Lenovo Smart Clock ($79.99) is an alarm clock with a 4-inch touchscreen and Google Assitant. Although it has a display, it’s not a smart display such as Lenovo Smart Display, Google Nest Hub, or Amazon Echo Show. It can’t play videos or show maps. It has many features for an alarm clock, but not many features as a smart display.
Design
Lenovo Smart Clock has a 4-inch touchscreen. There is no camera. The back case is covered by a light grey fabric. It looks like a small version of the Amazon Echo Show.
There are volume +/- buttons on the top, a charging port, a microphone on/off switch, and USB-A port on the back. You can charge your mobile device through the USB-A port. However, the output of the port is only 2.5W (5V/0.5A). So, don’t expect to charge your smartphone rapidly.
Overall, it’s a simple yet modern design. It’s small to fit anywhere like nightstand and side table.
Features
As an alarm clock, Lenovo Smart Clock has many features. You can choose a clock face from various designs, and each design can be customized with different colors. When an alarm goes off, hitting on the top is the same function as a snooze button. The buttons to snooze and dismiss will appear on the display so you can tap the snooze button instead of hitting on the top. Sunrise alarm feature makes the display lighten up gradually toward the alarm time. It will help you ease to wake up in the morning.
Google Assistant is built-in Lenovo Smart Clock. You can use it as a Google Home smart speaker. You can ask questions, play music, control smart home devices, set timers and alarms, and more.
You can play music from YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Pandora. The speaker is not very good quality, but it would be adequate to play news, podcasts, or relaxing sounds and sleeping music. When you play music, the display has playback buttons. It can also show album arts but no lyrics.
You can check coming up today’s event that you have entered on Google Calendar on other devices. You can ask the weather or just tap the weather icon with a temperature on the home screen to let it show the detail on the display. The weather is the only thing you can see the details on it. When you ask direction, Google Assistant answers with an estimated time of arrival but no maps or step by step directions. No lyrics with music. When you ask questions, Google Assistant AI answers but it doesn’t show the words AI or you are saying.
There is no camera to make video calls. You can’t even see your picture on it. The only video you can watch is a live feed from Nest cameras added to the Google Home app of the same account.
Sound
Lenovo Smart Clock has a single 3W 33mm speaker. For comparison, Google Home Mini has 40mm, Amazon Echo Show 5 has 4W 42mm. There is no audio jack to use your external speaker. And, you can’t use the smart clock as a Bluetooth speaker, either. You can cast to Chromecast-enabled devices from the smart clock, but I don’t think it’s useful at all. If you want to use Chromecast-enabled devices, you can just start casting to them from the Google Home app on your smartphone. If you play music a lot, it’s not the right device.
Pros
- Customizable clock faces
- Tapping on the top to snooze
- Sunrise alarm
- Google Assistant built-in
- Good speaker for an alarm clock
Cons
- No video features except for Nest camera’s live feed
- No camera
- Bad speaker for playing music
- Expensive for an alarm clock
Conclusion
Simply put, Lenovo Smart Clock is an alarm clock with Google Assistant smart speaker. It has a nice and sophisticated look for an alarm clock. It does have nice features for an alarm clock. However, the 4-inch touchscreen display is a waste because of a lack of video features. If the price is less, I want this and put it on a nightstand. The price of $79.99 is too expensive for overall features. Click here to see the latest price.