A smart alarm clock with a fun Nintendo twist (and some frustrating quirks)
Nintendo’s big product release for the 2024 holiday season isn’t a Switch 2, but a clock. The $99.99 Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo is expensive for an alarm clock, but it offers some clever tricks, such as the ability to track your sleep (similar to the $99.99 Google Nest Hub). It’s fun and incredibly charming, but it’s also limited in strange ways. For instance, it doesn’t connect with an app or any other devices, sleep tracking only works reliably for solo slumberers, and the clock itself is frustratingly tricky to control. The end result is a product for die-hard Nintendo fans only. For everyone else, the Nest Hub and the $79.99 Amazon Echo Spot offer much more, including music playback, smart home integration, and voice control. Design: It Looks Like Mario’s Alarm Clock
The Alarmo resembles a cartoon alarm clock that would fit perfectly on Mario’s nightstand. It measures four inches wide and 3.4 inches deep, with a red, gumdrop-shaped matte plastic body resting on squat, black rubber legs. The top has a large, semi-translucent dial that evokes the big bells on top of classic alarm clocks. Back and notification buttons are positioned in front of the dial, flush with the clock’s body. The front panel is a recessed black disc housing a 2.8-inch rectangular LCD (Nintendo doesn’t specify the resolution). The round Echo Spot is almost identical in size, but its face has both a display and speaker grille, while the Nest Hub has a much larger 7-inch screen.
The dial is the main way to control the clock, and it’s far from intuitive. Even connecting the Alarmo to the internet requires you to manually enter your Wi-Fi password by dialing it in. In fact, all settings are accessed through the dial; an app would have made the process much more efficient (more on this later).
Since the Alarmo’s feet are fixed, you can’t adjust its angle. This is fine if your nightstand is on the same level or slightly higher than your bed, but it’s less ideal if it’s lower than your bed, and downright uncomfortable if you want to use it as a desk clock. The rectangular screen isn’t particularly sharp or colorful, and it dims zealously unless you disable the light sensor’s dimming function—and it isn’t too bright in the first place.
The biggest design-related disappointment, though, is the screen’s rectangular shape, which feels at odds with the round shape. The Alarmo is circular like a classic alarm clock, but there’s no circular clock mode; it only shows the digital time in its boxy confines.
