Better than a Google Home Mini

Smart displays are the new smart speakers. It seems like just about every company, from Amazon to Google to Facebook, is releasing their own.

Most smart displays, like Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub (formerly called Home Hub), use their screens to show lots of extra information, including photos, maps, and videos. But Lenovo’s $80 Smart Clock is far less ambitious. 

The Smart Clock is essentially a Google Home Mini with a 4-inch screen for displaying the time. There’s no camera for video calling, the screen can’t play YouTube videos, and the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.

At a time in which it feels like gadgets are doing too many things and becoming too invasive with the data they collect, the Smart Clock is a refreshing lesson in restraint. Lenovo intentionally limited the abilities of the Smart Clock, and I kind of appreciate that for a connected device that’s going to live on my bedside table.

At $80, the Smart Clock is reasonably priced, just $30 more than a Google Home Mini. That extra money basically gets you a small touchscreen. The Smart Clock is also cheaper than the $130 Echo Spot, which has a smaller, 2.5-inch round touchscreen.

Compare it to Google’s Nest Hub and Amazon’s new Echo Show 5, and the Smart Clock is less of a value. Though the Nest Hub retails for $130, it’s frequently sold for $100 from Google, and we’ve seen it for less at big-box retailers. Similarly, the $90 Echo Show 5 only costs $10 more than the Smart Clock and comes with a larger, 5.5-inch touchscreen and more smart display features.

Pretty adorable

Smart displays and “cute” almost never go hand in hand, but the Smart Clock is an adorable little bedside or desk gadget.

The wedge-shaped device resembles an Echo Show (second-gen), but it’s way tinier — barely larger than a Google Home Mini and roughly the size of a bedside alarm clock you can find at IKEA or Target. 

Since it’s a device designed for the bedroom, Lenovo wisely covered the outside with a fabric material to help it blend better at home. Two rubber strips underneath the Smart Clock help keep it firmly planted on a surface. Other than a stitched tag with Lenovo’s logo, the Smart Clock is a clean-looking device.

The minimalism extends beyond its looks. On top, there are only two buttons: plus and minus to adjust volume. Around back, there’s a plug for power, a microphone mute switch, and a full-size (USB-A) port that can be used to charge up another device like a phone or smartwatch.

Setting up the Smart Clock is a breeze. You download the Google Home app (if you don’t already have it), follow the on-screen prompts to pair the Smart Clock to your phone and connect to the internet, and you’re done.

Same Google Home Mini smarts

Everything you can do with the Google Assistant on the Home Mini works exactly the same on the Smart Clock.

I had no issues saying “Hey Google” to bring up the Assistant to tell me the weather, play music, turn on my smart lights, and so forth.

From what I could tell, the Google Assistant was as responsive on the Smart Clock as it was on my Home Mini; the two microphones located on the front of the device picked up my voice easily, even when I was 15 feet away.

The microphones are even sensitive enough to detect whispers. As somebody who’s grown used to awkwardly yelling at my Echo in the morning to silence the alarm and get it to tell me the weather, it was nice being able to speak softly to the Smart Clock.

But is it a good alarm clock?

Great, so the Smart Clock is comparable to the Google Home Mini. That’s not a high bar to clear. But is it a good enough alarm clock to justify spending another $30 over the Mini? I think so. 

The 4-inch resolution display sounds small on paper, but there are more than enough pixels (800 x 480) to show the time without you having to squint to see it. There are 10 different clock faces to choose from; they’re all fine and visible on the screen, but the clock face that also includes the weather will probably be everyone’s favorite. 

Alarms are easy to create. You can ask the Assistant to set one for you, or swipe left from the clock face to get to the alarm screen.

After creating an alarm, the Smart Clock also gives two options you can switch on. The first is called “Sunrise alarm,” which gradually brightens the screen 30 minutes before your alarm goes off. The second is “Good morning routine,” which activates the Assistant after the alarm goes off to read you the weather, your schedule, commute information, and news. Both are pretty handy — I recommend turning them on.

Turning off alarms can be controlled via voice or tap. You can tell the Assistant “stop” (no “Hey Google” phrase required) or touch the top of the Smart Clock, just like you would a physical button on a regular alarm clock.

Now, here’s where some people might find the Smart Clock disappointing: While I’m okay with the six alarm clock tunes included, some of my friends and colleagues expressed frustration at not being able to wake up to music from services like Spotify.

Another letdown for some people might be the limited display features. Besides the weather, alarms, and your schedule, there’s not much else you can use the Smart Clock’s display for. With the exception of being able to view live video from a connected Nest Cam, the screen can’t be used for watching, say, YouTube videos, or showing photos, or maps, or recipes, or pretty much anything a Google Nest Hub can.

Weak sound 

One thing you should not expect from the Smart Clock is sound that’ll knock your socks off. Like a Google Home Mini, the Smart Clock’s got a built-in speaker and it can play music, no problem. It’s just not a great speaker. The 1.5-inch, 3-watt speaker can get loud and fill a small room, but your ears will be begging you to turn the volume down if you do so. 

At any volume above 50 percent, music sounds tinny and distorted. The puny speaker’s also incapable of producing any bass. 

Don’t get me wrong: The Smart Clock’s fine for light background music. Just don’t expect it to produce sound that’ll move you at all.

Do you need to see the time?

I kept returning to the same burning question during my time testing the Lenovo Smart Clock: Is the clock really necessary?

I haven’t had an alarm clock on my bedside table in over a decade. I just use my phone. And since buying an Echo some four years ago, I’ve just asked Alexa to tell me the time and set alarms for me.

I’ll admit that’s it’s convenient to have the time and weather visible without having to use voice controls, but does anybody really need what’s essentially a Google Home Mini mashed together with a small touchscreen? Just like nobody needs Alexa in a microwave, I’m gonna say a small screen that’s mainly for displaying the time isn’t essential. 

That said, I can see the appeal. Sometimes simpler is better.