If you really want your sunrise light and alarm clock to be the same device, I’m still suggesting you stick with Philips. That said, let me talk about the bad news at the start.
First thing I don’t like is the look. It’s ugly. No matter how good it is as a sunrise clock, it reminds me of the Donald Trump-Saudi orb. Second thing I don’t like are the controls. An alarm clock needs big and fat buttons. The little rim around the orb doesn’t do it, and the front controls are awkward as well.
The controls are fixed if you use the app, which I expect anyone getting a smart alarm clock to do. Though it’s different from the Philips Hue app I mention above, you can feel the same infrastructure. It’s easy to set and edit your wake ups, even if difficult to snooze in the morning.
After all the secondary experience stuff, you have to give it to Philips for the actual sunrise portion of this clock. It starts in a deep, deep red, and it finishes at a blinding cool white. The Loftie lamp below does something similar, but the angle and power of this Philips light really put it in sunrise territory.
Other bonuses I like are the price and the FM radio. It’s a bit cheaper than the other options, and sometimes I think walking up to the news is the best way to go. Soothing voices that have some sort of immediate narrative always help pull me out of sleep. All in all, we’ve got some flaws, but functionally this is the best representative for the fake sunrise experience.
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