Lenovo has taken the opportunity at this year’s CES to make an announcement -- that they too, see the value in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem, and would like to be part of it in the form of the Amazon Alexa-powered Smart Assistant. Yes sir, the Lenovo Smart Assistant will be yet another option for the masses who would like to have the Alexa digital personal assistant and the Echo hardware in their homes and offices, but would like to explore a different form factor as part of the mix. In other words, this is the Amazon Echo with a totally new skin.
If you would like to summarize the Lenovo Smart Assistant into just a few words, it is best described as being a voice-controlled high-definition speaker that comes equipped with far-field microphones. Not only that, the Smart Assistant will feature a 5W Treble as well as a 10W Woofer to pump out audio to the masses, and folks who would prefer to invest a wee bit more for their audio playback quality can do so with the Harman Kardon Edition of the Lenovo Smart Assistant. This particular Harman Kardon Edition will arrive in a shade of black, where there is an extra 2-inch sound cavity which will pave the way for a deeper bass as well as clearer tweeter.
Taking into consideration that if you were to remove the Lenovo Smart Assistant’s exterior, its innards and brains would basically be the Amazon Alexa With this in mind, owners of the Lenovo Smart Assistant will be able to take full advantage of the entire slew of the functionality in which Alexa has on the table. For instance, you are able to perform an internet search for whatever item or topic that you would like to know about, summon an Uber, obtain some external help with banking transactions, dive into new recipes to keep the family meal times exciting, and stream music, among a slew of other possibilities. So far, we do know that there are tens of thousands of “skills” available for Alexa which can be specially configured via the Amazon Alexa app for iOS and Android.
The Lenovo Smart Assistant will come with an Intel Celeron N3060 processor running underneath the hood, where it will be accompanied by the likes of 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory. Other hardware specifications of the Smart Assistant would comprise of 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, a trigger as well as volume controls. Available in shades of Orange, Harman Black, and Light Gray colors, expect to see the Lenovo Smart Assistant make an appearance in homes worldwide from May onward with an asking price of $129.99 a pop. As for the aforementioned Harman Edition, that will cost $179.99 due to the increased level of audio performance that it delivers.
While being approximately similar in size to the Echo, it has placed the volume dial right on top, while fabric material covers its lower half. It is also a wee bit lighter than the Amazon Echo, and Lenovo claims that the Smart Assistant is capable of picking up commands from 16 feet away.
