Lenovo Smart Clock Essential review: A great budget smart speaker

I've often wondered why Google doesn't come out with an answer to Amazon's Echo Dot with Clock. Lenovo must have been on the same wavelength, because that's just what the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential is. Actually, it's a better value than the Echo Dot with Clock, because it simultaneously displays all the information you want most frequently--not just the time--and it does it for $10 less than the 4th-gen Echo Dot with Clock. A shrunken sibling of the Lenovo Smart Clock, the Essential is a smart speaker with a 4-inch LED display that shows the current time (with an a.m./p.m. indicator, unless it's set to 24-hour mode), the day of the week (the date would be more useful), the current outdoor temperature (obtained via the internet), and an indicator for an alarm (if one is set). Four LEDs on its face light up when you say the'Hey Google' wake word.