Philips HF3510 Wake Up Light, White, Review: Beautiful Warm Sunrise Light

In Short
Product Name: Philips HF3510 Wake-Up Light
Latest Review Date: 14 August 2019
Price Guideline: $$$
The Philips HF3510 Wake Up Light delivers where it really matters – a fantastic simulated sunrise despite a few other minor flaws.
MY RATING: 86%

Editor’s Note

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Features
- Simulated sunrise wake-up light
- Light gradually increases over a period of 30 minutes prior to alarm
- UV-free light
- Dimming display with 20 brightness settings
- Choice of three different natural sounds to wake up to
- Dusk simulation – go to sleep to a fading light
- Digital clock face with four brightness settings
- FM Radio
- Snooze function
- LED bulb (included)
- Rubber anti-slip feet
Product Information
- Product Dimensions: 10.3 (height) x 10.6 (diameter) x 7.9 (depth) inches
- Product Weight: 1.8 pounds
- Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
- Number of alarms: 1
- Snooze button for sounds: 9 minutes
- Light intensity: 300 lux
- Sunrise simulation colours: Yellow and orange
- Power output adapter: 12W
- Voltage: 100/240v
In The Box
- Philips HF3510 Wake-Up Light
- Instruction manual
- Two-year warranty

So How Does The Philips HF3510 Wake Up Light Work?
The instructions recommend that the first time you use your Philips HF3510 you place it 40 to 50cms from your head.
You program in your alarm and set the maximum brightness you want it to reach (there are 20 different settings) and then the next morning it will start to illuminate 30 minutes before your desired time.
So say you have it set for 7am, it will start to come on at 6.30am and reach full brightness by 7am.

The alarm also has three natural sounds that can play. These are birds chirping, a light zen-like music and birds chirping with music. If you choose to have these playing then once the light reaches it full brightness your chosen natural sound will play, gradually increasing in volume.
If you don’t want one of the natural sounds to play then you can also choose to be awoken by the FM radio. Hit snooze and the radio or wake-up sound you’ve chosen will turn off for nine minutes before coming back on.
The light also acts as a dusk simulator. Put it on at your required brightness, select the time period you want it to dim over (from five to 60 minutes) and then sit back and read/relax in bed until the light gradually goes out.
Simple!
The Good
The wake-up light itself is really nice and, lets face it, that is the primary reason you buy these things. It uses several LED bulbs and Philips have done a good job of diffusing the LEDs so that the surface produces a uniform smooth glow and not bright points of light.
It has a nice warm glow and changes from orange to yellow, doing a great job of simulating a rising sun.

Many of the more recent models of wake-up lights use LED bulbs which have great advantages over halogen bulbs. Yes they aren’t replaceable but they last 10,000+ hours, have a lower energy usage and higher energy efficiency, give off no radiation and are much cooler than traditional halogen bulbs which get very hot.
Also as it uses LED lights it won’t get hot at all no matter how long you have it on.
The Philips HF3510 offers three different nature sounds to wake up to, or the FM radio. The great thing about the nature sounds offered is, not only are they very pleasant, they don’t have the repetitive sound of being on a loop. It is a loop recording, but the loop is so long that you really don’t notice it.

The sounds offered are birds chirping, some zen-like piano music and a different selection of birds chirping with music. These sounds begin softly after the light has illuminated and then build up slowly in volume.
This is also the first in the Philips range of wake-up lights to give off 300 lux of light and offer a sunset simulation. The sunset simulation is very nice and you can set it to last anything from 5 to 60 minutes. It will then gradually and unnoticeably dim, hopefully lulling you to sleep!
You can use the HF3510 as a bedside lamp, and you can control the lamp brightness separately from the wake-up light brightness. So you could use it at brightness level 10 for reading in bed and have the wake-up light set to go up to brightness level 20 in the morning, which is useful.
The Bad
One of the main problems with the Philips HF3510 is the fact that the control buttons are hard to find and identify.
The majority of the controls are around the rim of the clock, all the same size (which is quite small) and very difficult to navigate at first when you are reaching from bed, in the semi-darkness and a little groggy from sleep. Finding the right button can be difficult at first.

Secondly this wake-up light is initially quite difficult to use. Be prepared at first to spend a little while sitting down to set your alarm, or turn the light off and/or sound off, etc, etc. The process isn’t as user friendly as it could be and the user manual isn’t a huge amount of help – it is a collection of slightly bewildering pictographs.
But with regards to both of these, like many things, it is something that once you’ve been using the wake-up light for a while they will both cease to become issues as you get your head around how it works.
The model doesn’t have a proper battery back-up – so if you have a power outage you will need to reset everything. However it does keep the time during short power failures, or if you move the clock from one room to another etc.
What might be a slight annoyance to some is that you cannot dim the time display completely so it will continue to glow at night. If you are highly sensitive to any kind of light when you are trying to sleep you might want to bear this in mind. It does have four adjustable settings though and at its lowest level it is dimmed considerably.

