![]() ![]() I was able to plug it into a lesser-used outlet, freeing up the one closer to my night stand. I do appreciate that the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa comes with a nice long power cord. It wouldn’t have to be fast charge or anything special, just functional. Given this uses one of the outlets on my night stand, it would be nice if I could plug a device in and piggyback the charge. I would have liked to see the inclusion of a USB port on the back of the unit. I don’t often play music but the clock’s speaker works great for those times when I’m putting laundry away, cleaning the house, etc. It’s louder than expected, and does a pretty decent job of providing a balanced audio. One area where the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa shines is the speaker. You can quickly locate them while lying in bed and pressing without looking. The buttons at the top of the device are pronounced, easy to identify, and responsive. If you’re not planning to use Alexa here, or don’t like the idea of something that could potentially listen to you, simply toggle it and you’re good. In a related note, there is a physical mute button on the back of the alarm clock. In my testing I found the mic to be accurate from a variety of angles and distances in the bedroom. Suffice it to say, it does have a microphone and can take your commands. This isn’t the time or place to argue Google Assistant versus Amazon Alexa so I won’t get into that. Some features and settings can be managed via Amazon Alexa voice controls but it’s not entirely obvious as to what those are up front. And if you want to adjust more basic things like brightness, toggle Fahrenheit and Celsius, or 12/24 hour clock, that’s also in the app however, it’s in a slightly different spot. Things you may, or may not, tweak can include time zone, sound settings, Wi-Fi, and Do Not Disturb. You will basically connect your phone to it and teach the Smart Clock Essential the Wi-Fi settings, and assign it to a room.īeyond that, if you want to adjust configurations, you will need to work with the Amazon Alexa app. You’ll have to walk through the Amazon Alexa app the first time and that process takes but a few minutes. Setup is interesting in that you cannot just plug it in and turn it on. Fortunately, the screen does provide quite a bit of information on it and it feels intuitive in its layout. ![]() Now, to be sure, this is not a touch screen so you may have to resist the urge to swipe or tap in the first few days. Even though it’s an LED screen the clock resembles the LCD stuff of yesterday. In fact, I sort of embrace that concept as it marries the traditional alarm clock with today’s modern aesthetics. I care little about the display not being full color, or that it more closely resembles a traditional alarm clock. As it turns out, I can certainly do without. Knowing that the clock would not feature Google Assistant, I was curious as to whether I’d still find it usable or worth having in the bedroom. ![]()
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