These Smart Clocks That Double as Speakers Are Way Ahead of Their Time
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Bed-side alarm clocks aren’t just for waking up anymore.
A modern smart clock goes way beyond the bedroom, integrating all areas of your life into one device, and can instantly let you know things like the weather, news, and of course, the time as well.
What Are the Best Smart Alarm Clocks?
Waking up to your favorite song or podcast is a great way to start the morning. But that’s just the beginning, as the best smart alarm clocks offer an array of other options (and sync with your other devices) for helping you get through the rest of your day too. For example, some clocks can alert you when your rideshare has arrived, remind you about important appointments, and effortlessly connect to conference calls for use as an external speakerphone.
Some offer completely wireless charging, or a USB slot to manually plug in your phones and tablets. Bluetooth is another attribute that’s extremely helpful from a distance, for things like playing music and linking up with local devices. Some clocks even come with their own app, giving you greater control from anywhere.
Connection to WiFi opens up a whole world of new options too, once you hook up your clock to your smart home devices. The best smart clocks function like a home hub, letting you adjust the thermostat, say, using voice commands to operate your whole smart-home (and the snooze button) without even moving or getting out of bed.
When it’s nighttime, most clocks feature at least one LED light in a calming color, which can help you get relaxed and ready for a better sleep. It’ll also wake you up gently, gradually getting brighter and brighter, which is infinitely better than being jolted out of bed by the unpleasant buzzing and ringing of traditional digital alarms.
When clock shopping, you’ll quickly find that there are hundreds of options, with loads of different features. These four smart clocks are well-made and packed with smart features, to meet your basic home and lifestyle needs, and stand the test of time.
1. Echo Dot Smart Speaker With Clock and Alexa
The Echo Dot features a smooth and integrated LED display that easily shows you the time and temp, but this little device does so much more.
The Dot is a voice-command central hub, where you can turn lights on and off, adjust thermostats, lock doors, and play music (with a nice speaker quality too, and pairable with other Dots for an even richer stereo sound).
The built-in sensor automatically adjusts the soothing blue light with the darkness of the room, giving it a cool and calming glow. The unit also doubles as a speakerphone, as well as an internal intercom to communicate with other Echo devices in the house. Use Alexa to check the news, weather, and more.
2. Emerson SmartSet Alarm Clock Radio With Bluetooth Speaker
With an unmistakably big, bright digital display, Emerson’s SmartSet alarm clock features Bluetooth capability and a built-in cyan nightlight that turns on and off with a simple touch.
The SmartSet technology auto-sets the correct time and date as soon as you plug it in, or when the power comes back on after an outage. The alarm can be customized to go off on only weekdays, weekends, or whenever you want (or don’t want) to wake up.
There’s also an auxiliary port to hook up your phone or tablet with a 3.5mm input, and a USB port for easy overnight charging.
3. JBL Horizon Bluetooth Clock Radio
JBL has both sight and sound covered with this uniquely designed smart-clock.
Two high-performance drivers ensure that the room is filled with the rich sound JBL is known for, and with Bluetooth capability, you can stream your favorite tunes from the next room over.
Dual USB charging ports make juicing up multiple devices easy, and the ambient LED backlights gradually get brighter to help gently wake you up, instead of a sudden blaring alarm.
4. WamGra Touch Control Bedside Lamp Clock
There are a lot of features packed into this colorful little box – clock, nightlight, wireless speaker, SD Card reader, and MP3 player, just to name a few.
The controls are easily laid out on top, with convenient power buttons on both the front and back. Just give the WamGra logo a tap if you want to choose between the array of ambient colored lights, or let it continuously cycle through the colors on its own. The sound is pretty crisp too, especially for a small bedside Bluetooth speaker.
This also comes with an Aux cable and a micro USB wire to get you started connecting your favorite songs and podcasts.