Lenovo adds an Essential version of their smart clock to their range

Quite simply Lenovo’s Google Assistant Smart Clock is a delight to wake up to in the morning. Lenovo is obviously a fan as well announcing an updated version, the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential, set to arrive in stores this month.

The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is still powered by Google Assistant, but eschews the LCD touch display, instead opting for an LED display with improved angles and readability – and ambient light sensor to ensure it’s bright enough in any conditions.

You can still interact with the Smart Display though with buttons on the unit – or simply speak to it with the usual commands like “Hey Google, what’s the weather like today?”

The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential retains the same 3W speaker internally for music playback – though it’s not really going to rock your world by itself, if you attach it to a speaker group it should add a little more impact.

There’s also still a USB pass-through port on the rear so you can charge your phone from it as well.

The original Lenovo Smart Clock was a surprise in the growing market of smart devices. There’s an equivalent alarm clock sized device from Amazon powered by Alexa in the Echo Show 5 which sells for a similar price, but if you want the Google Assistant powering your alarm clock the Lenovo Smart Clock is the way to go.

The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is going to arrive in stores this month for $99. The price tag is certainly above the $79 most stores are asking for the original Lenovo Smart Clock, and the major difference appears to be the touch display, so if you prefer touch input you may want to quickly grab one of those.