Setting up the HF3250 can be tedious. Adjusting the time, sounds, and the screen’s contrast requires pressing through a touch screen with opaque commands like Menu and Select and other vague symbols. This minimal interface makes using it unintuitive and surprisingly challenging.
In addition, turning an alarm on and off or changing the light’s brightness requires fiddling with tiny buttons along the clock’s rim that are exactly the size of my fingertip. These can be challenging to navigate when you’re groggy from sleep, let alone if you have dexterity issues or are waking up in the dark.
If these annoyances would frustrate you too, consider either of our sunrise alarm clocks worth considering, the WiiM Wake-Up Light or Hatch Restore 2, which can be programmed with companion apps. But they’re more expensive, have weaker lights, and come with other drawbacks that kept them from being picks in our latest testing.)
Annie Chou, a senior updates writer who did the most recent round of testing on the sunrise alarm clock guide, noted that it’s also rather top-heavy, so it’s easy to accidentally knock the clock over while trying to find the right button. This happened to me more when I was first getting used to it, but I can’t recall an incident in the past two years.
The LED light in the HF3520can’t be replaced when it goes out, so you have to replace the entire clock if it dies. Philips’s product development team said that the clocks are “tested to last for seven years with regular use.”
And though the HF3520 creates a luxurious wake-up experience, its gentleness may not be enough to cause you to rise from bed.
“It wakes me up but does not get me up—sometimes I just sit there and bask in the glow,” says Julia Bush, social and community manager. Consider placing it across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off, or reinforce it with more-disruptive alarms—assuming your partner is okay with it.
This article was edited by Rachelle Bergstein and Catherine Kast.
