A new mercenary joins the fray in Google’s war efforts for domination of your house. It’s the Google Assistant with a screen and the search engine giant’s answer to Amazon’s Echo Show. Lenovo teamed up with Google on this and although it doesn’t have the sexiest of names, it has all the hallmarks of a “Made by Google” device, which is great. Meet the Lenovo Smart Display.
Y’know, because it’s a display and it’s smart.
If Google’s Home smart speakers all had a place in your house, the Lenovo Smart Display’s place would be in the kitchen. And Lenovo knows that because their blurb describes, with a fair amount of detail, a fictional scenario involving dad’s dirty hands, a world famous chef and guests arriving soon. I think you get the idea.
But the Smart Display can really fit anywhere in the house because it’s got all the power of the Google Assistant at its disposal. Unlike the Home speakers, this smart home device can show you YouTube videos without requiring a TV. It can also show you route directions, weather forecasts, and allow you to make video calls via Google Duo too. Perhaps most interesting of all is that it sounds like the Smart Display can learn command macros ala Bixby too, which is always useful.
What’s more, the device features a single 10-watt speaker to the left of the display for what I suspect are design reasons. Either that or they don’t like your right ear. Nevertheless, it should be more than loud enough for most of your needs.
As far as the UI is concerned, the Lenovo Smart Display is running on what looks like a simplified Android interface with Google’s tile-based elements littered throughout. It looks pretty clean.
This tablet will come in two display sizes — 8″ and 10″ — and perhaps one of my favorite things about it is the kickstand which is shaped in a way that’ll make it easy for you to stand it in both portrait and landscape. There’s just something about efficient design, y’know.
Lenovo’s Smart Display will be priced at USD249.99 (around RM1,004) for the 10″ variant while the 8″ model will retail for USD199.99 (around RM803).
