With a bazillion smart speakers and displays flooding the market, it sometimes feels like device makers are providing answers to questions you never asked. But Lenovo’s new Google-powered Smart Clock Essential brilliantly strips down what you need, down to the basics.
Everything the Lenovo Smart Clock can do
Despite its name, the $49 Essential is a smart speaker hidden inside a clock. And somehow, that change in form makes all the difference. There’s something inherently comforting about checking the time on this classic-looking design in a world invaded by globes, diamonds, and other strangely shaped smart speakers. You’ll instinctively know what the Smart Clock is doing because of the glowing numbers that look like they’re plucked from an ‘80s nightstand.
The Essential’s understated form may seem like a minor departure from other smart devices, but it reduces the cognitive load of constantly interacting with devices that all seem to speak a different design language. It looks similar to the original Lenovo Smart Clock, but at 4.76 inches wide by 2.52 inches high, and 3.27 inches deep, the Essential is shorter and wider.
The real difference is that the Smart Clock looks like a smart display, while the Essential looks like a clock. It has a very bright 4-inch LED screen with retro-style numeric numerals. I loved that the screen was large enough to read without my glasses. I hated that it didn’t have an ambient light sensor, so it kept me up at night unless I remembered to use a voice command to turn the brightness down. I remember even my old alarm clock from the 80s had a brightness control switch, so why couldn’t Lenovo include that on this model?
