Reviews for Philips DC390 Dual Dock Clock Radio with Remote

One of the most frustrating products I can remember. I was excited to find this product because it's hard to find a clock radio/iPhone dock w FM radio -- and the presets and iPad dock seemed like huge bonuses. But the user experience was just plain awful.

- I could not figure out how to set the alarm -- and no, I'm not electronically challenged. Here's an example. I like to wake up to the radio, but when I toggled through the "source" options, it only offered waking up to dock 1 or dock 2. It does not toggle to Tuner, though the manual says it will.

- Next I tried to play music thru the dock and got no sound -- even though the phone was charging. The remote would play, pause, toggle thru menus...but no sound. Finally I jiggled the phone in the dock, and it started to play. Problem resolved, right? Wrong. Now that the unit was playing, the controls no longer worked. I could not pause or resume; I could not skip tracks; could not go back to the beginning or a track. Nothing. Not w the remote, not with the main unit.

- Radio tuning is the worst I've ever encountered. You can "search" for the next signal on the dial, but to tune by number. To go from 93.9 to 90.7, you have to click down each 1/10th. 93.9, 93.8, 93.7....32 clicks down to 90.7. You can not press and hold to scroll down. I won't even describe how flawed the process of settin presets is.

-iPad is hard to dock. Philips says it will work w the smart cover, and it does, but w the smart cover closed, you can't easily linr up the port w the connector. I tried it w the cover flipped back, but could not get it to dock that way at all. So to dock the iPad and then view it (a slide show would be nice, I thought) you have to dock it w the cover closed, then manipulate it past dock 1, and then weave it thru the ckear plastic support. It's doable - but you wouldn't bother very often.

This is a clock radio, for God's sake. You should even need to -look- at the manual, but I found myself going back to it again and again .... and the functions didn't even work once I figured them out.

I'm truly dumbfounded by how poorly this thing is designed: a winning combination of a defective unit and a ridiculously difficult UI. Too bad.

I bought this for a bedside alarm clock that can serve as a radio/music player.

Pros:
Looks great!
Great sound for its size (just don't push it too loud)
Lots of options for setting alarms (example: alarm loudness)
You can dim the front panel
Searches and sets preset radio stations

Cons:
Poor design had me grabbing for the manual to set the alarm
It needs a iPad/Phone app for setting the alarm or alarm options (It would be allot easier)
When using any of the music options on the unit it resets the LCD brightness
FM radio only (no AM signal tuner, not a big deal)
LCD is hard to see at angles and lacks contrast

Just not a well thought out product, example: buttons for setting system time (labeled time) are not the same for setting the alarm time? Wha? Looks great but usability is lacking. It's sad because it could be a knock out hit but feels like the company rushed the product to market too quickly. It is desperately needing a app that can interact with the radio.

I give this four stars but really it should be three and a half stars. I wish there were more options for radio/alarm/ipad clocks but since I have not found any better than this, it'll get a begrudged four stars.

We bought this as a Christmas present for my son on Black Friday. It was a featured product during the one day event. He has the latest generation iPod touch with the latest update of iOS 5.

Even though it is clearly listed as a compatible device, IT DOES NOT WORK WITH iPod touch with iOS 5.0.1.

"dual docking system lets you experience rich, clear sound from your iPod, iPhone, or iPad—while charging two of them at once."

His iPod touch charges in either Dock 1 or Dock 2, but neither one will allow music to be played through the accessory. It displays the error "The accessory is not supported by iPod touch." whenever you first attempt to play music.

At first, I thought the radio was just defective. Then I tried two different iPhone 4S, two iPad 2, and another latest gen iPod touch that has not yet been upgraded to iOS 5. ALL of them worked fine to play back music. But as soon as I connect my son's iPod touch, I get the same error message with no music playing off the speakers.

From this, it appears that iOS 5 removes DC390 iPod touch support for latest gen iPod touch. (both iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are running iOS 5.0.1)

I don't want to return the radio because my son loves it and the sound is pretty good for an alarm clock. If it worked as indicated by the listed device support it would have received a 4 out of five star rating.

