A Google Assistant Clock Gets Your Morning Going

Could you use help getting up in the morning? Try a Google Assistant clock. 

The Lenovo Smart Clock elevates your wake-up.

Are you guilty of having your phone by your bed each night?  Phones work great as alarm clocks and are convenient for checking your schedule in the morning, but is this practice healthy?

Both Apple and Google have developed digital health apps to help people limit screen time and the number of times they check their phone. 

If you haven’t turned it on yet, try it.  You’ll likely find your stats to be surprising, perhaps staggering.

Addicted to your phone?  Nah, not you. But perhaps there’s something to be said about a little separation between you and your phone at night.

To help diminish the need to check your phone at night, Lenovo created the Smart Clock with Google Assistant.  It’s a Google Assistant clock with a compact footprint that fits snuggly on the table next to your bed.

The Google Assistant Clock

The Lenovo Google Assistant clock houses a full-range 6-watt speaker with enough sound to fill a large bedroom. 

What makes it smart?  Google Assistant.  The smart clock’s microphone can pick up your Google Assistant questions from across the room.

Here are ways I’ve been using the Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant…

• Listen to music and podcasts
• Set up my morning alarm
• Check the weather for the next day
• Confirm the weather in the morning
• Ask information questions my kids ask me at night
• See how long it will take me to drive to a location I’m going to the next day
• Find out what the temperature is in another city (as I am packing for a trip)
• Ask the definition of words I do not know as I read my book or an article
• Check the status of a connected light in the house (are my kids still up doing homework?)
• Add things to my shopping list or travel list
• Check the scores from the game I couldn’t stay up to watch
• See the end-of-day stock price of my stocks
• Ask for the details of my calendar for the next day

You can use the Google Assistant clock just as you would any Google Home speaker.  See Best Ways to Use Google Assistant for other helpful ways to it.

In addition to asking for information, you can set up routines to make nighttime and morning information more automated.

Nighttime Routine

The Lenovo Google Assistant clock will dim as the night gets darker so the light won’t affect your sleep. 

Dependent upon the lighting in your room, it will automatically adjust the brightness of its display and invert the colors of the clock face.

Swiping down from the top of the clock will give you an option to listen to music.  You can also ask your Google Assistant to play a podcast or instrumental music to wind down.

Using the Google Home app, you can connect your smart clock to your Pandora and Spotify stations.

Ideally, you can leave your phone charging in the kitchen, to aid in sleep and resist the urge to check email. 

Any last minute inquiries you have from the day can possibly be answered from Google Assistant clock.  

Just in case you can’t part with your phone, there is a USB plug in the back of the Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant to keep it charged through the night.

What about in the morning?  No need to panic.  The Google Assistant clock will help you orient yourself with your digital schedule in the morning.

Morning Alarm

The  Smart Clock with Google Assistant can set alarms for you via voice, touch, and it will even recommend an alarm based on your Google calendar. 

To turn off the alarm, simply say “Stop” or hit the top of the alarm.  You can snooze it also.

With the gentle wake-up setting, the face on the Google Assistant clock will gradually brighten and the alarm will begin rising in volume at about 30 minutes before your alarm is to go off.

Turning off the alarm triggers your chosen morning routine, which can include the day’s weather, a fun down of your calendar and reminders, your commute to work, and the daily news.

I really like this feature and have stopped using my tablet for my alarm since getting this smart clock. 

The Lenovo Google Assistant clock is so much better – I like the gentle wake up, how easy it is to turn it off or snooze. 

With my tablet, I had to fumble for it, try to read where to turn off the alarm, then put it back. 

With the smart clock, I just hit the clock.  Personally, I enjoy the sensation of hitting the clock.  Seems appropriate after waking me up. LOL.

Smart Home Control

At first glance, there is no visual option of controlling your home on the Lenovo Google Assistant clock.

If you have set up lights or gadgets in your bedroom with the Google Home App, they show up when you swipe down from the top of the clock.

