Pure Digital Twilight

I was bought the Pure Digital Twilight alarm clock for christmas. It is the most over the top, over engineered yet absolutely awesome alarm clock I've ever seen.

Where to start... The DAB radio I think. It is very clear and great quality, with a full list of stations showing on the display, along with the name of the DJ / show and the song title and artist. The DAB radio also shows which stations could not be tuned correctly, along with a list of favourite stations so you dont have to go through them all to find your chosen few.

The standard FM radio is also very good, easily tuned, generally as expected from a FM radio. Mine could not tune into Radio 1 on DAB (in Bristol Center), im not sure why, so I used the FM radio, which was fine.

The clock also has nursery rhymes that you can play (perfect for a young child) and other 'Pure sounds' which make great background noise - crashing waves, burning log fire etc. The 'Pure sounds' are exceptional in quality, you would never know it was a recording!

The sound quality overall is astonishing from this clock. Thats all i have to say on that subject.

Other features include 4 seperare alarms that can be set, touchscreen display and MP3 player / iPod / mobile phone input.

The touch light on the top of the clock has a great range, from a dull glow, up to a bright light (and it is VERY bright). The top of the clock is glass, which makes an interesting touch activated light. It was a bit confusin to start with, I couldnt work out what sort of sensor controls the light. I have since been told it is a pressure sensor. Regardless, the touch light works well, and the gradual 'sunrise' setting to wake you in the morning is truly brilliant.
Essentially - the clock turns on the light 15 / 20 minutes before the alarm is set to go off, then gradually cycles through sunrise colours and gets brighter, telling your mind that it's morning and it needs to start waking up. The timings of the light can be controlloed (or disabled if need be). I am a very heavy sleeper, an earthquake wouldn't wake me, but with the sunrise light being set to 20 minutes, when it was time for the alarm to go off, I was already stirring, and it didn't take much to wake me. It is a very pleasant way to be woken in the morning. making a nice change from my old morning heart attack alarm.

Now the bad news. The touch light has a mind of it's own. About a week after purchase, the light started turning on and off at random, sometimes flashing constantly. Easily fixable - just pull the plug, then plug it back in, but, at 3am when it decides to turn the lamp on at 100%, its blinding. I have looked online and this is a very common issue. I have contacted Pure and am hoping for a replacement.

Such a shame that such a brilliant idea, backed up with great quality sound, features and lighting, can be so disappointing with a simple technology that has been around for some time.

Hopefully my new one will work properly, as this is a worthwhile investment in my opinion. Dont get me wrong, it's very expensive for a clock (around £100), but it's a great way to wake up, it looks very cool, and has a DAB radio and excellent quality sound. Well worth considering as it combines an iPod dock, DAB radio, Alarm clock and night light!

Other small issue is - I was hoping for a better quality display, the touchscreen works adaquately, but the screen itself looks a little old fashioned, could do with having a colour LCD screen, but not a big issue.

I'll put any relevant updates here about my experience with their customer service and replacement alarm clock...