The Sony ICF-CL75iP iPhone clock has come up with some extremely innovative features. The 7 inch display screen serves as a digital picture frame and it also works as a video display for iPod, iPhone and YouTube videos. However, there are some serious glitches with the Sony iPod clock radio, you cannot delete the photos that are installed on the device, the screen has a poor picture quality and the device freezes frequently causing the alarm to not go off. We loved the idea of this iPhone clock radio, but most of the features didn’t work well.
The Sony ICF-CL75iP iPod clock radio was one of the most innovative devices we tested. It has an LCD screen that plays movies from your iPod, iPhone or even from external memory. You can use this product not only as an alarm, but as a digital picture frame, video player, music player and a radio. We were so excited to learn more about this fantastic model and we had such high hopes. This, we thought, would be the alarm clock of the future.
Sadly, Sony failed to deliver on many of the innovative features. Even after inserting an SD memory card with photos, the manufacturer’s preset photos will still be present. There is no way to delete these stock photos, so you had better get used to seeing the landscape images and the blonde-haired child that Sony has selected to display on the clock. Also, when viewing the photos, there is no way to hide the time display.
The iPhone clock radio has a large set of alarm features. You can wake up to your iPod, iPhone, radio or a buzzer. The station also serves as a charger and will charge your phone or iPod through the night. However, the entire Sony iPod clock radio is known to freeze frequently because it is such a complex device. We read many reports of people missing important meetings because the iPhone clock radio froze and the alarm never sounded. The Sony iPod clock radio is not the most reliable.
The advertized features on this iPod clock radio are astounding, however, the performance is severely lacking. The screen is not too much larger than your iPhone, but the picture quality is significantly worse on the dock. There are no adjustments for contrast or brightness. The images are often grainy and look slightly out of proportion.
The sound quality is adequate. There was very little static coming from the speakers, even at a very high volume. However, the bass sound was exceptionally poor.
Sony has released several firmware updates to try and fix the many problems. Some have worked better than others. Despite a novel concept by Sony, this iPod clock radio is difficult to use, it often freezes and navigating through the many features can be overwhelming.
Sony offers a large variety of helpful customer service options on its website. There are toll-free telephone numbers, email addresses, online forms and even a user’s forum. The device also comes with a limited 90-day warranty.
The Sony ICF-CL75iP has some original and interesting features; however, most of them do not work well. The display screen for videos and photos is low-quality and the entire dock freezes often. We loved the idea of this dock, but the execution was terrible.
