The $79.99 Lenovo Smart Clock is a Google Assistant-powered device with a microphone, a speaker, and a small screen.
It isn't quite a smart display, though, as the 4-inch screen has far less flexibility and use than any other model we've tested.
It's basically just a clock that can answer your questions and control your smart home devices.
If you want any sort of video features or decent audio performance, you're much better off buying our Editors' Choice, the Amazon Echo Spot.
Design
The Smart Clock looks like a miniature Amazon Echo Show (or the upcoming Echo Show 5), with a rectangular face and a tapered, almost pyramid-like body that naturally keeps the screen tilted back at a slight angle.
The four-inch, 800-by-480-pixel screen is framed by a 0.4-inch black border featuring two pinholes on the top edge for the microphones.
It's larger than the round Echo Spot, but smaller than every other smart display we've seen.
The sides of the Smart Clock are covered in a light gray fabric, with two rubber volume buttons on the top panel, just behind the screen.
Finally, a small plastic back panel holds the port for the included power adapter, a USB-A port you can use to charge your phone or tablet, and a microphone mute switch.
The screen is sensitive to touch, but doesn't offer much interactivity outside of some very basic settings.
Swiping left and right switches between clock faces and any alarms you've set.
Swiping down displays a menu with three buttons for Set Alarm, Good Morning (which executes your morning routine, which by default tells you the time, weather, and news), and Play Music (which plays random selections from YouTube Music).
Swiping up displays buttons for Brightness, Volume, Do Not Disturb, and general settings like Wi-Fi network.
That's pretty much the full extent of the control you get through the Smart Clock's touch screen when in its default state of showing the time, but the screen offers more touch controls during specific activities.
If you're listening to music, podcasts, news, or any other audio, on-screen Pause/Play, Track Back, and Track Forward buttons appear.
If you ask Google Assistant to control any smart home devices like lights or thermostats, buttons and sliders to adjust them show up.
They're helpful bits of context-sensitive interaction that feel more responsive than relying entirely on voice commands.
Setup and Google Assistant
Setting up the Smart Clock is just like setting up a Google Home Hub, or the larger Lenovo Smart Display.
Plug in the clock, open the Google Home app on your phone, and follow the instructions on the screen to connect the Smart Clock to your Wi-Fi network, link it to your Google Account, and (if you haven't already done this on another Google Assistant device) train it to recognize your voice by saying "OK, Google" and "Hey, Google" a few times.
The Smart Clock is a Google Assistant device more than anything else.
It's entire functionality revolves around Google's voice assistant and the various things it can do.
Like Lenovo's Smart Display, its role in the Smart Clock is almost entirely in the physical design and manufacture of the device; for controls and features, it's a Google product all the way.
Google Assistant is a comprehensive voice assistant, like Amazon's Alexa.
It can answer your questions about news, weather, unit conversions, and other general information; play media from a variety of services; control smart home devices, and even make phone calls.
To use it, just say "Hey Google," then ask a question or give a command.
If you've enabled hands-free Google Assistant on your Android phone, the wake phrase will make your phone listen as well, but Google Assistant will then determine which device is closer and use that one to respond to you.
You can also link the Smart Clock to a Google Chromecast or Android TV and use Google Assistant to both play content on your TV and show supplemental information on it, just as if it were a smart display.
(Not) Using the Screen
The Smart Clock's small screen is rarely used to display more than the time.
If you ask Google Assistant for most information, the screen will only show the four circles of the Assistant logo gently bouncing while verbally answering you.
The rare exceptions are when you ask for the weather, the traffic, your schedule, or a to-do list (which works with Google Calendar but not G Suite Calendar).
For nearly everything else, the screen remains completely unused, when on larger devices it shows supplemental information.
Even asking the Smart Clock what a country's flag looks like only gets a spoken description instead of a simple picture of the flag on the screen.
Bafflingly, the Smart Clock has a (limited) web browser built in; you can tap "More on Weather.com" when you ask Google Assistant for the weather and the mobile site will load.
You can't access the browser outside of this situation, though, and you can't enter other sites once the browser is on the screen.
The video-light, audio-heavy balance of the Smart Clock extends to media playback.
You can easily stream music to the device from any compatible app.
I was able to stream music from Google Play Music, Tidal, and YouTube Music, and podcasts from Podcast Addict to the Smart Clock with a tap.
Besides Google Cast audio streaming over Wi-Fi, you can connect your phone or any other device to the Smart Clock over Bluetooth for wireless audio playback.
I didn't have the same luck with videos, and couldn't even watch YouTube clips on the Smart Clock's screen, whether through the Cast icon on my phone or with a voice command.
When I asked the Smart Clock to show me cat videos, it directed me to use another Google Assistant device that supports video.
You can't even load Google Photos galleries and use the Smart Clock as a digital photo frame.
You can make phone calls with the Smart Clock to nearly any North American phone number, thanks to Google Assistant.
I called my office phone, and audio came through fairly clearly (at least, as clearly as a wired handset can sound).
The Smart Clock cannot make video calls.
Smart home control here is functional, and does use the Smart Clock's screen.
Google Assistant covers most major brands including Nest, Philips Hue, TP-Link, and Wemo.
I used the Smart Clock to control a TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini and it worked without issue.
After flipping the plug on or off with a voice command, an icon for it appears on the screen for a few seconds to provide touch controls.
Unfortunately, you still need to use a voice command to bring up any smart device; there isn't a simple menu you can just swipe to in order to see what you can control.
Audio Performance
If you're expecting the Smart Clock's audio performance better than your average clock radio, you're going to be disappointed.
The tiny 3-watt driver and dual passive radiators can sound quite loud considering the device's size, but not particularly good.
There is no bass response at all, to the point that the kick drum hits and low-frequency synth notes in our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," sounded like someone was tapping hard enough on a plastic cup to slightly crinkle it.
The bass in The Prodigy's "Voodoo People" got a similar effect, reminiscent of whacking a table with a wiffle ball bat.
Playing David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" from Tidal on the Smart Clock shows just how harsh and tinny the speaker's audio balance is.
The high-frequency synth strings of the track get overwhelming presence, while the bassline can barely be heard.
Bowie's vocals sound much more prominent in the high notes than in the lower ones, and the entire sound simply has very little texture or subtlety.
R.E.M.'s "Drive" sounds somewhat closer to listenable, with the guitars getting enough midrange presence to seem full, and the vocals coming through clearly without sounding harsh.
This is the only track that sounded remotely balanced on the Smart Clock, however.
More Clock Than Smart
The Lenovo Smart Clock disappoints both as a smart speaker and a smart display.
Its audio quality is far inferior to the Amazon Echo or Google Home, and even the Amazon Echo Dot manages stronger performance.
The Smart Clock's screen is also strangely underutilized, with no video playback capabilities and very few Google Assistant functions that take advantage of the ability to display visual information.
Considering we've seen the Google Home Hub and Echo Spot sometimes dip in price to $90 and $100 respectively, the Lenovo Smart Clock simply isn't very compelling as a small, budget-friendly smart display.
Either alternative is a superior choice if you want a smart clock loaded with useful voice assistant features, including video support.
We're also very interested to how the $90 Echo Show 5 will compare when it comes out next month, but it already sounds strong on paper, with a larger screen, a larger speaker, and a camera for video chat.
The Bottom Line
If you're just looking for an alarm clock with Google Assistant, the Lenovo Smart Clock will satisfy.
If you want a smart display with good sound or useful video features, look elsewhere.
