The only sudden shock with this alarm clock is the price

Bottomline: It's expensive but it really does work

Manufacturer: Philips

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With a recommended price of around £100, this has to be one of the most expensive alarm clocks we’ve ever seen.

It’s also unique in that it looks a little like a giant upturned tooth. There’s a reason for this strange (and not particularly attractive) design, though: the white plastic shell contains an extremely bright light. The idea is that, rather than shocking you from your slumbers with a piercing noise, the Wake-up Light rouses you gently with a slow artificial sunrise.

Being sceptical types, we also chose to also set an audible alarm to sound at the end of this sunrise – the HF3461 gives a choice of a traditional bleep, an FM radio station or an assortment of rather silly sounding nature noises. On the first morning, however, we found ourselves wide awake a good ten minutes before usual.

And, although these things are hard to measure, we didn’t feel as grumpy and cloth-headed as usual. We had a few complaints. For one, several buttons are located on the top of the device – this makes them hard to find without actually getting up and looking down at the clock. Also, at one point our test unit stopped working and had to be unplugged for several hours to reset itself.

Nonetheless, we’d recommend the Wake-up Light to anyone who doesn’t feel properly alive in the mornings.