There are many candy alarm clocks out there so as to add a little bit of aptitude to your nightstand, however what about including some smarts too? That’s the place Lenovo’s Smart Clock 2 is available in. This lovable but practical clock doubles as a wise show that’s powered by Google Assistant.
Meaning you may ask for climate updates or view Nest safety digicam feeds with the correct voice command. And with a agency but mild faucet on the highest of the show, you may silence your morning wake-up alarm earlier than beginning your day.
Right here’s what we take into consideration the tiny sensible show after utilizing the $69 Lenovo Good Clock 2 and the elective charging station for the final couple of weeks.
A tiny alarm clock with critical smarts
The who, what and the way
Who that is for: The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 is for somebody who prefers Google Assistant over Amazon’s Alexa platform and is in search of a brand new alarm clock that does greater than sound an alarm at a set time.
What it’s worthwhile to know: The Lenovo Good Clock 2 is a full-fledged sensible show that makes use of Google Assistant for visitors experiences, climate forecasts or streaming your Nest digicam feed to your nightstand. Your complete setup is small — with solely a 4-inch show — so don’t count on to have the ability to learn it clearly from throughout the room. If you wish to add some utility to the Lenovo Good Clock 2, you may pay slightly additional for a charging station that provides a wi-fi charging pad to maintain your cellphone or earbuds charged when you sleep.
The way it compares: The $69 Good Clock 2 has a extra streamlined design in comparison with the unique Smart Clock, which you’ll presently discover closely discounted. As a result of sensible shows have historically been designed for customers to observe digicam feeds, stream movies or play video games, you’ll be hard-pressed to search out one other gadget with a 4-inch show. The Google Nest Hub (which retails for $99 however is presently half off) has louder audio system and an even bigger display screen, whereas Lenovo’s normal $69 Smart Display 7 stands out with its nice display screen and design.
After we first opened the field that the Good Clock 2 arrived in, we instantly discovered the show and marveled at simply how small it’s. No. Actually. The best smart displays appear to solely be getting larger and smarter, with gadgets just like the $250 Echo Show 10 and its 10-inch show that actually follows you across the room, or the 10-inch $229 Nest Hub Max with its massive design.
The Good Clock 2 measures 4.46 by 2.80 by 3.67 inches with a 4-inch touch-capable show and is available in three totally different coloration choices: Heather Grey, Abyss Blue and Shadow Black. The show is loads vibrant, however that’s not what issues most as an alarm clock. As an alternative, it’s how dim can the display screen get whereas nonetheless being readable, however not one thing that retains you up all evening as a result of it’s lighting up your room. We’re comfortable to report that we didn’t need to fiddle with its brightness settings throughout our testing — it mechanically lowered its brightness as evening approached however was nonetheless clearly readable from a couple of ft away. It’s not the best-looking show in terms of saturation and vivid colours, but it surely doesn’t need to be.
On the again of the Good Clock 2 is the ability port and a mute swap that turns off the always-listening microphone. On the underside of the clock is a set of pogo pins which can be used to attach the show and supply energy to the elective charging station.
The general design modifications from the unique Good Clock aren’t drastic. Lenovo added extra coloration choices and the choice for the cost station however stored the material cowl on the housing. It seems to be like a smaller model of the Nest Hub and Lenovo’s Good Show, and that’s a very good factor. If we might change something in regards to the design of the Good Clock 2 it could be to shrink down the big black bezels that encompass the display screen, letting the show movement into the housing.
The station itself is rectangular, with a spot to position the Good Clock 2 — full with the connecting pogo pins and an LED mild ring that goes across the backside of the show — together with a wi-fi charging pad to the correct of the display screen. On the again of the station is a full-size USB port that you should utilize to attach a charger to your smartwatch.
The station provides $20 to the worth of the setup, bringing the overall to $89 for the Smart Clock 2 and the charging station.
Outdoors of selecting the colour of the material that covers the show’s housing, the one different main buying choice associated to the Good Clock 2 is whether or not or not you need the charging station.