The other issues are fairly inconsequential. The bulbs are LED so cannot be replaced, however they have a 10,000 life span so that should not be an issue.
There is only one alarm you can set, so if you have to get up at a different time each day you will need to reset the alarm and there is no ability to preset particular radio stations, use a headphone jack or receive AM radio.
The Beautiful
It looks great! Or at least I think it does. It is an attractive product and fits into any home with a modern décor. It has a stylish, simplistic design and is about as pretty an alarm clock as you can get. The one area where the design could have been improved was the placement of those damn buttons around the rim of the clock…
How Does It Compare To Other Philips Models?
Name | HF3470 | HF3500 | HF3505 | HF3510 | HF3520 | SmartSleep HF3650/60 | SmartSleep HF3670/60 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sunrise simulation duration | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min | Adjustable (20-40min) | Adjustable (20-40min) | Adjustable (5-40min) | Adjustable (5-40min) |
Colors in sunrise simulation | Yellow | Yellow | Yellow | Orange, Yellow | Red, Orange, Yellow | White, Orange, Yellow, Amber | White, Orange, Yellow, Amber |
Sunset simulation | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Reading lamp | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Adjustable display | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Maximum light intensity | 200 lux | 200 lux | 200 lux | 300 lux | 300 lux | 310 lux | 315 lux |
FM radio | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Number of wake-up sounds | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 8 |
Number of alarms | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
And Does It Work?
Yes. User feedback indicates that generally the vast majority of users wake up more gently, feel more energised and in a better mood when they wake.
The gentle rousing by the light is a much less stressful way to rise, with one user saying they love the Philips HF3510 so much they would buy it a million times over! Another said that they had bought many expensive alarm clocks in their life but none had worked as effectively as this one.
Research has proved that wake up lights have a beneficial effect on sleep, waking, mood and energy. There are numerous studies proving this but here are just a few:
- Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel
- Department of Psychology, University of Westminster
- Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London
- Department of Biopsychology, New York State Psychiatric Institute
✔ Pros
✘ Cons
- Lovely natural light to wake up to
- Three very relaxing and realistic nature sounds to wake up to
- Great sunset simulation
- FM Radio
- Lovely design and sleek look
- User operation difficult due to poor placement of controls
- Quite complicated to use at first
- No real battery backup
- Clock display might be intrusive
Conclusion
My Vercict
My Rating - 86%
86%
Beautiful warm light
Philips have a great brand name and have put a great deal of time and effort into making the wake-up light as effective and realistic as possible. It delivers on that front with a warm, natural, smooth light that will gentle rouse you from sleep.
They do seem to have spent less time on researching the user experience though as it can be fiddly to set alarms and operate the HF3510. Be prepared that if you buy this there might be a period of frustration as you get your head around how everything works!
It is slightly pricey, but worth the money as the wake-up light is so nice. However if you see this and the Philips HF3520 for a similar price then go for the latter as the HF3520 has an extra programmable alarm, adjustable sunrise duration and an even better (probably the best) wake-up light.
All in all though another very good Philips Wake-Up Light.
Other Options
As an alternative you might want to look at the next step up the Philips HF3520 Wake Up Light which has more functions and adjustable settings than this and is cheaper.
For something that is a great wake-up light and way more go for either the Philips Smart Sleep or the Philips Smart Sleep Connected – check out their additional features!
If you would like to leave your personal review or experience of this product, or if you have any questions, please do leave them below. I would love to hear your feedback!
Don’t forget you can also check out our SAD Light Reviews Index for all of my SAD Light Reviews on one page or read my SAD Light Buyers’ Guide to pick the best SAD Light for you.

So happy to have found your review. My sister lives in the upper mid-west and was just complaining to me last week about how the lack of sunshine makes her feel sad in the winter. Next week is her birthday and this would be a really great gift for her. The only thing that concerns me is she’s not much of a techie, so if it can be difficult to use, she won’t appreciate that. I’ve seen these lights before (i live in southern california so have no need) but do they really work well? Do you notice a big difference or is it subtle?
Hi Jackie, how lovely that you have thought of getting your sister one of these. Yes it is not the easiest to operate, and it does require a bit of perserverance but once you’ve got to grips with it the controls soon become second nature.
I live in the UK and love my wake up light – it definitely is a nicer way to wake up in the morning than a piercing alarm, and I do wake up feeling more energised and refreshed. A SAD Light would be more beneficial for boosting your sisters mood though and if she used once of those in conjunction with a wake up light I have no doubt winters would be a lot easier for her to cope with 🙂
Hey Steve!
I once tried a similar one, but it was some unknown brand… it was cool, with different sounds, birds, rivers flowing… but it wasn’t very quality and the buttons ended up not responding past a few months.
This one looks much more sophisticated, and the sun light and dusk simulation! That’s cool!
I think I’ll give it a try!
Thanks for the review 😉
Glad you found this useful Israel – sometime, even though you might pay a little more, it is better to go with a trusted brand as often they are of a better build quality and will last longer.
Hope this one suits you!
Regards
Steve
Many thanks for the post Steve and for the reminder too!
This is something I looked into a while back but had simply forgotten about. It makes so much sense!
I’m keen to try it out as I live in England too with all the lovely sunshine haha. I’ve actually just put in down on my things to buy list once I get my next commission cheque in, so will look to head back to your site to buy!
All the best,
Jerry
Not a problem – glad you found this useful. I too live in England so can empathise with you! We still have 7 weeks before the clocks go back and winter truly sets in!
This is a really cool product! I had never heard of it (probably because I lived most of my life in Brazil, where they’re not needed).
Now that I moved to the US I definitely find it harder to wake up on winter mornings. So dark and pretty sad…
This would be a nice acquisition. Besides, the design is awesome. I love modern decor pieces. This would fit just perfect in my place.
Thanks for the review. I’ll consider both the PHILIPS HF3510 and the HF3520 wake-up lights.
Hi Eliane – yes I love the design of this too, it is so great! I bet you really noticed the difference when you moved from Brazil right? I am glad to bring this to your attention and I hope it makes a real difference for you. Of the two I prefer the HF3520, but they both work really well.
Good luck!