.

Although it looks stylish head-on from the front, any other angle makes it look like an oversized floodlight sitting on your nightstand

The clock is hard to read in bright light. I wish intensity was a little brighter. It's readable in dark or dimly lit rooms but gets washed out by moderate to strong light

So far, I am very happy with this wake up light. There absolutely is no better way to wake other than naturally, free of alarms, but sadly that's only a weekend luxury for me, if I'm lucky.

Given the fact that both the light and body style are totally different from the HF3480, I'm giving this wake-up light a fresh start. I won't "expect" it to break prematurely as I did with the HF3480. I'll allow the quality of this lamp to speak for itself. Hopefully, I like what it has to say.

Want Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation, White Discount?

The Philips HF3520/60 light meets one of its promises a fairly realistic simulation of a sunrise that can prove useful in waking up. What it doesn't do as well is to do much else, as an alarm clock, radio, or seasonal light. 3 stars for a still-useful device that misses on a few fronts.

Having used the portable Philips GoLite for circadian reset purposes while traveling most sleep doctors will tell you bright light exposure upon waking really helps I was eager to try a full spectrum light for home use. The results from the HF3520/60 are mixed.

What it does really well is to mimic a sunrise. It is a gentle but effective way to wake up, starting at red, progressing through orange and yellow to white. Really quite neat, and unique among any light boxes currently on the market.

What it doesn't do as well is to function as anything else. The alarm clock is ok, but as other reviewers have pointed out the buttons are far, far too small you risk knocking it off your night stand trying to push them, and setting the alarm isn't particularly intuitive. The sounds on the alarm clock aren't graduated, nor are there many of them; in general, something like the alarm on the Zeo Mobile provides a much more pleasant audio wake up if the light doesn't do so, and it's odd that Philips didn't take this into account while designing the HF3520.

It's also disappointing that there's no AM radio or 2.5mm headphone jack to allow external devices. For more audio options than the weak FM radio, Philips clearly wants consumers to purchase the more expensive HF3550, with the presumption that they own an Iphone 4 or below to pipe in audio. It's theoretically possible to buy a third-party FM modulator for a workaround, but that's an awful lot of effort to put in to achieve the same functionality in an expensive device that most cheap $20 alarm clocks provide out of the box.

Most importantly, even at full intensity the 300 lux light is enough to wake up most people but is far too weak to provide the recommended light dosage for morning exposure. Putting this side-by-side with the older 10000 lux Britelite 6 is like comparing the sun to a candle. Even the little GoLite puts out a far more powerful lux than this. As such, it really isn't useful for anything more than just waking you up, and that's a shame.

3 stars for the narrow but useful niche it occupies. A neat way to get your eyes open but not much more.

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