Philips HF3510/01 Sunrise Simulation Wake-up Light

A sunrise simulator must achieve two things as a minimum - a bright enough light to wake you and of a pleasant enough tone of light to greet you with when you awake. This Philips does this pretty well. If I was being picky, I would say it could cast a bit more light into the room which helps if you are not laying facing the lamp at the appropriate time. It's not dark by any means, but the brightest effect is when it's it your face.The effect achieved by the Philips has traditionally been achieved by an incandescent light bulb - the LED ones I have tried to date have been rubbish. The problem with the old filament bulb versions was that for safety they switched off again after 15 minutes as they could get hot (and cause a fire).The description is slightly misleading, but actually against the device (IMO). It starts a dark yellow and brightens to a warm white, not a yellow. This is quite a feat for an LED unit - to start yellow and change colour just like an old halogen bulb as it brightens. It may help explain the price.It is nice that when you switch the alarm on it gives you both a reminder and immediate option to dial the time earlier or later, with hours and minute options, so quick changes are easy.As for the niggles:-Not the easiest controls to understand.Very flat side buttons - impossible to recognise at any distance or by touch - you will have to get to learn where they are or look very closely until you get used to that.No preset FM stations - you set one and use that. For many that will be fine on a bedside radio - I guess 95% of people use the same wake up station day in and day out. Auto clock display brightness would be nice, but flicking it down manually through the options is easy enough.Bottom line - does everything that it needs to do and better than the old market leader, and indeed better than Philips older versions - hopefully with far better reliability than the "other make" I used to use.If you have not used one of these before and have trouble waking in winter - BUY ONE. Don't go cheaper - this is worth it and they don't all achieve the desired result.

I keep my bedroom pitch black for superior sleeping and I hate alarm clocks. I've been considering this for more than a year and finally bought it a few weeks ago. I am very pleased with it for the most part. I like the slow brightening (and that it's adjustable, as the slightest light will wake me up) and, unlike some, I don't have a problem with the bird sounds--the option I chose sounds just like the birds outside my window here in France, right down to the cuckoo (which thankfully isn't incessant on the recording the way it is in real life). And bird calls are repetitious, so I'm not sure why there were complaints that this was on some sort of overly noticeable loop every few seconds. It's very realistic.Downsides: remembering which button on the perimeter is what takes a little time, unnecessarily (in my opinion) exacerbated by the fact that the symbols are white on white, making it very hard to see unless you pick up the clock and pivot it in your hands. I think outlining the symbols/letters in black would be very helpful. I'd also like to be able to turn off the alarm without having to manually reset it for the following day but that's a minor issue; you just have to remember to press the alarm button twice instead of once, if you want to set it again. Oh, I'm also very surprised that there isn't a battery backup on this and that it all has to be manually reset every time the power goes out. (We get frequent hiccups in the power here in France, which is always throwing off my internet router, for one, so having to repeatedly reset is tiresome and, in this day and age, unnecessary.)But beyond that, I love the gentle awakening. I thought some were exaggerating in how it improves their mood but not being jarred awake abruptly and instead feeling like you're waking up naturally is a huge boon mood-wise, and for this alone I would highly recommend this type of alarm clock to anyone. Overall: thumbs up!

The one I bought was the 3510/01 (brightest one without the extra useless features). This is definitely the best wake-up light alarm.I love wake-up lights because I think they stop my eyes from stinging when i have to get up when its dark. You can just open your eyes and you don't have that glaring horrible feeling like someone just turned on a light, because your eyes have already become accustomed. I have had three wake up lights over the years. I've had 1st gen philips one before, then i tried a pure digital, now i've gone back to this one.My old philips' bulb blew and rather than pay for a new bulb, i thought it would be better to get a DAB one, so I bought the Pure...The Pure one broke and smashed. I didnt like it because the light came on too quickly. The light increments where rubbish (dark, BRIGHT). At full brightness it wasn't really very bright (except first thing in the morning when you're sensitive to it) and it was white light which isnt very nice in a bedroom.The new Philips. The alarm is a nice harp sound (or you can have birds or radio), unlike the older model that had bird chirping but sounded like electro-shock therapy. The incremental LED lights go up to 300 lumins, which is actually very bright, but you can set the alarm to light up as much (or little) as you like. The LEDs are warm white, which is much nicer for a bedroom imo.Cons: So typical of wake-up lights (except ironically, because I didnt like it the Pure), it's flimsy build considering the stupid high price. The buttons are fiddly as hell, but you can feel where they are and you get used to it quickly enough, but they're still fiddly.As it happens I got mine for £50 from amazon warehouse and they did come down to about £50 brand new during the black friday period in 2014.Hope this helps.