I purchased this item nearly 11 months ago as a Christmas present for my boyfriend. He had been looking for an iphone dock for a while but I knew he ideally wanted something which incorporated a cd player, so I only wanted a cheap model in case he didn't get much use from it. I have to say, we were both impressed with this and it has probably gone down as my biggest present success! Yes, it does play music automatically when you insert the phone, for us that was an advantage as that was what I bought the product for, but it is something to be aware of. I imagine it might not be ideal if you were using it as a bedside clock radio, ours is in the kitchen so not a problem. For the price, I thought the sound quality was excellent as is the radio reception. I also like the fact that there are buttons on top of the unit to adjust volume, play, skip etc, as this is far less fiddly than using the onscreen controls on the phone. In terms of set up, there isn't any, just slot your phone in and you're away. I have a thin rubber case on my phone (iphone 3GS) and find that this will just fit in, but only just. In terms of appearance, it is basic and you could say it looks a bit cheap, but no different to any other reasonably priced radio or cd player you might buy. After all, it is cheap! It doesn't look unattractive, just simple and functional.
What prompted me to write this review is reading some of the less positive reviews on here (which needless to say weren't here when I bought it, or I'm sure I wouldn't have). I had the same problem as a few others mentioned, that recently the dock simply lost all power. However my experience with Kitsound customer service was fantastic. I emailed Amazon initially and they referred me to Kitsound and provided me a link. Having read other reviews I was not optimistic, but I had a response from them within an hour. They suggested it was likely to be the power lead/adaptor at fault and offered to send me a replacement FOC, this arrived the next day and now my dock is good as new. I appreciate that other buyers have had a different experience, perhaps Kitsound have read that feedback and taken it onboard (or Amazon have had a word) but whatever the reason, I felt it only fair to advise others of my experience. I was thoroughly impressed with the customer service I received and wouldn't hesitate to purchase from them again.