Lenovo is building an $80 Google Assistant clock for your nightstand

If you like the idea of Amazon’s Echo Spot — that is, a tiny voice-powered assistant on your nightstand, complete with a full-color display — but are more into Google Assistant than Alexa, your options have thus far been a bit limited.

You could put your phone on a dock, but that’s not quite the same. There’s Google Home Hub, but it’s a bit big for a nightstand with limited space.

With that in mind, Lenovo is building Smart Clock — an $80 Google Assistant-powered device built for the bedside.

It’s got a four-inch 480×800 touchscreen on the face, which can show stuff like the weather when it’s not acting as a clock. If you sync it up with your Google Calendar, it’ll also try to give you a heads up when you need to shift your normal alarm wake-up time. It’s got one small built-in speaker for tunes, and a rear USB port for charging other devices. They wrapped the whole thing in a soft grey fabric, which in addition to making it fit right in with any Google Home devices you might have, looks pretty dang snazzy for an $80 device. And with Google Assistant at the core, of course, it can handle everything you might otherwise use something like Google Home for — voice-powered automation, controlling your TV, etc.

Unlike the Echo Spot, Lenovo’s clock has no built-in camera — which, given that it’s meant to live in the bedroom, is probably a fine decision.

Google says this one should ship sometime this spring.