American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock
Ever since the introduction of the first and only 7-day alarm clock in December 2004, American Innovative has been logging feature requests and product improvement suggestions from our customers. Nearly every aspect of the neverlate executive is fully customizable. We've introduced the concept of alarm banks - three in all. The two 7-day banks provide two, completely independent seven-day wake schedules - his and hers for example. In addition, we've included a daily reminder bank. We are also pleased to introduce the first-ever preferences menu in a clock radio. Everything from the backlight brightness, to the alarm duration is fully adjustable. Wake to NPR news at 7:00am weekdays, your Saturday morning talk show on a different station and the buzzer on Sunday. There's no other clock radio in the world with this capability. Line-in, headphone jack and more - a powered USB port on the back accommodates an electric fan or laptop boom lamp. Each time you hit the snooze button the snooze time is cut in half until finally the neverlate executive won't let you snooze any more. You can even disable the tempting snooze button.
American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock Accessories
American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock Reviews
This alarm clock is fantastic. Easily the best I've ever seen. But it's not perfect.
Things I like:
24 hour time mode
7-day alarm banks
"Skip" feature if I wake up before my alarm
Easy to set (but DO read the instructions first)
"Review" feature to show next alarm
Things I don't like:
too bright, even on dimmest setting (it has a no-light setting, but that's too dim)
cannot adjust how long it stays bright when you press a button
does not self adjust for DST
I can't comment on the radio features; I haven't used them.
I have been using the the Executive Alarm Clock for about a month. I must admit is wasn't too impresses at first; it seemed like an over-complicated device. However, after actually reading the instruction booklet (which I would recommend to anyone that purchases the clock), I have grown to love it. The clock offers 14 different customizable alarms, and honestly I can't remember how I lived without this. I would always have to spend time changing the alarm times on my old clock, turning it on and off when not needed. With this clock I set the days and times I want and never have to change it. This is an excellent alarm clock, and I highly recommend it.
The alarm clock switches from "normal mode" to "set alarm mode" without bieng touched. If I wake up at 4AM and look at the alarm clock, sometimes it reads 7AM and I incorrectly get up. The alarm clock goes off even when the alarm is not set.
This little unit has a lot going for it. Here's a summary of the features that I think set it apart:
* Snooze duration is customizable
* There's a descending snooze option, which reduces the snooze time each time you hit snooze until it won't let you snooze anymore.
* The alarm volume is separate from the radio/sleep volume.
* The alarm duration is customizable.
* The clock illumination can be turned off, not just lowered (helpful if you like your bedroom to be as dark as possible)
* There are three alarm settings, which can be used in any combination: every day and two seven day alarms.
* There's a nap feature, which lets you set a quick alarm without changing your regular alarm. Default duration is 20 min, but you can quickly adjust up/down from there.
* The snooze button is also a review button. Hit it and you'll see when the next alarm is set to go off. If you want to adjust the next alarm, you can easily do so when reviewing without changing your regular alarm.
* The alarm (beep, radio or media source through axillary jack) can be set to escalate in volume.
* You can easily skip the next alarm if you wake up before it goes off
* When you set the alarm, you begin adjusting from 7 am instead of 12 am. The rotary dial is also quicker than the tradition button hold-down.
* It's small - 5" square
* Has a USB charging port (useful if you want to charge your phone on your nightstand)
* Includes radio station presets
Some may consider it difficult to use, but if you understand what the two rotary dials are for and how the seek buttons work, everything becomes fairly intuitive. If they added a numeric keypad to set the time, required simultaneously pushing two buttons to turn the alarm off, displayed the next alarm information without an additional button push and provided the option to have the time announced when the alarm goes off, I think this unit would be perfect.
I used this this alarm clock for about 2 years; notice the past tense on this. The title of this review sums it up - the ideas behind the alarm clock are quite nice but the execution is really sub par.
*** Let's start off with what was nice about the clock ***
- The customization really was well above what you'd find on any other alarm clock
- There's a descending snooze feature that I really liked - in fact it was the single feature that sold me on the clock
- It seems (note the keyword seems) to be solidly built
- It's not bad on the eyes
- Aux in lets you hook up your MP3 player of choice
*** Now the neutrals ***
- This point is probably very subjective, but the more I used the clock, I actually kind of had to ask myself why? I have a somewhat regular schedule (I work a 9/80 schedule and on the weekends I wake up when I wake up) as does the GF. The different alarm banks were nice, but in the end it was a pain to set them up and really, it was overkill. I suppose if you're a college student and have a schedule that may differ every day it would be nice
- I never figured out what to do with that USB port on the back
*** And now the negatives ***
- As other have pointed out it's at night WAY to bright, even it its dimmest mode. What's worse, is that at the same brightness setting it's too dim to be read during normal lighting conditions. I personally like it dark when I sleep, so it may have affected me more than others, but it really is like a little torch. For comparison, I've also got a DirecTV HR-21 and Netgear wifi bridge in the bedroom. The lights on those are annoying, but not to the point that it would disrupt my sleep. I can't say the same for this alarm clock. In the end, I set the brightness to 0 (no backlight at all) and just hit the snooze button when I wanted to tell the time. The backlight would then come on for a few seconds and go off. It was fine for nighttime, but a real pain during the day. Why not have a customization option to modify brightness during different times of day?
- Build quality is really sub par. In two years, I had three different units. The first unit I had had an issue with the LCD backlight where it would constantly flicker. I had to RMA that one (more on that later). The replacement one that they sent me had issues with the rotation knob. Whenever I turned it it would first go into some default display then to the one I wanted. The third and final one finally died today (I had this one for about 16 months). Doesn't power on or anything. Tried replacing the battery; nothing. Unfortunately it's also well out of warranty. I'm sorry, but $60 for an alarm clock that doesn't last more than 2 years is a joke.
- Customer service was rude and unresponsive. The first clock I had to RMA had the issue almost immediatly. I submitted an RMA request on their website within the first 90 days (the length of the warranty) but never got a response. I tried again after about 5 months and then just got a reply saying it's out of warranty and to take it to my local electronics shop. They were completely unwilling to help until I produced evidence that they never replied to my original RMA request. The second clock also came with the issues above and that one had to go back too. Both times, they wouldn't reimburse me for shipping costs even though it was their fault (and it was their policy to do so, according to their website).
- Warranty is a joke. $60 alarm clock has a 90 day warranty? You've got to be kidding me. If these units were well built then this wouldn't be an issue but 3 alarm clocks in 2 years shows there's some serious quality control issues.
*** Overall Conclusion ***
I've said it earlier. This alarm clock is packed with neat features that could make it a great clock niche markets, but the reliability and the brightness issue end up making this a product you should avoid!
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