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Put a Google Assistant-powered alarm clock on your nightstand for $25

Best Buy's Insignia Voice smart-speaker is back on sale!

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
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Rick Broida
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It looks like a fairly typical alarm clock, but Insignia's nightstand-friendly speaker is endowed with Google Home voice-controlled goodness.

 Best Buy

The Amazon Echo Dot makes a great addition to your nightstand -- but it's imperfect in two ways.

First, it has no display. Any bedside accessory worth its salt should be able to show you what time it is (maybe -- see below). Second, it's a pretty weak speaker, which is why I always recommend pairing it with something bigger and better.

Or, you could just buy this: Once again, Best Buy has the Insignia Voice Smart Bluetooth Speaker with Google Assistant for $24.99 (plus tax and $5.99 for shipping). Pro tip: Grab it from eBay's Best Buy store and avoid the shipping charge.

See it at Best Buy

Available in black or gray, the Insignia Voice is basically a Google Home designed for your nightstand. It's a digital clock, an alarm and a smart speaker, one that's large enough to deliver decent, room-filling sound -- unlike the Dot or Google Home Mini .

You can ask it to set an alarm (natch), tell you the weather, check traffic, look up movie showtimes, play music, request an Uber, control other smart-home gadgets and so on.

Read CNET's Insignia Voice review to learn more. Then hit the comments to debate the merits of having a clock on your nightstand. I increasingly prefer not to, because when I'm up during the night (which is always), I don't need the added stress of knowing what time it is.

Your thoughts? 

The growing crowd of smart speakers is ready for your command

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Originally published on June 8.
Update, Sept. 24: Added eBay option.

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