Glocusent Sunrise Alarm N17 Deluxe review: A softer wake-up that keeps your phone off the nightstand

My phone wakes me up most days. Then, before I’ve even sat up, it has me reading emails I had no reason to open before coffee. I’ve been trying to break that habit for a while, and the alarm seemed like the easiest place to start.

So the Glocusent Sunrise Alarm N17 Deluxe caught my attention. It’s a sunrise alarm clock with two alarms and a white noise machine, and it’s covered in fabric, which makes it look more like a small speaker than a clock. Glocusent mostly makes reading lights. I was curious what they’d do with something that sits next to the bed all night.

The idea is simple enough. Light wakes you up and sound helps you drift off, while your phone charges in another room. I haven’t had one on my nightstand yet, so this is me going through what it offers and where I can see it fitting in.

I Didn’t Expect to Care About the Fabric

A lot of sunrise clocks look like a frosted dome. The rest tend to be glossy plastic. The N17 is wrapped in fabric instead, and I think that was the right call.

It just looks softer. Put it on a nightstand next to a stack of books and it doesn’t scream gadget. I would look at this thing first thing in the morning and last thing at night, so how it looks matters to me more than I’d usually admit in a review.

It only comes in white. White fabric goes with most bedrooms, so I’m fine with it, though if your room leans darker you may wish there were another option.

In the box you get the clock, a power adapter, a user manual that’s 59 inches long. That cable length is useful. My bedside outlet is never quite where I want it, and a longer cable means one less extension cord hiding behind the nightstand.

Five Minutes of Sunrise Is Shorter Than I Expected

The sunrise feature is the main reason anyone looks at a clock like this. On the N17, the light brightens over 5 minutes before your alarm, and the alarm itself starts quietly and gets louder. You wake up to both at once, more or less gradually.

Most sunrise lamps I’ve come across take longer than that, and I went back and forth on whether five minutes is enough. Then again, some people find a 30-minute glow wakes them too early. Others sleep straight through it. A shorter ramp is closer to someone opening the curtains a few minutes before your alarm. If you’re a light sleeper, or the person next to you gets up at a different time, it might suit you better.

There are 43 LED beads inside, with 20 brightness levels and 12 lighting modes. Sunrise and daylight are two of them; the rest are RGB colors. Daylight is the one I’d probably use most. In winter it’s still dark when I get up, and a bright light right beside me beats feeling around for the switch.

The color modes feel more like an evening thing. A dim, warm color works fine as a night light if you’re reading or heading to the kitchen at midnight. I try to keep screens out of the bedroom, so I like that the light I wake up to and the light I fall asleep by come from the same device.

Thirty Sleep Sounds Sounds Like a Lot, Until You Need Them

Plenty of alarm clocks throw in a few nature sounds. The N17 has 30 white noise sounds, with rain, ocean waves and birdsong among them, played through a 5W speaker.

Thirty seems like overkill until you remember how picky people are about sleep sounds. Rain sends some people right off. Others lie there wondering if the roof is leaking. With this many, you’ve got room to try a few over a couple of weeks and settle on the one that works.

The sleep timer goes anywhere from 10 to 180 minutes. Ten is plenty if you just need help switching your brain off. Restless sleepers who wake the second the sound cuts out will want the longer end. You can also leave it on all night, which is what a lot of people do with white noise anyway.

It does Bluetooth streaming as well, so a podcast or audiobook can play through it. Yes, that brings the phone back into bed with you. I’d use it now and then rather than every night. Still, a 5W speaker beats a phone leaning against a water glass.

Alarm tones are separate, and there are 10 to choose from. Pick a soft one and it pairs nicely with the rising volume and the light.

The Second Alarm Is the Feature I’d Use Most

I didn’t think much about the dual alarm at first. Then I thought about my own week. Some days I’m up early, and on others I’m working from home and can sleep in a little. Two alarms on one clock covers that. It also works for two people who get up at different times.

You can control it with the buttons on the clock or through the app. Glocusent says the app doesn’t need a subscription, and I’m glad they spell that out, because subscriptions have crept into some strange corners of home tech. I’d still reach for the buttons more. Half asleep, pressing a button is a lot easier than unlocking my phone.

The clock also sets its own time automatically, so there’s nothing to fix after setup or when daylight saving kicks in. And it remembers your settings.

Then there’s the 1000mAh battery tucked inside. It keeps the alarm going if the power drops for a little while. It’s not meant to run the clock unplugged for days. But if you’ve ever overslept because the power went out at 2 a.m., you’ll see why it’s there.

Who I Can Picture Using It

Anyone who gets up before sunrise for part of the year, first of all. Dark mornings are exactly where a sunrise clock makes sense, and the daylight mode helps once you’re out of bed.

Couples on different schedules, thanks to those two alarms. Also people who already play white noise from their phone every night. Moving that to a separate device sounds minor, but it means the phone can charge in another room. I’ve been trying to do that myself, and a proper clock by the bed makes it a lot easier to stick to.

I’d consider it for a kid’s or teenager’s room as well. It handles the night light and the alarm, and nobody needs a phone for either.

With premium quality, it’s priced below its $99.99 MSRP, delivering the same features as $200 products on the market—no membership required unless you desire the richer online services. For a sunrise lamp that also does white noise and Bluetooth audio, that seems fair to me. There’s a 24-month warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee, which helps if you’ve never tried a sunrise clock and aren’t sure it’s for you.

Where I’ve Landed

What I keep coming back to is how much the N17 takes off my phone’s plate, at both ends of the day. Sunrise lamps exist. So do sound machines. Getting both in one fabric-covered clock that looks at home on a nightstand is what has me interested.

I’m still curious about that 5-minute sunrise, and I’d like to hear from people who’ve used the longer ones. The sleep side has plenty of range, though. And the backup battery tells me someone at Glocusent has overslept at least once.