The 5 best smart alarm clocks for your bedside table in 2024

While regular alarm clocks are great, they’re very much outpaced by modern smart alarm clocks that have a ton of great features, including ones that can help you get to sleep. Whether it’s meditation and white noise or even a slowly dimming light, smart clocks can get away from the screen and sleep more regularly. In fact, some smart alarms even have forms of sleep tracking, so you don’t have to wear your smartwatch or smart ring to bed if it makes you uncomfortable. That said, if you still do want some sort of display and the ability to get information, there are a couple of opitons for that too.

To that end, we’ve compiled our favorite smart alarm clocks below so that you can find the best one that fits your needs, whether it’s a budget-friendly and toned-down one, or a much fancier one with a full display.

The Best Smart Alarm Clocks in 2024

• Buy the 
  if you want the best overall smart alarm clock
• Buy the 
  if you want the best budget digital alarm clock
• Buy the 
  if you want the best smart alarm clock for lighting
• Buy the 
  if you want the best smart alarm clock for Alexa users
• Buy the 
  if you want the best smart alarm clock for Google Assistant users

Loftie Clock

Best overall smart alarm clock

While the Loftie is a little bit expensive, if you’re looking to have a very soothing wakeup alarm, then the Loftie gives you a ton of options to work with. For example, if you’re interested in a more subtle wake-up with a light that slowly gets brighter, you can set it to do that. Alternatively, if you don’t care so much about the light and prefer being woken up by tone, then the Loftie two-phase alarm system will use one alarm system to wake you up and a second alarm system to properly wake you up, which is a nifty little feature.

The Lofite also has a built-in Bluetooth speaker, so if you want to listen to your music as you wake up or drift off to sleep, you can do that. On the other hand, the Loftie comes with some pre-loaded sleeping sounds, too, like rain and a campfire or natural sounds like that, so you don’t have to rely on your smartphone. There are also some great meditation and mindfulness exercises that are loaded into it, so you can do a whole wake-up and morning routine without looking at your phone at all if you want.

As for the screen, it gives you a ton of information, and the soft-touch buttons on the top make it quite easy to control, which is important if you’re half asleep and want to check something. Also it also has a dimmable screen for when you want to go to sleep or a timed black-out mode for those who need absolute darkness. That said, you should note that the app can be a bit finicky, and you do need a Wi-Fi connection to gain access to a lot of its functions, although that’s about what we’d expect for a smart alarm clock anyway.

Emerson Smartset Radio Alarm Clock

Best budget digital alarm clock

A good smart alarm clock doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, and if you’re looking for something that’s a bit more simple without a lot of app control, then the Emerson Smartset is a solid option. In fact, the app control is basically the ability to connect to the Bluetooth speaker, which is great if you don’t want to get bogged down in a complex app for setup.  Luckily, the clock has a ton of buttons on the top for you to control and set it with, so even though there’s no app connectivity beyond just the speaker, it’s not difficult to set up.

Of course, it’s not completely without features; for example, the blue night light is pretty handy to have, especially if you find yourself often getting up at night to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. The LED display is also quite big, which is perfect if you need to wear your glasses to see anything, and it’s also dimmable, so you can set it exactly to where you need it. As for your smartphone, you can charge it through the phone, which is great since the alarm clock itself charges through USB, so you aren’t taking up an extra slot in your bedside plugs.

In terms of alarm, you can set it to wake you up with a buzzer or through your favorite music or FM station, of which there are 20 presets that you can set up. As for the time itself, you don’t have to worry about that since it automatically sets everything from the time to the day automatically. There’s also an internal backup battery so that if the power goes off, you won’t end up missing an important meeting because the alarm didn’t go off.

Philips SmartSleep

Best smart alarm clock for lighting

If sunrise and sunset are very important to you for waking up and going to sleep, then it’s hard to find a smart alarm clock that serves that function better than the Philips SmartSleep. As you can see, the majority of its body is dedicated to a massive light, and using Philips’ true-and-tested lighting tech, it does an excellent job of recreating sunrise and sunset. That said, you also have 25 different lighting settings you can pick from, so you don’t have to lie on Philips picks for sunrise and sunset necessarily.

The clock is really visible, without being too overwhelming, and there’s even a convenient button on the top for a night light when you need to get up and get something, which is handy. The app integration also gives you a lot of control over the setup and how you want your alarm to work, whether it’s through an FM radio station or just the light, which is a nice touch. Much like the Loftie, it also has some built-in white noises and breathing apps, so if you find that sort of thing important to get to sleep, then you’re all set!

