![]() Yoona Wagener / Lifewire Lenovo Smart Clock Essential vs. ![]() It doesn’t rival the best smart speakers or more sophisticated smart alarm clocks with touchscreens and cameras. While you can find digital and analog alarm clocks that are as cheap as $15 and below, this is still a decent bargain given the boost of smart feature convenience, thanks to the Google Assistant/speaker and streaming music platform (Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora) integrations. The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential retails for only $25. ![]() Price: Affordable and fairly priced for the functionality If you have a connected home, this product is compatible with 40,000 different varieties of smart home devices such as smart lights, which could make up for the limited working distance. This clock worked comfortably without requiring me to shout from about 16 feet away. Google Assistant didn’t work that well with a Roku TV, misunderstanding requests or not being able to perform certain actions (launching Netflix for example).ĭespite inconsistencies with display brightness, I did find Lenovo’s operating range claim (of 5 meters) accurate. And while activating night mode in the Google Home app helped reliably reduce the screen brightness within that time frame, I couldn’t adjust the actual hours during which night mode was active. The display seemed to brighten again within a matter of minutes. But even after making this adjustment with a voice command, I noticed that the request never stuck. The only way to adjust the clock’s display brightness is via a voice prompt (or to activate night mode in the Google Home app). In other instances, the reliance on Google Assistant and Google Home prohibited or didn’t do much for ease of use. If you have another speaker set up, you could add it to a group and cast the same program or music at once on multiple speakers. It’s also very easy to use the built-in Chromecast feature to cast whatever you want directly from your smartphone-whether it’s a Pandora or YouTube Music playlist or an audiobook. Google Assistant is the key to most functionality, and the integration mostly proves successful.Īnd while the 1.5-inch 6-watt speaker isn’t phenomenal, and you probably won’t want to use it as any sort of primary speaker, it’s not underpowered and doesn’t suffer from tinniness. All four buttons are responsive and clearly labeled just above the display with slightly raised graphic icons for controlling volume, media playback, and alarm functions. There’s also a built-in nightlight, which gets quite bright and comes on automatically with the alarm and when ambient light is low-but it can be disabled or turned off manually by holding down the lower-volume button. The display itself is dark but brightly lit by default, almost too bright at times (especially for sleeping), which makes it very readable but also prone to showing every fiber of lint or smudge that it picks up.įaithful to the minimalist design, you’ll find just three ports on the back of the clock: the power port, a switch to mute/unmute the microphone, and a USB charging port. Although the sizable 4-inch LED face does resemble more old-fashioned alarm clocks, the fabric surrounding the rest of the clock gives it a plush and contemporary feeling-but it’s a bit slippery and doesn’t offer much grip. So that is a bummer.Yoona Wagener / Lifewire Design: Compact and minimalistĪt a mere 0.52 pounds, this wedge-shaped smart clock doesn’t require much space to operate. However, there is no support for touch controls like there was on the “Smart Alarm Clock” of last year. Unlike the previous clock’s 4″ IPS LCD screen, the “Smart Clock Essential” features a 4″ LED panel. Speaking of the screen of the device, it is the only thing that has changed coming from the previous clock. And as there is Google Assistant built-in, users can also treat it as a smart speaker with a screen. In fact, it features the same 3W 1.5″ speaker inside just like the “Smart Alarm Clock”. ![]() Now, coming to the “Smart Clock Essential”, the device portrays a similar design as its older sibling. “Building on the Lenovo Smart Clock for the bedroom, the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential extends the same hands-free, time-saving convenience to the rest of the home, offering full voice support with Google Assistant,”, wrote Lenovo in the announcement statement. It is essentially an upgraded version of the company’s previous iteration of a smart clock. The Hong Kong-based electronic manufacturers announced the new alarm clock via an official press release recently.
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