Reviews for Philips DC390 Dual Dock Clock Radio with Remote

I love that this has dual docks for iPad and iPod. However, two important featurea are missing: no AM radio and no battery backup!!!

perfect size, great sound...exactly perfect for my desk @ work

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.

I really love this clock radio. My older radio had problems picking up my local NPR stations. I use NPR as my wakeup alarm. I was nervous about the radio reception quality because I haven't seen anyone else mention how good it is. The signals are strong and clear. And WOW, the sound is really great with nice bass and full midtones. I also love the gradual volume on the alarm. no loud shocking noise when it goes off. The other features are well thought out and user friendly too. After much research on which is the best iPhone clock radio This DC390 model by Philips is the "clear" winner.

its awesome that i can charge my iphone and ipad on it but the soung quality is not that good.

This product is not good because of the low quality LED that causes the display screen to flicker.

The display is the most important feature in a product such as this. As such, it is not worth the price.

I've had several docks since my first iPod in 2005. I've owed iHomes, Sony docks, and Bose, but this one, is the coolest, easiest, nicest one I've owned. It's great to charge both my 4S and iPad 2 at once. I wouldn't trade it for another dock.

I had heard bad reports of Philips's reliability--sadly, this proved them right. I barely had this a year. It quit playing music from my iPhone, none of the buttons on the unit would work if anything was docked to it, and as of yesterday the display looks like it's written in Klingon. Even when it was working, the radio reception never was very good, and it is a pain to dock the iPad--you have to line it up just so. I won't be buying Philips anymore!

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!