I got a LaMetric Time smart clock three years ago. Chances are you’ve never heard of the brand, but you may have seen the gadget. Many YouTubers have one in the background of their videos to show off their subscriber count. However, the LaMatric Time can do more. It shows the weather, displays news headlines, and serves as an online radio. It has a charming LED-matrix screen, and with LaMetric’s solid collection of apps, you can customize the data it displays.
Music lovers can cast audio to the Time over Wi-Fi from services like Spotify. On its own, the clock is far from the best smart speakers in terms of sound quality, but the 3.5mm audio output jack makes it a cool Chromecast Audio alternative. However, you should avoid getting one, and not because of its steep price of $200. It’s because LaMetric’s smart clock is flawed and bound to fail.
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What makes the LaMetric Time a good Chromecast Audio alternative?
The Time is a cool, geeky gadget, when it works
To give credit where it’s due, the LaMetric Time is a lovely gadget. It is compact enough to be your smart desk companion, yet the screen is large and legible. It is easy to power over USB, and the big buttons let you manually scroll through whatever screens you set up.
As an audio device, the LaMetric Time alone does not impress. The built-in speakers are tinny and comparable in quality to what the best mid-range Android phones produce. Still, the 3.5mm audio jack allows you to connect the smart clock to an amplifier or an active speaker set and cast music to it over Wi-Fi. Better yet, the LaMetric Time displays an audio visualizer and the name of the song currently playing. You don’t get these perks with the Chromecast Audio.
What’s so bad about the LaMetric Time?
I now have a $200 paperweight
My LaMetric Time when it still worked
On the surface, the biggest drawback of the LaMetric Time is its steep price. It costs $200 and rarely sees substantial discounts. If you think that’s too much for a smart clock, you’re not alone. Some of the best smart displays cost that much and come with better screens and speakers.
On the audio front, the smart clock lacks the Chromecast Audio’s optical out and high-resolution audio support, extras audiophiles appreciate. Audio output is a neat but secondary feature in LaMetric’s case. The Wi-Fi range could also be better.
The biggest flaw of the LaMetric Time
As a tech writer and reviewer of 14 years, I believe that microSD cards are the least reliable storage medium in widespread use. They tend to fail, especially with frequent use. That’s why high-endurance microSD cards exist, intended for use in dashcams, for example.
It turns out that the software on the LaMetric Time is stored on a microSD card. This, presumably, is the reason why my unit stopped working one day. I tried rebooting it, powering it from a different adapter and cable, and manually updating its firmware from a PC, but I couldn’t bring it back to life.
A quick consultation with Reddit made it clear that many owners had experienced the same problem. You might think that since the software is stored on a removable memory card, fixing it would be trivial. It is not, and the manufacturer won’t help you. First, you need to pry the clock open, and there’s no way of opening it without the chance of breaking something if you don’t know what you’re doing. Secondly, you must provide a new microSD card to replace the old, failed one. Most frustratingly, you have to flash new firmware onto the replacement card using specialized tools, a process explained in detail by DrNachtschatten on Reddit.
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Is there a method to the madness?
Look elsewhere for a smart clock or a Chromecast Audio replacement
The LaMetric Time isn’t it
Did LaMetric design the Time to fail on purpose? My guess is that using a microSD card instead of a more reliable chip for storage was a cheap way to allow installing new software and downloading updates. Still, LaMetric is at fault for cutting corners in an otherwise expensive product and failing to acknowledge and fix the issue. Time owners shouldn’t be left relying solely on the contributions of the Reddit community to fix the $2 memory card in their $200 smart clock.
This case is also a good example of why repairability matters. Sometimes, small, easy-to-fix issues make our tech completely unusable, even when it’s otherwise in great condition. I give LaMetric extra red points for making the Time tricky to open and service.
Still, there is hope. Even though most gadgets today are more difficult to repair than ever, some companies are working to flip things around. You may have heard of the highly repairable Fairphone, and recently, the HMD Skyline launched with repairability as a key selling point. In the realm of PCs, a company called Framework has multiple modular, easily upgradeable, and mighty capable laptops on sale. However, it remains to be seen if shoppers will support that trend with their wallets.
