Smart Assistant – Lenovo’s Echo Lookalike Smart Home Gadget
Lenovo revealed a new smart home appliance on Tuesday called the Lenovo Smart Assistant that uses Alexa to field spoken commands to turn on the lights, play music, and create to-do lists. The Lenovo Smart Assistant with Amazon Alexa is like having your personal digital assistant at home. Lenovo Smart Assistant adds to the growing number of household hubs that already includes Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home.
Looks like Amazon Echo
Lenovo Smart Assistant is a tall, tubular speaker that has Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa built in which the company unveiled at CES 2017. At first glance, it looks pretty much like Amazon’s own Echo speaker. The Smart Assistant also works pretty much the same way as the Echo, so you’ll be able to use your voice to ask Alexa to read the news, play music, set timers etc. But there are some differences between Amazon’s own speaker and Lenovo’s variant.
The color scheme of the Lenovo Smart Assistant is different. The microphone portion of the speaker is designed differently, too, jutting out from the top of it. Lenovo says this is for ventilation, to cool down the Intel Atom processor inside. Also, but Lenovo’s Smart Assistant has eight far-field microphones, compared to the Echo’s seven.
Harman Kardon Edition
Lenovo is offering a Harman Kardon edition of its Smart Assistant speaker, addressing one of the biggest bangs on the Echo speaker and the Google Home. They’re nifty voice-control devices. The Harman Kardon edition is more expensive, but for people looking for a more premium sound, it’s the go-to device.
Setting-up
While Amazon’s Echo connects with Amazon’s own Alexa app, which is primarily a setup and manager app for the speaker and also keeps a log of everything you ask Alexa for, Lenovo says to set up the Lenovo Smart Assistant, you will have to set up the speaker using Lenovo’s app for iOS and Android devices.
Reasons for Buying the Lenovo Smart Assistant
- It was build to assist you with daily tasks. It comes with far-field microphones that allow noise cancellation, so the Smart Assistant can hear you loud and clear, and gets smarter the more you use it. Also, it’s fully customizable with access to Alexa’s Skills library.
- Using Smart Assistant, you can easily control all your smart devices with your voice, in order to create your ideal smart home. It allows easy accessibility with multiple users.
- The Lenovo Smart Assistant is a voice-controlled, high-definition speaker with 5W Treble and a 10W Woofer. You can upgrade your listening experience with the Harman Kardon Edition. It comes with an additional 2-inch sound cavity for a clearer and deeper base.
- Always stay connected with the help of the Alexa App, even when you are away from home. The Amazon Alexa App gives you full access to Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service. You can easily set reminders, timers, create shopping and to-do lists, control smart devices etc.
Shipping in May
The Lenovo Smart Assistant speakers will start shipping in the month of May this year. The regular versions cost $130, while the Harman Kardon Edition will be sold at $180.
Conclusion
Lenovo Smart Assistant is available in multiple colors including green and orange. The Lenovo Smart Assistant is designed to complement your home. This device could be a pretty good bargain if it behaves the way it has promised to.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.