Lenovo Smart Display Review: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

The Lenovo Smart Display is a smart speaker with a built-in display, designed to provide a more immersive experience for Google Assistant users. If you're looking for a device that can match your existing decor, including bamboo accents, this might be a good option.

If you like bamboo and want something that matches your current setup, you'll probably enjoy the Lenovo Smart Display more. However, if you prefer something with a bit more personality, you might want to consider the 8-inch version with a standard white back.

The original Google Home speaker has a really good-sounding speaker, but the Lenovo Smart Display's sound quality is lacking in terms of low-end punch and bass. While it's suitable for podcasts and normal dialogue, it's not ideal for music playback at high volumes.

One feature that sets the Smart Display apart from regular Google Homes is its ability to display visual information directly on the screen. This includes recipes, YouTube videos, Netflix, and Twitch streams. The device also has a webcam for video calls over Google Duo and a privacy shutter to ensure you're not being watched by unwanted eyes.

The operating system of the Smart Display runs on Android Things, which is designed to be simple and easy to use. There's no Google Play Store, but you can still access many popular apps through your smartphone. The UI is straightforward, with large cards that make navigation a breeze.

Compared to regular Google Homes, the Lenovo Smart Display has a higher price point, especially for the 10-inch model. However, if you value having a screen and a webcam, it might be worth the extra cost. With its unique features and immersive display, the Smart Display is definitely worth checking out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso this is the Lenovo smart display it's a display that is smart and it's one of the first of its kind it's essentially a Google home with a screen and it can do all the Google home stuff that you would expect like giving you the weather your calendar events information the ability to turn your lights on and off in your home but because it has a screen it can do a whole lot more now because this is something that goes inside of your home it's pretty important that it blends into your decor and I'll be perfectly honest I'm not the biggest fan of the way that it looks I don't really like the asymmetrical shape and it also has a bamboo back if you get the 10 inch version which doesn't really match a whole lot of things in my home but if you like bamboo and if it matches the stuff that you have you'll probably like this a lot more but if you want something a little bit more playing you also have the 8 inch version which just has a standard white back so the original Google home actually had a really good sounding speaker and with a large speaker grille on the front of the Lenovo smart display you might expect this to sound just as good but it actually lacks a lot of low-end punch a lot of bass and if you're listening to a lot of treble heavy music at max volume it actually sounds a little bit distorted with this speaker it's gonna be perfectly fine for podcasts and just normal dialogue but if you're listening to music it's not gonna be the greatest experience now the large bass and asymmetrical design does allow you to put these smart display in portrait mode but there aren't a whole lot of things that support portrait mode right now aside from Google duo so you're probably not gonna be using it in portrait mode all that often and it's actually a lot better in landscape anyways you'll also notice that there's a webcam on the front for making video calls over Google duo and there's also a privacy shutter which you can use to cover up the webcam just in case you're concerned about the NSA spying on you so if you like to use this in your bathroom or in your bedroom you're gonna be perfectly safe because the smart display has a screen it actually adds more functionality than you would get from a normal Google home so for example if you were to ask for a cooking recipe you'd get the entire recipe displayed to you on the screen itself and you can also watch you - and or to show you other things you would normally see on your smartphone from Google like the weather your flight information calendar events and your google play music the operating system that the smart display runs on is actually not Android it's Android things and this is completely new and one of the biggest things that you need to know about it is that's very simple and very basic and it's just designed to blend into your home and it doesn't actually have any applications everything is pretty much just baked and already there's no Google Play Store here you won't be downloading your favorite games or applications everything is just only smart display itself already but not everything is a hundred percent supported on the smart display you'll find stuff like YouTube and Google Play Music but other applications like Netflix and twitch are not supported but you do have the option to stream applications from your phone to the smart display so you can still watch Netflix and watch twitch on the smart display you just have to use your smart phone to do it the UI itself is also very simple everything's laid out in a card and it's also very big so pretty much anyone can figure out how to use this UI and navigating it is also a simple process tapping on the ambi display will launch into the UI itself and swiping in from the left edge will always take you back a step and if you swipe in from the left edge enough times it will eventually take you back to the ambient display if you want to pick up one of these guys the 10-inch version of the smart display is gonna run you $250 and the smaller eight-inch model is gonna be $200 comparatively speaking the regular Google home is a hundred and twenty dollars normally but you can find it a lot cheaper when it goes on sale so let's essentially double the price if you're going for the ten inch model and you basically have to decide if having that screen and having that webcam is worth the extra cost it does add a lot of nice functionality you can see visual information you can also enjoy content like YouTube Netflix and twitch directly on your smart display