This is not just any old alarm clock, this is a wake-up light alarm clock. I know, exciting right? I’ve heard about this before, the idea is that waking up to natural sunlight is better for you and the Groov-e Light Curve simulates this with the power of LED. I’m quite a heavy sleeper, I sleep through a lot so I’m intrigued to see if the light will wake me up.
Unboxing
The Light Curve comes boxed with just the power adapter and some instructions. It’s quite a large device, much larger than any alarm clock I’ve used to take but it still sat nicely on my bedside table. It’s got a white gloss casing, with a large LCD display in the center at the front, surrounded by frosted plastic. Behind that frosted area is the RGB LED’s used as it’s source. Yes, RGB, meaning this is a colour changing light.
On the front display are four touch buttons, used to control the light. While the other buttons on top of the device are used to control the radio, time and alarm functions. To the rear of the speaker the power port, the speaker and the FM antenna.
The more I look at it, the more I like the look of it. It’s lightweight, minimalist, yet functional.
Features Include:
– Sunrise/Sunset light simulation from 10 to 30 minutes
– 10 levels of dimming/brightness (220 lumens)
– RGB colour changing
– FM Radio
– Alarm clock with 8 sounds
– display with 3 settings
Performance
Set up is fairly straight forward and similar to a standard alarm clock but I would recommend reading the instructions, so you are fully clued up with the lighting situation. There are essentially three ways of using the light option, in the morning it can raise the light up to wake you up, dim the light down to let you know it’s bedtime or you can use the light as source. For the first two options, you have three timings to consider, 10, 20 and 30 minutes. For example, if you set an alarm for and want to be woken by the light (before the radio or sound), you can tell the light to turn on either 10, 20 or 30 minutes before your alarm. Over that period of time, the light output will gradually increase, simulating a sunrise. Likewise in the evening but without an alarm, you can set the light to high brightness and over either of those timings, the light will dim. The controls for the sunset mode, general lighting including RGB are via the touch-sensitive buttons located on the front. The sensitivity appears to be good and I had no problem using those buttons.
For the alarm, you are given the option of waking up to the radio or one of 7 different sounds. 1 to 6 are natural wake up sounds like birds tweeting, with 7 being the traditional alarm beep. Can you wake up with the light and sound, just the sound or just the light. There is a snooze button on on the top, its large enough to press and it will give you an extra 10 minutes of sleep.
As for audio performance, it’s bearable and enough to wake you up in the morning and tell you the latest news. The speaker is small, there is no bass as such and quality is lost at the higher volumes but it’s enough and its functional. FM is your only source of content, no DAB, no Bluetooth or aux in.
As for light performance, it’s very good and in some cases, too bright! The quality of light is good, warm or white, colour or not, it’s vibrant and powerful. It will easily offer enough light of an evening if you wanted to read a book or just add some background ambience. Dimming is not smooth, it’s in stages.
As for waking me, the light alone did that and over the past week, I’ve been waking up everyday before the alarm sounds. I set the light setting to 30 minutes and I’d say 15-20 minutes into the setting, I started to come around. I didn’t think it would work but it did and I enjoyed the peaceful wake up.
For me, it’s lacking two major factors, DAB and USB charging, both of which can be found on similar devices. FM radio offers very limited content compared to DAB and depends solely on your location and reception signal. charging is even more so essential in my mind, as I for one always has my phone on the bedside table and will charge it overnight. My current clock radio offers USB charging and it just reduces socket requirements and just makes my life easier.
Lastly, you will notice a battery cover and pull cord when first opening the product. This battery will maintain the clock timing for three months as a back up in a mains failure.
Verdict
At £39.99, it’s affordable and it does the job. As a light source, it’s very impressive and as an alarm clock and radio, it does what it needs to. If you’re happy with the average audio quality, I’d defiantly recommend the product as a whole.
For more info, head over to the official Groov-e website.