Philips DC315/05 iPod Docking Station - Black

For the past 3 years I have been looking for something like this. It does everything I want.

Pros: superb sound quality with no distortion, good radio reception with 20 presets, volume of the alarm can be set to the desired level, gentle wake up, large contemporary display with dimmer (3 settings: the lowest is good for me as I am sensitive to light), the settings are retained if there is a temporary power cut (for about 15 minutes, eventhough there is no battery backup!). I disagree with the previous reviewer, the buttons on the front are fine.

Cons: the Power button is on the side. I would have preferred it to be on the top or front. The Sleep, Set and Tune buttons are also on the side but I do not use those regularly so it does not matter. There is no remote but I wouldn't have any use for it as the unit is for the bedside table.

I like the contemporary design and the great sound quality for such a little unit. It is not bulky like the Sony ICF-C1 and looks much better than the Sony. The dimmer on it also works better than the Sony. It has an overall quality feel to it. I would have given it a 5 star if it was not for the buttons on the side.

Just received this item today and it works perfectly out of the box. I connected my iPhone 4 (running iOS 4.02) and it recognised it without issue. It was able to play tracks and control the iPhone without needing to enter aeroplane mode. I suspect others having problems with this have not followed the instructions for resetting their phone correctly. You must press and hold the home and power buttons for 10 or so seconds. Do not let go of them when the power off screen appears and do not swipe the red slider when it shows. Keep holding the buttons until the screen goes completely black. Once you let go the Apple logo should appear very quickly, if it doesn't then you haven't done it correctly turn it back on and start again. Once restarted it should work OK. If it still doesn't work then you need to reset your phone settings. You can do that in the settings application. Select General then scroll to the bottom and choose Reset. I would think 'Reset all settings' should suffice.

The build quality of the device is pretty good and it feels solid, the only slight let down is the speaker grill on the front which gives slightly if pushed. If you've not seen the device it's the part with the Philips name written on it. As for the buttons and their placement I didn't fine much of an issue with them. They are small but easy to use, even without looking at them. After about 30 seconds of getting used to the device I was able to work all controls without even looking at the machine. If you are the kind of person that has to read every button every time you use something then it may be an issue for you, but then again I would imagine that an iPhone would terrify you so this device wouldn't be for you either.

All in all it's a great little device and readers should ignore the reviews that say it doesn't work with iPhone 3GS or iOS 4. It works perfectly with this item when they're setup correctly. I was nearly put off by the other reviews but decided to give it a go anyway. I'm very glad I did.

I bought this product in the first instance as a night time charging unit for my iphone 3GS and secondary as a radio / dock for iphone and ipod playback.

The alarm clock functions are great, the unit is compact and well made. No complaints. Reading other reviews on LED lighting etc on some of these docks, I like a dark room at night and on lowest dim settings this is subtle enough to be unobtrusive.

Play back with an old school ipod works a treat also.

Now heres the rub. On the box, it clearly states its compatible with Iphone 3GS. However, I've had a few problems with it which are as yet unressolved (and have done the rounds on forums etc, tried every old grannys remedy suggested!)

I keep getting a message, on my iphone, telling me that "this charging unit is not compatible with iphone. Would you like to switch on airplane mode....."

This happens during ipod playback (which then stops the playback) and also at night, whilst charging which illuminates my bedroom which is annoying.

Even if you accept the warnings, ignore them, it keeps coming back periodically and asking the same thing.

Even more strange is the fact that it does this when the charge on the phone hits 97% !!!

I have tried the unit with 2 iphones and 1 ipod. The ipod is fine, iphones both do the same thing which suggests a generic software bug on Apples part or this unit is in fact not fully iphone 3GS compatible.

I have now resorted to switching my phone off at night to charge in the unit and for ipod playback with the phone, I just hit play again every time it stops the playback with the warning.

So, purchase with caution if using with iphone 3GS. Perhaps the iphone OS 4.0 update in the summer will fix this issue (or make it worse !!)