Reviews for Philips DC290 Docking Clock Radio with Remote

The clock has pretty good sound if you follow the advice of the other reviewer. Use the EQ on your iPhone/iPod and set on bass reducer, with the clock set to rock (or other applicable setting). Otherwise you have to leave the clock equalizer on "flat", which sounds tinny and flat. There is way too much bass if you use the any other clock EQ setting without the bass reducer on.

As for the rest, the only thing I dislike is that the clock automatically plays the iPod as soon as you plug into the dock. REALLY annoying if your spouse is sleeping when you plug in for the night, and 3 seconds later loud music turns on. The manual says nothing about this so I suppose it could be a fluke with this unit, but it does the same with iPod classic or iPhone 4. This seems completely ridiculous for a unit you are supposed to use at night. All I can do is plug in and then quickly hit the standby button before it turns on. I will be calling philips to ask about this deal breaker. If they all do this it is unbelievably dumb. . If it were not for this issue I would heartily recommend it; for now I would say take this into account when purchasing. I will either be returning or exchanging mine.

133 of 149 people found this useful

Overall I'm disappointed in the DC290. I bought it recently to replace my iHome IP90 that suddenly died. Compared to the iHome, the sound of the Philips is better, but otherwise I prefer the iHome. I like going to sleep with white noise from a white noise app on my iPhone, and waking up to regular FM radio, The white noise part works fine, but getting the radio to turn on in the morning has proven difficult. Usually it just doesn't work at all, though it did for a few days until the need to switch to daylight savings time caused whatever I'd done to get it working to be undone again. The settings in general are not intuitive, and poorly explained in the manual, in contrast to the iHome where everything is more straightforward.

On the other hand, the sound quality, while not as good as a Bose or Tivoli, is quite good, and reception for the FM only radio is quite good too.

33 of 34 people found this useful

I have an IPod Touch. I bought this unit to wake to music I like. I followed the one manual direction to use my Touch as the alarm sound source by creating a playlist called Philips, but found no other directions for the Touch. I didn't know if it had to be on; and if it did, if I had to start the Music app; and if I did, if I had to select the Philips playlist. I tried all manner of combinations, but only got the alarm to work the way I wanted by leaving the Music app running all night and then waking to whatever tune was playing when the alarm went off. The Philips chat line was useless; the Apple people tried but don't really know the product. I'm going to keeping searching for the answer, and if it doesn't exist, return the radio!

35 of 41 people found this useful

I was happy with this alarm clock for the first year, although I could never get it to play the right playlist. Sound quality is decent and I liked a lot of the features: dual alarms, screen dims all the way, iPhone charging... It worked fine for a little over a year but then, out of the blue, it stopped charging my phone. Conveniently this was about a month after the warranty was up. When I talked to Philips, the representative could give me no troubleshooting advice except to unplug the device.

26 of 26 people found this useful

This clock radio produces good sound, isn't difficult to setup, and has multiple alarms so weekends can be set differently. Bass response is better than most, although it's not a Bose. Volume is adequate, and overall the unit exceeded my expectations. The remote control is nice, but maybe a little redundant if the radio is located on your nightstand.

There are a couple of annoyances. One is the device, in my case an iPhone, begins playing when I put the phone in the dock. There are times when I don't want music, only to charge my phone, so it would be nice to have the option to disable. The second is the display brightness. It is adjustable with the remote but each time you power off the unit it returns to default brightness, which is too bright for sleep. Moreover, if you have a case of just about any type it probably will prevent the iPod or iPhone from docking properly.

Overall, I would recommend this to a friend. It's features and performance are very acceptable and surpassed my expectations.

20 of 22 people found this useful

I bought this accessory because it advertised that it would sync the time on the alarm clock with the iPhone automatically while it charged your phone and then wake you gently in the morning at the right time with a fully charged phone. Neither is true with iOS5. I can't believe Apple sells this device on its web site and in its stores, and won't support it. Apple - please update!

19 of 25 people found this useful

The first thing you should know is that this radio does NOT receive AM broadcasts. It is FM only. Had I know that, I would not have purchased it. I have since returned it to Apple. But I did use the radio for a few days, and the sound quality was okay but nothing like a Bose Wave Radio. It sounded "tinny" to me, but then again, I have a picky ear. If you are an audiophile, you will not like this radio. The sound just isn't there.

The other problem with this radio is that the controls are unnecessarily complex. I can usually figure out how to program things without a manual, however, with this unit I had to get the manual to figure out how to set the date, time, and pre-set stations. If you like your clock to display the "24 Hour" time (for example, 1815 instead of 6:15PM), then the date will show up goofy on the display and there is no way to change it. With the 24 Hour clock, it will display December 5th as "5-12". But if you go to the "normal" clock mode (ie, 6:15PM) then the date will display as "12-5". The date is always turned on--you can't turn it off. So it makes the front display look very "busy".

I do not recommend this product. The controls are ridiculously complex for something so small that is supposed to be simple to operate. By the way, for the FM pre-sets, you can't jump to (for example) "Preset 9". You have to scroll (slowly) through each preset. If you want Preset 9, then you have to scroll through Preset 1, Preset 2, Preset 3, Preset 4, etc, etc, etc...There is no way to jump to a preset. The whole thing has been designed very poorly.

14 of 22 people found this useful

After reading the reviews for this alarm clock I was really excited to get it.

To bad it was a let down.
I couldn't set the alarm on the unit itself, only with the remote (you're supposed to be able to on the unit).
I would turn the music power off and the music, iphone or radio would turn back on by itself.

The radio did get great reception.

Obviously I returned the item. I purchased the ihome i90 and it works great

20 of 46 people found this useful