
Philips’ is known for creating award-winning innovative health and wellness tech that’s reliable and easy to use, from electric toothbrushes to electric razors.

It’s an admirable quality, and they will survive the winter, but they said the clock’s gentle sunrise couldn’t get the job done. Not everyone is equipped to be gently roused from dreamland-some folks need to be ripped from sleep with the speed and volume of a freight train barreling down the tracks. I have a handful of friends who sleep like the dead. Another point to consider is how heavily you sleep. It also lacks smart features and ports to charge your phone-though depending on how you feel about keeping your bedroom tech-free, that may be more of a feature than a flaw. As we mention in our guide to sunrise alarm clocks, its ovular, oblong shape is a little bulky and takes up quite a bit of nightstand real estate. The SmartSleep HF3520 isn’t without flaws. Whether you’re reading or simply lying in bed, it’s a nice way to ease yourself into sleep versus just shutting off the lights and calling it a night. It has a sunset function that works in the exact reverse of the sunrise, slowly dimming over 30 minutes until it’s totally extinguished.
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The SmartSleep HF3520 also has a radio (though, admittedly, I have never used it), and our reviewer said it sounded just as good as that of our upgrade pick and can even work as one of the alarm tones.īesides tools to help you wake up, the SmartSleep HF3520 is equipped to guide you to sleep, as well. Although hitting snooze on your alarm can be a recipe for disaster (I won’t even check the time if I wake up in the middle of the night), you can trigger it by merely touching the face of the clock. You can control every function on the clock by touching the face or pressing the small arrangement of buttons along the top and sides. (I said I was a morning person-not a high-functioning morning person.) In fact, I’m so unfamiliar with the alarm tones that I once forgot to turn off the secondary alarm and let it play out for about an hour-all the while wondering why there were so many birds outside. All of the sounds are reasonably pleasant, but if I’m being honest, the light is effective enough on its own for me.

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It includes five different sounds ranging from birds to piano music, plus more meditative tones. In addition to the sunrise feature, this Philips alarm clock is equipped with a myriad of alarm tones that trigger after the light. Overall, the experience is a much more satisfying and humane journey into the waking world.

Over the course of 30 minutes, that hue gradually grows into a warmer yellow and then finally a bright white light.

Some sunrise clocks use a white light that can be a bit of a shock to the system, but the SmartSleep HF3520 starts with a red-tinted color that’s much less jarring. In lieu of a traditional alarm, a sunrise alarm clock helps you gently greet the day by simulating the rising sun, starting with a soft glow that slowly blooms into a bright light. It’s beauty, it’s grace, it’ll wake you up without screaming in your face.
