Altec Lansing Alarm Clock Bluetooth Speaker w/USB Charging Ports for Smartphone

I use this device as my beside clock, radio, and alarm in addition to its Bluetooth speaker function. The audio sounds good and the wireless charging feature is a great convenience. Neither of those two things however can overcome this units biggest downfall and that is its shockingly bad user interface. User interaction with the device is not at all intuitive. NOTHING works as you expect and you will find yourself frequently digging through the manual to figure out how to accomplish even the most basic of tasks. The engineer who designed the UI must be a complete moron and I can't believe this thing passed usability testing. This unfortunate shortcoming spoils what could have been an awesome set of features in one device. Unfortunately the features are useless if it takes 20 minutes to remember what magic sequence of non-intuitive button presses it takes to use them. Very disappointed with what could have been a great device.Update: wireless charging function stopped working 1.5 months after purchase

My five star rating is purely on the sound of this clock radio. The one page instructions are primitive and may require a magnifying glass. It has the typical deficiencies of most of today's digital products. The setup with five buttons is a little like learning to play notes on a clarinet or learning to key Morse Code. I would prefer that they just had menu, OK, and up/down buttons. The defaults are 24 hour clock and degrees Centigrade. The buttons are impossible to read in anything except bright light. The display dimming when room lights are switched off is great. The soft/escalating volume on the alarm/radio is great. The number of FM stations retained in memory is great (We have 27.).

The main reason for purchasing this unit was the built-in inductive charging on a clock. I just wanted to get rid of excess cables on my nightstand. This unit looked to fit my need perfectly. Initial problem the day I brought it home was the user interface. While the instructions look simple, it's like putting IKEA furniture together with instructions translated from Swedish by a Chinese interpreter. Once the unit was configured and synched with my phone, it worked great, for less than 60 days. By that time the inductive charger failed. There are three convenient USB ports on the front, so I bit the bullet and just plugged my charging cable into them. That worked for nearly 6 months. Now it won't charge anything properly. It's obvious the internal charging circuit is at fault watching my phones power cycle on and off continuously.This is not what I expected, especially from an ALTEC Lansing product. Bought an iHome clock charger for less than half the price and it's been working rock solid since. Disappointing to say the least.

Just like some other reviews the wireless charging base on top stopped working two weeks after I opened. The wireless charging base was the main reason I selected this unit. I tried to unplug and plug the unit back in but no luck. Obviously a factory defect. If you need the wireless charging base, DON'T BUY THIS UNIT!!!!!

Bluetooth connected and it Sounds Great. Wireless worked great for one night. Tried to use a second night it started charging, but when I woke in the morning it was not charging and phone was charged less than when I put it on. Very disappointed. Altec Lansing made my favorite speakers I have ever used.

What a disappointment! If I could give a “minus” star I would. No way to adjust the display brightness. A number of the (apparently) fake reviews describe the radio as having a dim display which is what I wanted. But it’s not dim, it lights up the room at night. There is no obvious way to turn down the brightness and no description given in the instructions. While searching the web for more info on how to dim the display, I landed on the “Fakespot” web site which graded the (all 5 star) reviews for this with an “F”. Meaning they were likely cooked. I went back and checked the reviews on Amazon again, all were written within 4 days of each other. Back to the product: the radio reception is not great. It can barely receive the strongest station in the area that my old radio pulled in with ease. There is nothing intuitive about the various digital settings and set up. A combination of clicks, press and hold. No am/PM designation. REminds me of the old Seinfeld “clock radio” episodes in spades. There are more ways to mis set this alarm than it has button combinations. I was originally attracted to the USB connector and the cordless charging capability, mistakenly assuming the basics were covered. Conclusions: 1.) This baby is going back 2.) I’m done with Altec and their BS marketing & design. And 3.) Most disappointing, Amazon your reviews process let me down. How about getting an automated screener like Fake spot?

This is not good. We had this for two days and the charger quit working, after 2 days! The controls are not at all intuitive, you practically have to keep the manual out to set the alarm. It is also way too bright. It has an auto dimming feature with a light sensor, which is nice, but still way too bright at night.

Wireless charging was like 80% of the reason why I bought this thing, and it stopped working after 2 days!! That sucks because I had already thrown away the packaging and couldn't return it because I expected much better quality from Altec. Lesson learned.