American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock
Customer Review: Great clock for adults and students alike
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using the Neverlate Executive for nearly a year, and have been very happy with all of its features. My wife and I often have different schedules, so it has helped each of us maintain our own sleep patterns when the needs arise.
The alarm is pleasant but effective, and the display is easy to read from across the bed or room.
I'd highly recommend this product for a working adult or a student who has a mixed schedule.
Customer Review: Great clock, but doesn't live up to its potential
Summary: 4 Stars
I generally only review a product if it's really bad, really good, or as in this case, a very good product with lots of room for improvement to make it even better. I've only owned and been using this product for a few days, so this is a preliminary review, but so far I have noticed a lot of both good and bad with it.
First, there are several features of this clock, some that are less prominent and therefore not mentioned in the description or anywhere else. These are as follows:
-When setting alarms, it starts at 7am. This is great, because you don't have to sit there forever on each alarm changing it from midnight to whatever time you get up in the morning. Most people get up around 7-8, not midnight. I can't believe this isn't more common in alarm clocks, and it's one of many things that shows the ingenuity of the designers.
-Set and preference buttons need to be held for a couple seconds before they bring up the menu, avoiding accidental menu access by merely pressing the wrong button.
-Great sound. I was expecting sound superior to normal clock radios, but I was really impressed. It definitely surpassed my expectations and then some.
-Small (smaller than I thought it would be) and looks great, with great layout for the most part.
-Excellent snooze button size and location. (could be seen as a con by some people I suppose)
-Remembers nap/sleep timers for quick one touch setting
-Alarm duration setting, nice so alarm can be set to only go off for a short period of time, just in case you leave it on when you leave and it will disturb others when it goes off.
-Gradual wake feature.
-Alarm volume independent from sleep volume.
-Four different alarm sounds.
-Descending snooze makes it so every time you hit the snooze button you get less time before the alarm sounds again. Once again, I can't believe this isn't a more common feature, but this is the first clock I've seen it on.
Now for the negative points. Some of these are pretty severe, at least in my mind, whereas others are really quit minor and even perhaps a little nitpicky. However, I believe a product can always be made better, and I hope that by pointing these things out American Innovations will be encouraged to take them into consideration for an improved model. Also, for a product with such obvious creativity and ingenuity involved in its design, the fact that some of these negative items even exist is just that much more baffling and upsetting. Also, I feel the consumer should be as informed as possible when making a decision, so hopefully this will help people considering this clock. Here are my issues with this alarm clock:
-Value collar (outer ring) should spin more freely. It's whole purpose in life is to quickly advance the time backward or forward to set the clock or alarm, and this is done by spinning or rotating it. For this purpose, I feel it is way too stiff, and that detracts from its functionality.
-Minimum volume should be lower. It's pretty quiet, but I have absolutely no doubt there are people that like to listen to very quiet music when they're going to sleep, quieter than this will go down to, and there should be more options on the low end of the scale to account for that. I realize that is a problem with digitally controlling the volume instead of using an anolog dial with infinite positions, but they could, and should, certainly implement a few more volume steps between their current minimum volume and no volume.
-The volume buttons are backwards from any sort of common sense arrangement. Seriously, who puts the volume up on the left and the volume down on the right. It's just counter-intuitive.
-I'd prefer the use of a couple AA or AAA batteries instead of the 3.0V CR2032 button-type battery that's used for the backup functions. They are everywhere, people are a lot more likely to have spares of them lying around the house than CR2032s, and they can be rechargable.
-More color choices would be nice. The white and gray don't really fit into the colors of the rest of the room. I personally prefer the colors of the standard version of the clock, I don't know why the options are so limited here, or why they chose to go with this color for this model instead of the same color scheme they have on the other.
-Easy to accidentally (or subconsiously) hit the on/off button instead of the snooze button, killing the alarm completely instead of snoozing it.
-No alarm preview function. In order to hear the different alarms to know which to use, I had to set nap timer to 1 minute, wait for it to alarm, switch alarm sounds, and repeat until I heard all four.
-Lowest brightness for display not dim enough. This goes hand in hand with the lowest volume not low enough problem.
-No preference for how long the display stays on high brightness after pressing a button.
-Alarm volumes and lengths can't be set independently from one another.
-Beta feature for making one time change doesn't allow changing of multiple banks, or at least I haven't figured out how yet if you can.