Additional review comments:

1. Sound quality is nice and can be loud if desired.
2. Radio and remote are convenient and nicely built, but with sub-par user interfaces (UI).
3. The UI for the radio is not very intuitive. The controls are not well labelled for setting the time, alarm, or programming radio station presets. You will likely need to use the manual to set it up or make changes to common settings.
4. The LCD panel is not very easy to see due to a very narrow viewing angle. (not sure what to expect from $150 radio)
5. The dimming feature is nice, but is trumped by the poor visibility.

Researched this purchase quite a bit up front, and thought this was hands-down the better product. The finishes are great, not cheap and plastic from the large majority of the competition. The sound is great, works perfectly as an alarm, and it recognizes a playlist specifically for the unit if you create one--otherwise it randomly selects from your music.

The instructions for setting up alarms was a bit vague, but with perserverance it works very well. The alarm feature allows for weekend, M-F, or seven day alarms. You can set up two different alarms.

Con (for me) was no AM band for the radio, but not a deal-breaker.

I would recommend this to anyone that is OVER charging cables everywhere, wants to charge two devices at a time, likes to wake to music, and wants a nice clock in the room. Looks and works great!

I bought it last week i can't get it to work. 19 out of 20 times I get "The accessory is not supported by iPad" error message on my iPad2. Looking at other reviews, some other people experience the same problem. Anyway, Can you help me Please?no problem with my i phone 4'

Maybe I am the one can't get it to work. 19 out of 20 times I get "The accessory is not supported by iPod touch" error message on my iPod. Looking at other reviews, it seems other people experience the same problem. Anyway, I will return this.

From the moment I opened the box I was impressed, this clock looked like a much more expensive unit, the sound quality is close to the quality of the Bose Wave Radio. Easy to setup and the time sync with my iPhone was fantastic. Overall a great unit, and at $50 off the regular price it was well worth the purchase that I bought 2 of them.

Good sound, and plays any apple product! Two at a time, charges both. Hands down best dock ever! At a reasonable price. I only paid $109 for mines,because of the sale on black friday. With tax and all!And it came fast to my house. Im listening on my iPad 2, and iPod nano, and soon to come iPod touch.

Just got this today and so far I really like it. Everything is working fine. I put in my iphone 2g and iphone 4 and they both work well. I have been looking around for a clock/dock for awhile now and finally made my decision to buy this.

Pros:
- Looks really nice and sleek
- Sound quality is excellent
- Supports my iphone 4
- Has an auxiliary port so I can plug in other mp3 players such as my old Zune
- Has a remote that works well even at far distances.
- Did I mention the sound quality is really nice?
- I'm able to dock the iphone with the case on it.

Cons:
- None so far, but I will update this after I have used it some more.

I've had this unit for a week now, and have not had any of the problems mentioned by the first reviewer. It basically works as advertised (but see caveat below about the alarm).

Dock 1 supports an iPhone or iPod; Dock 2 supports an iPhone, iPod, or iPad. (This is all spelled out in Philips's documentation, available on their website.) My iPhone 3GS docks easily in its case, and my iPad 2 can be docked with its Smart Cover on (it can also be docked with the Smart Cover folded around to the back side). A bulkier case on an iPad might be a problem. Docking the iPad takes some practice to line up the connector just right (probably true of other iPad docks as well).

Sound is very good for a unit so compact.

I was worried about display brightness (I've found some clocks too bright to sleep when they're next to the bed), unnecessarily as it turns out. There are four settings--full, medium, dim, and off--and I can sleep fine on the dim setting. For some reason some actions make the display revert to full brightness, but it's easy enough to dim it again just before I go to bed.

One caveat: Mostly the instructions are clear, but I find the alarm settings a little confusing. When I've set the alarm to play from my iDevice, it has usually worked, but a couple of times it hasn't come on--I think there's some requirement about setting up the iPhone or iPad that isn't clearly spelled out, and which I haven't figured out yet.