Unlike Lenovo, the Echo Show 5 has a video camera, but it also has a physical shutter for extra peace of mind. It will let you watch videos, control your smart home and some of the other smart display features missing from the Lenovo Smart Clock. The upcoming $90 Amazon Echo Show 5 looks like it might also have a place by your bedside. It has a camera, which might be a positive for some, but isn't something I'd want in a device next to my bed.
The petite, circular Spot is also meant for your nightstand, but keeps more of the functionality of Amazon's full sized smart display, the Echo Show. The Lenovo Smart Clock somewhat follows in the footsteps of the $130 Amazon Echo Spot. Everything about the Lenovo Smart Clock's screen is meant for your nightstand, and most of the functions of the touchscreen are tailored for when you're getting to sleep or waking up. You can similarly customize the Good Night routine in the app and trigger it with the shortcut menu as you're heading to bed. You can also train the routine to control various smart home gadgets or perform any other command within Google Assistant's repertoire.
Using the Google Home app, you can customize and remove any of those aspects. By default, the routine tells you about your calendar and your commute then launches news podcasts. It smartly won't trigger if you just hit snooze. Flip this on, and it will trigger Google to go through a customizable grouped command when you shut off your alarm. In addition to the sunrise switch, you'll also see a toggle for "Good morning routine" in alarm settings. You can also create a sunrise effect with a Pixel phone as well as with Philips Hue smart lights. It casts a brighter glow and stays lit while you hit snooze a couple of times instead of turning off at the first buzz. If you're primarily interested in this sunrise feature, the Philips HF3500 does it better for $43. If you've added the Smart Clock to a room with connected lights in the Google Home app, you'll have the option to turn those lights on or off with the drop-down menu as well. Swipe down from the top of the screen for a shortcut menu that changes throughout the day. Scroll up from the bottom for a quick settings menu including volume and brightness.
You can't watch videos on the Smart Clock, but you can pull up a live feed for any Nest Cams you have synced to your account if you want to check on things one last time before you go to sleep. You can swipe through cards showing info relevant to the start and end of your day - your alarms, the weather, your commute and your calendar.
The touchscreen isn't as robust as Google's other smart displays, but it uses the same Android Things software which is a trimmed-down version of Google's mobile operating system meant for smart home gadgets. Surprisingly, it sounded even a little better than the tinny Nest Hub in a head-to-head test. It's solid for background listening with little to no distortion even at max volume. Don't expect premium audio, but turn it up and it will more than fill your bedroom with music.
Start playing a song, and the sound quality is similar if even a little fuller than the Mini. Plus, the sunrise wake-up feature is great. Some of the clock faces look cool, and the adaptive brightness does minimize the glow if you don't need to see the time at night. At night, you can trigger your bedtime routine with a button press, and that same button will start a nap timer in the afternoon. You can swipe down from the top of the screen for shortcuts to play music or set an alarm, and these controls change throughout the day. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the Lenovo Smart Clock more than once during my testing. The Google Home Mini is only $50, and solid alarm clocks can be had for as little as $10. You can regularly find the Nest Hub on sale for $100 or less if you want a smart display. Worst of all, although you can pick from a wide variety of clock faces, colors and brightness levels for the screen, none strike the right balance of clearly showing you the time at night without casting a sleep-disrupting glow.ĭepending on what you're looking for, you can probably find a better device for any of the individual features of the Lenovo Smart Clock. It can't wake you up with your own music. Even as an alarm clock, it's customizable and easy to use, but compare it to our favorite ordinary alarms, and it falls short.