iHome iP15W LED Color Changing Stereo System with Passive Subwoofer for iPhone and iPod

The iHome stereo system is pretty good. It looks pretty and has some "wow" factor. I like it.

Lets go over the main features:
Charging: Charges very nice. Support for all the various i devices is provided by sticking different plastic plates in the dock. Its really important to use this white little plates because they keep you from putting too much strain on the 15 pin connector. Disappointingly, they did not include a white plate that is compatible with the iPhone 2G. Perhaps they are not aware that many adults pass down their old 2G iPhones to their kids for use as iPod Touch... I have done that and I know several other people who have done it as well. However, this isn't a big deal, its not advertised as including this plate, but rest assured that if your child is using an iPhone 2G as an iPod touch then they will not be able to use the charging feature of this device.

Speakers: The speakers performed well for what they are. In fact, I was modestly impressed. It has a port so you can plug in an external mp3 player and get the flashing lights and speakers, so if you have an iPhone 2g, well, thats how you would use it. They make a big deal about the Passive Subwoofer. I did some research on the internet to find out just what a "passive" subwoofer is. The iHome manufacturer website had nothing to say about this, in fact, the "tech specs" page only had the product dimensions (weak). The manual also had no specs (weak). The amazon "technical details" has no specs (weak). So really, we don't know what this passive subwoofer is, or the specs of this subwoofer. Maybe its just an "idea" and all you are really getting is a "subwoofery experience" (boo!).

The lights: The lights are nice. I like the fade mode where it cycles through the colors. They blink appropriately when you have a really strong back beat on a song and not much else. It works perfectly. But as soon as anything that is not a very clear beat or melody enters the music the iHome has something closer to an apoplectic fit. It starts blinking and stuttering and flashing with no real relation to the music. I'm sure its little firmware is trying to do something marvelous, but its not as cool as a disco ball. The lights do work without music, it can sit there and color shift all day without your i device plugged in. The lights were a little jerky to adjust, there are 5 settings, and sometimes its hard to know which setting you are on, or how long to hold the button. But my kids don't mind this. They like to fiddle with it. An adult will dislike the vagueness of the controls.

The box tells you to check out the iPhone app... That the item is "app enhanced". which seems to imply that the iPhone app will somehow help you get more out of your little disco light show. Well, not really. They do have a free iPhone alarm clock app, I downloaded it and tried it and the two are mutually exclusive items. It is true that its nice to have the alarm clock app but I couldn't see how the iHome app worked with the iP15 in any way. I think you should download the free app if you get this device, just don't expect the app+iP15 to do more than they do separately. The app is a nice touch, maybe I'm missing something...

One minor detail... I think that the iP15 is kinda ugly when its not glowing some color. Its a dingy blue-grey when turned off. It doesn't look as white as the Amazon picture shown on this page.

Overall I would say this would be a great gift for a girl. My daughters were very excited when it arrived. I doubt it would disappoint a teen.

Its really hard to say whether to give it 3 stars (its ok) or 4 stars (i like it). I'm going to settle in on 4 stars, as the kids who are the target market felt it was great. And isn't it their opinion that matters the most?

What I liked: compact, easy to use and set up, "decent" sound, inexpensive.

I picked this up not expecting the same type of sound from a higher end player. The sound is passable. If you want a great iphone/ipod type dock and expect a nice sounding system I would expect to pay in the two to three-hundred range. This is something you might use in a small room or out on the patio or in the garage. Definitely more of a trinket than a home music system.

It's very easy to set up, just plug and play. There are only four buttons: power, volume down, volume up, and color. There's no way to adjust any sound levels on the iHome iP15W. It also takes up very little space which I liked. The colors are ok, but most of the time I keep the colored lights off.

For the price I feel you get a fair value. The sound quality isn't going to impress anyone so don't look to buy this as your main sound system. But if it's a secondary music player then it's perfectly fine.

This ipod dock is just ok. On the plus side, kids seem to like the styling and the colors, although after the first few days, my kids rarely play around with the colors. It is a charger as well as a player, which is nice, because the kids don't have to be messing with the wall charger, or for the iTouch, plugging it into a computer.

The sound is fine and certainly sufficient for kids, but when I went back and forth between this dock and our other Phillips dock you could hear a huge difference. The sound on the iHome is much "fuzzier," for lack of a more technical term.

The biggest disadvantage of this dock is the inserts that should be placed around the connecter where it is docked. They are very difficult to get out once they are in, so if you have more than one device (such as an iPhone4 and and iTouch3) you are not going to be able to use them both on this dock if you use the insert without a big hassle. There is not really enough stability without the inserts in my opinion.. I'd be afraid of snapping off the connector or at least damaging it over time. An advantage of this product over some docks I would think is that it can fit an iPad (the one I recommend below would not), but we don't have an iPad, so this doesn't help me.

The biggest problem with using the inserts is that they do not accommodate a case. And seeing as how this is seemingly targeted to kids, generally kids should be using these devices with a skin or case. My kids have to pop the case off everytime they dock it, leaving it sitting on the furniture, and then remember to pop it on when they undock it.

To be honest, unless your kid is really obsessed with the lights, at this price, I'd recommend spending just a little more on the Philips Fidelio DS3000 Desktop Speaker Dock for iPod and iPhone (White/Silver) which has excellent sound quality and is more stable and accommodates multiple devices.