There are some magnets contained in the charging station that assist maintain your smartphone in place when it’s wirelessly charging. We solely know this as a result of the magnets even trick our MagSafe-equipped iPhone 13 Pro into considering it’s on a MagSafe charging pad, enjoying the animation once we place our iPhone on the pad.
We have been capable of efficiently cost a number of totally different fashions of telephones on the wi-fi charging pad. The Pixel 5, a Samsung Galaxy S21 and iPhone 13 Professional all charged with none concern. Nevertheless, we by no means did get Google’s new Pixel 6 Pro to start out charging on the pad. Regardless of how we positioned the cellphone, the wi-fi charging coils have been by no means acknowledged.
We’re an enormous fan of the Good Clock 2 with out the charging station just because we respect the minimal strategy of the clock by itself. That mentioned, the charging station doesn’t take up that a lot area and is an inexpensive method of including wi-fi charging to your nightstand.
The Good Clock 2 is a great show that makes use of Google Assistant to reply widespread questions, management your sensible house and the like. Lenovo, nevertheless, has added a couple of options to the Good Clock 2 that emphasize its major job of waking you up within the morning.
For starters, each time the alarm goes off, you may faucet on the highest of the show to both shut it off or snooze it. You’re capable of management which of these two choices are used within the settings.
There’s additionally a Dawn Alarm function that may slowly flip up the brightness of the show, step by step lighting up your room earlier than the alarm sounds.
Moreover, there are a number of clock designs you may choose from. Choices embrace conventional alarm clock designs or extra interactive clocks that assist you to use an image of your personal, taken out of your Google Pictures account.
Navigating the Good Clock 2’s interface feels so much like getting round a smartwatch. You’ll be able to long-press on the clock to choose a special clock design or customise the one you presently have set. As an example, you may add or take away the climate or change the colour of the clock.
Swiping from any fringe of the show will set off a special motion. Swiping down from the highest will reveal settings shortcuts. Swiping up from the underside provides you one other set of gadget settings, whereas swiping towards the center of the display screen from the correct edge scrolls via a built-in nap alarm that’s already set for 20 minutes (how cool is that?!) in addition to your day by day alarms and the present climate.
In the event you’re throughout the room, you may all the time use your voice to manage the Good Clock 2. It responds to “Hey Google” adopted by your question or command. The Clock 2 woke to instructions and responded simply as seamlessly as the usual Nest Hub. Now that we give it some thought, the Clock 2 did a greater job of removing any phrases that would sound like a false wake phrase, which is one thing that’s widespread throughout practically all sensible audio system or shows.
For instance, you may ask for the present climate or a preview of what’s in your Google Calendar’s agenda for the day. You may as well use it to manage any of your sensible house gadgets, like your porch mild, Nest thermostat or entrance door lock. Granted, you’ll must have all of these gadgets linked to your Google account through the Google Residence app in your cellphone.
Talking of the Residence app, you should utilize an alarm to set off a Routine you’ve created within the Residence app. So, let’s say you’ve gotten a Google Residence Routine that activates your lights and offers you a visitors replace and the time of your first appointment. You’ll be able to have your alarm set off your Good Morning routine after you shut it off, serving to you get your day began.
We appreciated the bonus data inside a couple of seconds of waking up, but it surely’s not one thing we would depart on outdoors of testing, solely as a result of we don’t wish to get up our companion. Making a Routine just like the one we simply talked about is simple. In actual fact, Google has one which’s very near that as the principle template for a morning routine. You’ll be able to add or take away gadgets utilizing the Residence app in your cellphone, tailoring the Routine to suit your wants.
The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 is an lovable alarm clock that simply so occurs to have the ability of Google Assistant constructed into it. You need to use it to take heed to podcasts when you go to sleep or begin enjoying your favourite tunes while you rise up within the morning — one thing that normal alarm clocks can do however with out the fashion that the Good Clock 2 gives.
For $70, it’s not an inexpensive alarm clock — but it surely isn’t simply an alarm clock. You’re in a position to take action far more, and for those who go for the charging stand, these capabilities are expanded much more. Positive, you will get a Nest Hub for near the identical worth, but it surely lacks the identical alarm clock-specific options and takes up much more area in your nightstand.