All in all, this is a very nice alarm clock, and it's so convenient to not have to switch the alarms back and forth every day, since I have class at 9 MWF and 8 on T & Th, plus I like to have one for the weekends just so I don't sleep until the afternoon. Even with the flaws and areas of needed improvement, it's still a big step up. I just wish the creativity had extended more to some of these other things, as well as other things I probably haven't thought of. I would so far recommend it based off its functionality and the specific need it caters to, but as I said, I've only had it a few days, so it's still too early to tell. So far, I haven't noticed any glitch or bug issues with it.
EDIT: I have now owned this alarm clock for a little over 3 months and just wanted to make a quick update. This clock got me through a semester of late nights and early mornings excellently, and it is still running strong (knock on wood). I haven't really found anything new I like or dislike about it, it's performing exactly as I'd hoped and I'm really glad I got it. As I said before, it has its problems, but they are minor for the most part and do not overcome the usefulness of the clock. The only new thing I have to mention is when turning the two dials, or even when they're in position but pressed lightly, the display sort of spazzes out, for lack of a better term, and jumps all over like you're spinning the dial rapidly. It doesn't cause any real issues, it's just annoying, as you have to release it so it settles down (which is immediate) then you can make any changes you need to make. As I said, it's more an annoyance or minor hindrance at most, and does not impact the clock's functionality, and I wouldn't let it affect my decision to buy one. However, it is, to me, a sign of something either being poorly designed or poorly put together. I have no idea if it's common or just mine. Anyways, after owning it for 3 months, I still hold to my initial rating of 4 stars.
Customer Review: Great features but not fully polished
Summary: 1 Stars
The clock has lots of nice features. Unfortunately it has many problems. The clock will lock up if you hold the on/off button when an alarm is going off. This is problematic because you have to do a quick press of the on/off button to turn the alarm off. It is easy to accidently do a long hold on the button in the morning. Being disoriented in the morning, I still somehow manage to lock it up once and a while even though I know the quirks. Also, recently the display has been flickering randomly. I believe this product is cheaply made and was not well tested before release. Also, if you change the display dim setting, you must hit the snooze button for it to take effect after changing it. These are all things you figure out after using it for a while and is not disclosed in the manual. The feature set is fantastic but the clock is very buggy. Be forewarned.
I cannot give this product more than 1 star because it is very incomplete, poorly tested and overpriced for the quality of the end product. I have voiced these concerns to American Innovative and they have responded promptly, but these are inexcusable mistakes for a consumer product, especially an alarm clock. A malfunctioning alarm clock can have a devastating effect on one's career. I can deal with my cell phone screwing up once in a while, but my alarm clock must be flawless, my job depends on it and so does yours, most likely.
Customer Review: Great for a month!
Summary: 2 Stars
I really like the styling and sound quality of this radio. And it worked properly , long enough for me to throw away the box, then the alarms quit working. I can unplug it, and pull the battery, then start over and it will work till I turn the alarm off the first time, then its off for good. I would recommend a Sony from walmart for a fourth the cost.Customer Review: Great ideas, but the clock sucks. Toast after 5 months.
Summary: 1 Stars
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY
I liked it at first - mostly, then it broke.
I saw the good reviews, and the bad ones. I thought ... all those people who had broken clocks must have abused them, or just did not understand how to use it. After 5 months, mine went bad. The display is now unreadable because half of the display now flashes when it's not supposed to. So, instead of it being 12:57 it flashes between 12:57 and 88:69. Portions of most of the letters/numbers flash when they are not supposed to, so you can never read the display.
Yes, I did everything to attempt to fix this. Rebooted, removed the batteries and unplugged for a week, restarted from scratch, contacted the vendor. It's toast. 90-day warranty ??? What a lousy short warranty for such an expensive alarm clock. Instead of paying them to fix it, I'm throwing it away. They would not give me a new warranty on a repair job. I'll continue my hunt for a good clock.
Otherwise, I have to agree with a LOT of others here:
- The screen is WAY too bright even at the lowest setting. The case is made of translucent white plastic, so the light is even emitted from the case. I decided to turn off the back-light altogether, and leave one of my old LED clocks sitting next to it so I could glance at the time from bed. How dumb.
- Yes programming is complex, but if you can figure out a VCR menu, you will eventually catch on. It's a whole new concept to have "banks" of 7 days of alarms. Once you get that concept, it's pretty easy. Alarm functions and choices are amazing, but remembering how to use them all is challenging.
- Some of the buttons are placed in goofy orientations. It's NOT intuitive to use. I just spent some time in a few different hotels and ALL those could be programmed after less than 60 seconds of fussing around. You could NEVER understand this clock without a thorough review of the manual.
- The radio is OK. Not great, but OK.
- The lowest volume setting DOES need to be lower. It's too loud if you like to wake to soft music.
I say - DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY.
They have to get their quality control in better shape first.