which is something that you can't do with a normal Google home and I do like that aspect of the smart display I like that consume content and other features are really cool with these smart displays while being able to physically interact with it versus just using your voice all the time so that's really it for the Lenovo smart display it's a pretty sweet product definitely check it out read our written article which we'll have a lot more on it and of course if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button down below if you want to see more videos like this also don't forget to hit that in their vacation Bell so you don't miss out on future videos and of course check out and check us out on social media Instagram Twitter snapchat all that good stuff is linked down below and of course for more in depth coverage check out our website and Georgia thority comm because we are your source for all things Androidso this is the Lenovo smart display it's a display that is smart and it's one of the first of its kind it's essentially a Google home with a screen and it can do all the Google home stuff that you would expect like giving you the weather your calendar events information the ability to turn your lights on and off in your home but because it has a screen it can do a whole lot more now because this is something that goes inside of your home it's pretty important that it blends into your decor and I'll be perfectly honest I'm not the biggest fan of the way that it looks I don't really like the asymmetrical shape and it also has a bamboo back if you get the 10 inch version which doesn't really match a whole lot of things in my home but if you like bamboo and if it matches the stuff that you have you'll probably like this a lot more but if you want something a little bit more playing you also have the 8 inch version which just has a standard white back so the original Google home actually had a really good sounding speaker and with a large speaker grille on the front of the Lenovo smart display you might expect this to sound just as good but it actually lacks a lot of low-end punch a lot of bass and if you're listening to a lot of treble heavy music at max volume it actually sounds a little bit distorted with this speaker it's gonna be perfectly fine for podcasts and just normal dialogue but if you're listening to music it's not gonna be the greatest experience now the large bass and asymmetrical design does allow you to put these smart display in portrait mode but there aren't a whole lot of things that support portrait mode right now aside from Google duo so you're probably not gonna be using it in portrait mode all that often and it's actually a lot better in landscape anyways you'll also notice that there's a webcam on the front for making video calls over Google duo and there's also a privacy shutter which you can use to cover up the webcam just in case you're concerned about the NSA spying on you so if you like to use this in your bathroom or in your bedroom you're gonna be perfectly safe because the smart display has a screen it actually adds more functionality than you would get from a normal Google home so for example if you were to ask for a cooking recipe you'd get the entire recipe displayed to you on the screen itself and you can also watch you - and or to show you other things you would normally see on your smartphone from Google like the weather your flight information calendar events and your google play music the operating system that the smart display runs on is actually not Android it's Android things and this is completely new and one of the biggest things that you need to know about it is that's very simple and very basic and it's just designed to blend into your home and it doesn't actually have any applications everything is pretty much just baked and already there's no Google Play Store here you won't be downloading your favorite games or applications everything is just only smart display itself already but not everything is a hundred percent supported on the smart display you'll find stuff like YouTube and Google Play Music but other applications like Netflix and twitch are not supported but you do have the option to stream applications from your phone to the smart display so you can still watch Netflix and watch twitch on the smart display you just have to use your smart phone to do it the UI itself is also very simple everything's laid out in a card and it's also very big so pretty much anyone can figure out how to use this UI and navigating it is also a simple process tapping on the ambi display will launch into the UI itself and swiping in from the left edge will always take you back a step and if you swipe in from the left edge enough times it will eventually take you back to the ambient display if you want to pick up one of these guys the 10-inch version of the smart display is gonna run you $250 and the smaller eight-inch model is gonna be $200 comparatively speaking the regular Google home is a hundred and twenty dollars normally but you can find it a lot cheaper when it goes on sale so let's essentially double the price if you're going for the ten inch model and you basically have to decide if having that screen and having that webcam is worth the extra cost it does add a lot of nice functionality you can see visual information you can also enjoy content like YouTube Netflix and twitch directly on your smart display which is something that you can't do with a normal Google home and I do like that aspect of the smart display I like that consume content and other features are really cool with these smart displays while being able to physically interact with it versus just using your voice all the time so that's really it for the Lenovo smart display it's a pretty sweet product definitely check it out read our written article which we'll have a lot more on it and of course if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button down below if you want to see more videos like this also don't forget to hit that in their vacation Bell so you don't miss out on future videos and of course check out and check us out on social media Instagram Twitter snapchat all that good stuff is linked down below and of course for more in depth coverage check out our website and Georgia thority comm because we are your source for all things Android\n"