Good daylight alarm, worst user interface imaginable
This functions well as daylight alarm. It's best feature is that the LED's arc out over the bed and shine down, as opposed to other models which shine straight out horizontally, which means you have to be on your side facing the lamp when the alarm goes off or else the light won't actually reach your eyes and wake you up. And the head on this lamp swivels, which makes it even better for increasing the chance the light will be pointing at your eyes when the alarm turns the light on. So, of the 3 models of daylight alarms I've tried, this one wins hands down in actually waking me up with the light.<br /><br />BUT: this lamp has the absolute worst user interface imaginable. Zoom in on the control panel in the main picture and look at the controls. Now guess how you turn the alarm on on Sunday night and off on Friday night. Go ahead, guess - I'll wait.<br /><br />Did you figure it out? No, of course you didn't. Because it's completely un-figure-out-able. To turn the alarm on or off, first press and hold the top left button (which, mysteriously, has two overlapping squares) until the border around the top left indicator icon in the display starts flashing, then let go. Then press and release the same button again to make the border around the next indicator icon down start flashing. Then press the second button on the left (which looks like a gear) to make that second icon either start or stop flashing (flashing means the alarm is enabled, not flashing means the alarm is disabled). Then wait 15-30 seconds for your change to take effect. Could you ever possibly have guessed that from looking at the controls? Absolutely not. Why doesn't it just have an &#34;alarm on / off&#34; switch? Seriously. What on earth were they thinking?<br /><br />Want to know what time the light will turn on in the morning (or, more accurately, at what time the light will be at full strength)? Care to guess by looking at the controls / panel? Don't bother. Because YOU CAN'T TELL WHAT TIME THE ALARM'S SET FOR WITHOUT SETTING THE ALARM TIME. Care to guess how to set the alarm time? Don't bother - you will literally never guess.<br /><br />I could go on, but you get my point. I use this every weekday as my alarm, because, at least at the time I bought it (July 2014), it was the only daylight alarm that allowed me to direct the light towards my eyes in the likely event that I'm not lying on my side directly facing the lamp at 6:30 am. But if you buy this, be prepared to read the user manual a few times. And definitely keep the manual next to the light for a month or so until you get used to using the absolute worst user interface ever conceived for an alarm clock. Oh, and be patient. Very patient. Because just turning the alarm on or off, which should happen with the flick of a switch, instead takes at least half a minute.
Rating: 3 stars