Jump to content

Lenovo's latest creation turns your Tab 4 into an Amazon Echo Show-like speaker


sincity

Recommended Posts

Lenovo has come up with a unique way to turn your humble house into a smart home with its new Home Assistant Pack. 

Unveiled during IFA 2017, this "pack" consists of a speaker onto which you attach a Lenovo Tab 4 tablet. This creates a sort-of makeshift Amazon Echo Show, i.e. a speaker with a display.

And wouldn't you know: the Home Assistant Back is backed by digital assistant Amazon Alexa, so it will provide verbal as well as visual information to users.

The types of information you'll see on tablet's screen include weather updates, a look at your calendar and what music is being played. 

Like an Amazon Echo, the Home Assistant Pack speaker is voice activated. You can ask it to perform tasks, such as play music or turn on a connected device. 

The speaker base features two three-watt speakers, and it can detect your voice from up to three meters away with its double built-in mics, Lenovo said. 

It's also light, weighting 300 grams, or just over half a pound, letting you take the speaker and dock from room-to-room as you like.  

http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XHoRBAbgRZC3LjL6dZaaeB.jpg

Amazon's Echo Show

If this all sounds appealing, there is a catch. The Home Assistant Pack only works when connected to a Tab 4 series tablet, a device we were pleasantly surprised by when we first encountered it in our hands on Lenovo Tab 4 review

As the tablet comes with either an 8- or 10-inch screen, your Home Assistant Pack has a little built-in customization. 

There's also an optional Kid's Pack, which turns the Tab 4 into a device for young ones, and a Productivity Pack that transforms the Tab 4 10 and Tab 4 10 Plus into a 2-in-1 for us older folk, according to Lenovo.

The Home Assistant Pack starts at US$79.99 (about £65 / AU$100), with prices varying by country when it launches in October. 

By comparison, the Amazon Echo Show costs $230 (about £180 / AU$290), however it comes with the screen built-in.

The Tab 4 itself is a great value, only costing $109 (about £85 / AU$140) and $149 (about £115 / AU$190) for the respective sizes. So, for a Tab 4 8 and Home Assistant Pack, you'll spend $188.99. Still less than the Echo Show.

  • IFA 2017 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new phones, watches and other tech as they're announced.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/FD49sWiCq6I
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...