You can control your gadgets using touch.  Or, As long as your smart lights, locks, thermostat, and more are linked up to the Google Home app, you can control them by voice. 

I have a number of smart gadgets hooked up in my home, so I tested it out.  

It worked great, but here’s the thing, you need to know what to call the items you want to control by voice. 

I took my smartphone with the Home app to my bedroom to see what I called my smart gadgets in other parts of my home and practiced turning them on and off. 

The ones most important to me I memorized what to call them.  They don’t show up automatically on the smart clock because they are located in other rooms.  But I can still turn them off by voice, using the correct names.

I have a number of Google Home speakers throughout my home as well, like the Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant. 

In the Home app, I grouped them together.  Now I can start playing music on my Lenovo Smart Clock and have it play my grouped Google Home speakers throughout my home.

Features:

• Comes with Google Assistant built in
• 4-inch touch screen
• 6-watt speaker 
• Receptive microphone picks up voice across the room
• Supports voice control
• Can listen to music throughout your home with multi-room audio grouping
• Blends in with small footprint and full fabric soft-touch cover
• Physical volume control on top of clock
• Full-size USB port on back of clock to charge phone or tablets
• Works with Google Chromecast to stream shows or music to your TV with voice
• Can control your smart home – works with over 10,000 smart home devices
• Gives you the choice to wake up to sounds, music, or ringtones
• Tap the top of the smart clock to turn off alarm
• Comes with multiple customizable clock faces
• Offers a physical privacy switch to turn off the microphone
• There is no camera built-in for added privacy
• Google Assistant will suggest the best time to set alarm based on your alarm history or the next day’s events in your calendar

Pros:

• Small footprint, takes little room on a nightstand
• An affordable way to control the home over other more expensive smart homes “hubs”
• Can customize sleep and wake up routines to your needs
• Can listen to calming music or audio books before bedtime
• Getting information from Google Voice by saying “Hey Google…” is so helpful
• Great sound from such a small device
• Alarm triggers helpful information in the morning like reminders, calendar events, weather, and commute time to work
• Google Assistant suggests alarms based on your use and next morning calendar events
• A gentle wake-up routine will gradually increase in volume and brightness 30 minutes before alarm time

Cons:

• Although you can see movement videos from connected security, only Nest cameras are supported for right now
• There’s no visual way to see the news during the morning report, it’s verbal and could wake up your partner
• Does not work as a Bluetooth speaker

The Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant is available directly from Lenovo for $79.99 with free delivery.

A Mom’s Perspective

The first thing you notice about the Lenovo Google Assistant clock is the big colorful clock face.  The default is a colorful display with Google colors. 

There are several clock faces you can change it to, but this one is my favorite.  The colors change dependent upon the new numbers that display as time progresses.

The second thing you notice is that the clock’s small footprint and aesthetically pleasing grey cloth cover. 

The clock is big for the clock face and then diminishes to a smaller back end to tuck into a corner if need be.

If you don’t have a digital assistant in your bedroom, it can be very handy. 

Checking the weather is my #1 go to, followed by asking random questions.  I love doing this, I ask whatever comes to my mind, like…

• how many people live in Los Angeles?
• what are the movie times of Aladdin?
• what are the hours of Sprouts?
• what is the best source for polyphenols?
• when does the Los Angeles fair start?
• how long will it take me to get to Riverside?
• how many dollars are 80 Euros?
• how do you say I love you in French?  (My daughter is taking French)

I can also ask my Google Assistant clock to set a timer for a certain period or ask it to remind me to pick up my son at 11 am or to drop off some chicken soup to a friend who’s sick.

The possibilities are endless and it’s a lot easier to speak these things than type them.  And all of this without needing to leave bed!

With the Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant, your alarm clock works for you, giving you assistance to prepare for the day, control your home, and get answers the minute a question pops in your mind.

* I was given a Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant in exchange for evaluation.  All opinions are my own.