Lenovo, Google Announce New Amazon Echo Show Competitor That Supports YouTube

Lenovo has announced a new Smart Display device with Google Assistant built in at CES 2018. The device is seen as an Amazon Echo Show competitor and is Google’s first official smart speaker device that comes with a touchscreen.

The Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant comes is in 8-inch and 10-inch screen size variants. The 8-inch model comes with an HD screen resolution, while the bigger model comes with a Full HD screen resolution. The two models pretty much look the same, but the 8-inch model comes with a light gray color scheme, while the 10-inch model is white with a bamboo pattern on its back panel, according to Ars Technica.

The Lenovo Smart Display is exactly what users expect: a smart speaker with a built-in display. Naturally, the 8-inch model has a slightly smaller speaker, but both models are 10W and have a dual passive radiator.

So, what can the Lenovo Smart Display do?

First off, the Lenovo Smart Display has built-in Google Assistant. Users will be able to ask the digital assistant questions and they will have access to all of the same features that are available on the Google Home, Home Mini and the Home Max. All it takes is for users to say “Hey Google” to start interacting with Google Assistant. There are also buttons to disable the microphone and to adjust the speaker’s volume.

With the inclusion of the touchscreen and a front-facing 5-megapixel camera, users can also enjoy some new features. This includes video chatting through Google’s Duo chat app. For those worried about privacy, there’s a physical shutter switch to close the front-facing camera. The touchscreen on the Lenovo Smart Display also lets users view traffic updates using Google Maps and have personalized photo backgrounds using images stored in their Google Photos cloud storage.

The most important feature of the Smart Display is that it allows users to watch videos from YouTube. Google has completely removed YouTube support from the Amazon Echo Show as the two companies are still feuding. Now it looks like the Lenovo Smart Display will be one of the first devices that will fill in the gap left behind by the Echo Show.

Lenovo isn’t actually the only company working on Google Assistant-powered smart displays. JBL also announced an 8-inch touchscreen device with Assistant built-in and it is called the JBL Link View. The device is slated for release this summer. Meanwhile, LG and Sony are both expected to launch similar devices in the future.

Smart Display is a whole new platform from Google. These devices are running Android Things, a different version of Android that’s designed for IoT, as pointed out by The Verge. This means that users won’t actually be able to run Android apps on these devices.

The Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant will be available “early this summer.” The 8-inch model will sell for $199.99, while the 10-inch model will sell for $249.99.