Lenovo Smart Watch Essential Review: A little clever watch radio

There is no shortage of devices to use as an in-control alarm clock that you can stick to your bedside table. You can, of course, use not only your phone, but you can also place small smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Echo Dot, Google’s Nest Mini or Apple’s new HomePod Mini and peel commands on it to set alarms, weather, or Snooze for ten minutes. If you want something more fully customizable, devices like the Echo Show 5, Lenovo Smart Clock or Google’s Nest Hub have a full-color touchscreen display that can play video, show camera feeds or use as a digital picture frame.

Lenovo’s latest entry into this space. 49.95 Smart Clock Essential, it sits somewhere in between. It is a voice-controlled, Google-assisted smart speaker with a smooth, black and white LED display. It displays current time, weather conditions, day and your currently set alarms. The display will automatically adjust its brightness depending on the room’s light levels, so it won’t blind you in the middle of the night. But it doesn’t have a touchscreen, doesn’t display photos or video, and can’t be used to monitor camera feeds. If you combine a modern smart speaker with an old school LED clock radio from the 1980s, you will find it effective.

The combination of those ideas is in the look of Smart Clock Essential. On the front, the white numbers on a black background make it look like a typical, basic alarm clock. Pierce nearby and you can see two small holes for the microphones that your voice prefers these commands. At the top of the wedge-shaped device are four buttons for alarms, play / pause and volume management. Surrounding is a USB-A port that you can use to charge a phone or smartwatch, as well as a switch to turn off the microphone.

The sides of the Smart Clock Essential are wrapped in gray fabric, as has become the trend with smart speakers in recent years. A special feature here is the LED ring light on the back of the device which means a kind of nightlight. Lenovo claims that it will not disturb your sleep, but I found it very bright to use when the watch is one or two feet from my head while I am sleeping. You can adjust the brightness using voice commands, but I wish there was a button to do so or Lenovo automatically adjusted it based on how many lights there are in the room. Or better yet, it may come as a slow awakening light before my alarm is adjusted to turn off slowly.

As an alarm clock, a smart watch is essentially well equipped. You can set multiple alarms, either through the buttons at the top or through the voice commands (a much simpler method if you ask me). It can sound a standard alarm beep, or you can just say “stop” once the alarm goes off. You can also double tap the top of the clock to snooze. Although this tap gesture takes a bit of effort, and when I’m half awake and annoyed, I feel like I have to strike from the top to snooze it. Amazon’s similar Echo Dot with the watch does this tap-to-snooze thing better.

One note: And this applies to every smart speaker alarm clock I’ve tested – there’s no backup battery here, so if your power goes out overnight and doesn’t return before your alarm is set to turn off, you don’t have to An alarm in the morning.

As a smart speaker, the Smart Clock is essentially nice, but don’t expect it to be your main music listening device. The speaker of the W-V speaker gets surprisingly loud, but as you would expect, the bass is lacking and the sound is not very pleasant at high volume. To hear weather reports, news updates, or your favorite wake-up song, it’s definitely enough.

The Smart Clock Essential can be compared to two words: functional simplicity. It offers more utility and alarm clock features than the screen-less Nest Mini or Echo Dot but won’t snatch you away from the full smart display functions. At its regular price of Regular 50, it offers a good experience. But lately, it’s been selling at half the price, which makes it an even better deal if you want to upgrade your alarm clock experience.