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the SmartSleep doesn’t come with any Bluetooth and relies entirely on a 2.4 GHz connection to keep connected, including to your phone, so it’s a bit frustrating in that regard. Even so, it does make up for it with an external phone charger and an eight-hour backup battery in case your electricity cuts out. There’s also a supposed sleep tracker or monitor that it has, but it’s not a true sleep tracker like you might expect from a smartwatch, so we wouldn’t rely on that if that aspect is important to you.

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) with clock

Best smart alarm clock for Alexa users

If you’re already inside the Alex ecosystem, then you have an excellent smart alarm clock that you can grab, and then it adds an extra layer of convenience since you’ll be able to control it, and other things, by voice. In that case, you can grab the 5th generation Amazon Echo Dot with a clock, which integrates you with the Amazon ecosystem while still giving you access to a pretty good smart clock. The display is a lot smarter than previous generations, showing you things like the weather, song names, and, of course, the time. It’s also dimmable, so it has a similar alarm clock function.

The speaker is also pretty good, at least compared to other smart alarm clocks, so you can definitely listen to all your music without issue when waking up. That said, while it plugs in directly to the wall, there’s no battery backup, so if you want to make sure your alarm goes off, you’re going to have to buy the battery backup addon. That’s not very ideal, but given that the Echo Dot isn’t that expensive compared to some other options on this list, it’s a small price to pay for the added functionality, plus it can function as more than just an alarm clock.

In terms of the alarm itself, you can control everything with voice and let Alexa know exactly what you want. That includes things like setting days and what sort of audio you want to be woken up with, and that includes some celebrity clips as well, which is pretty neat. Even better, you can snooze the alarm clock by voice, so you don’t even have to reach over and disrupt your rest, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how many snooze alarms you set.

Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen

Best smart alarm clock for Google Assistant users

If you like the idea of the Echo Dot but are in the Google ecosystem instead, then you’ll be happy to know that there’s a great option for you too. In this case, we’re talking about the Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen, which is an excellent bedside alarm that also has a ton of extra functionality. For example, it has a more traditional display, which is, therefore, larger and can give you a lot more information, or rather, more detailed information, such as your calendar and upcoming events of the day, more specific music information, and things of that nature.

While it may not seem like it, one of the hidden benefits of the Nest Hub, compared to other Google devices with a screen in them, is that it doesn’t have a camera, so folks should be much more reasonable to put it in a bedroom. Also, another big benefit is that the Nest Hub 2nd gen comes with a form of radar that can help sense your movement when sleeping and act as a sleep tracker. It’s surprisingly accurate, and for those who struggle to wear a watch or ring while sleeping, this is an excellent alternative.

Of course, you also get a pretty good speaker so you can listen to or play your favorite music by connecting your phone with Bluetooth. And, because it’s a Google device, it has access to many of the apps that you find on the Play Store, such as Netflix and Spotify, meaning you can stream your music directly. You can also use the “Hey Google” commands for smart-home integration, as well as just overall to set your alarm, ringtone, and things of that nature, making this a multi-talented device.

How We Chose These Smart Alarm Clocks

Connectivity

There’s no point in having a smart alarm clock if you can’t connect to it in any way since that’s just a normal digital alarm clock and doesn’t solve any issues. To that end, all the picks we’ve chosen for here connect to the smart clock in some way or another, although they have varying levels of what you can actually do with that connectivity. For example, the devices from Amazon and Google integrate you into those ecosystems, while the Emerson Smartset only has speaker connectivity, so you can’t set anything up with a smartphone.

Lighting & Speaker

The most common way that alarms work in smart clocks is through some form of audio, and while most older clocks just have a screeching alarm, modern smart alarms are much more adjustable. For example, some smart clocks have a much more gentle chime, or use a two-stage system when it comes to audio and loudness. Or, if you don’t want a sound at all and want to be woken up with music, some smart clocks can do that, too, and they can also wake you up with an FM channel, which is a nice little bonus.

With modern tech getting into smart clocks, we’re also seeing many of them that can use light instead of an audible alarm. This usually takes the form of slowly brightening light so it feels like a sunrise, and there’s also the opposite effect to help you get to sleep. Also, with some lights, like the Philips SmartSleep, you can even customize the lights to a specific hue that you like, so you can pick whichever light works best for you.

Display

While we don’t consider the display as the most important part of a smart clock, it certainly is important, especially if you’re using it to find and see information when waking up. To that end, we’ve included a few choices in a range of spectrums, from the very simple smart clock displays to a full-on LED display that you can even watch movies and read emails on. Of course, going with the latter might not be great for everybody, especially those who are trying to get away from digital screens.

This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial team.

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