A couple of years ago, I bit the bullet and got one of the fancy Philips models. I have not looked back since!
When I had a normal alarm clock, waking up was constantly the worst time of the day. I felt miserable, hated everything and the world, it was really bad. After I had a shower and breakfast, it was ok again.
Now with the Philips clock, things have improved dramatically. I feel ok when I’m waking up, the bitterness of the past has completely gone. If I had to name a couple things which improved my life a lot, the Philips clock would be among them, next to my car and my e-bike.
I have a model with two separate alarms and a radio tuner. The buttons are hard to see from the front, so I drew some marks with a sharpie to be able to spot them quickly. The UI is ok when one has set it up once or twice. I set the alarms a few minutes before the half or the full hour to be able to hear the news while being fully contious, like at xx:25 and xx:55. These alarms can be quickly switched on with one respective button for each. When the alarm is switched on, the hours of it can immediately be adjusted without UI hassle, which I like. So depending if I like to be woken up at the half or full hour, I enable the one or the other alarm and set the hour quickly. I just have to remember to switch it off for the weekend, but I rarely forget it as it is clearly displayed which of the alarms is enabeled or not.
What would be nice to have considering the price point is a battery backup for memory and as a power source for an emergency beeping alarm so one is not late during a blackout, but since we rarely have them in Germany it is not really an issue. I have my old alarm clock as a backup, though.
So, every morning nowadays I am gently waking up to an artificial sunrise and my favorite radio station, and my life is alot better.
I definitely can recommend it!