The Lenovo Smart Clock is an affordable smart home accessory and a great way to get started with Google Assistant and Google Home.
The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential can be used in any room where you’d like to check the time, including the kitchen, living room or bedroom. I decided to place it in the bedroom for my morning alarm clock. It’s ideal for talking to Google Assistant for hands-free help.
The box contains a Lenovo Smart Clock Essential, an adapter, a quick start guide and warranty card.
When you first plug in your Smart Clock, it will guide you through the setup process. You’ll hear the friendly message: “I’m your Google Assistant. Download the Google Home app to a mobile or tablet.”
In the Google Home app, you’ll be able to select ‘Set up Google Assistant speaker’. You’ll need to pair the two devices using Bluetooth. There’s a handy sound test to let you know that you’re connected the right speaker.
You’ll then be stepped through the process of teaching your Google Assistant to recognise your voice with VoiceMatch. Here you’ll say four phrases to set this up.
There are some default music and video services you can connect: think Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, Netflix, Disney+, Stan, Foxtel, 9News (for Australia).
The Google Assistant software took a little while to update.
The clock was showing the correct time. It also shows the current weather and temperature, and whether the microphone is muted.
You can turn on the microphone and ask the assistant some questions to see if it’s working okay. To get the most out of your smart clock, you’ll want to spend some time changing the default settings and setting up some routines.
Lenovo Smart Clock features:
- 4” LED screen and 31 lumes night light
- Buttons for microphone, volume, play and alarm
- Amlogic A113X processor
- 4GB RAM and 512 MB flash memory
Pros
- For privacy reasons, I like the fact there is no video in the bedroom and you can turn the microphone off easily
- Neutral finish and soft grey colour is appealing for all décor schemes
- An affordable way to start your smart home off
- Built-in night light
Cons
- Your home Wi-Fi has to be on 24-7
- If you pay full price, it’s rather expensive for a fancy alarm clock
- Speaker doesn’t produce first-class sound quality
The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is a fun way to listen to music, news, podcasts and allows you to control over 40,000 compatible smart devices from over 5,000 brands.
Buy here: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/smart-clock
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 63,000 employees in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, it is developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the world’s most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, it is also leading an Intelligent Transformation – to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com.