Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Smart Display hands-on”.
Hey this is Tom from The Verge. And we’ve seen Google Assistant everywhere from your phone, your TV, your car, even your watch., Now we’re seeing it on these brand new, smart, displays. And Lenovo is one of the first partners to create these actual devices. (, exciting music. ), Essentially, it’s basically extending the Google Assistant to a screen based display.
So similar to how we’ve seen the Echo look sort of similar device to that.. This is exactly what it does with that., So I can say stuff like hey, Google., Good morning. And it’s gon na go through a routine which you’ll get your ride to work information. Maybe the news all that sort of stuff the sort of thing you’d expect when you wake up and ask it for a routine., So other things you can do beside the routine stuff is obviously queries like you would on Google Assistant., Hey, Google show me bakeries, nearby., So normally on a phone you’d, listen to the Google Assistant and you’d, get a bunch of stuff back and you’d have to wait and go through every single thing.. Here you can obviously scroll through it’s like a car UI. You can tap whichever one you want.. So you can also dig deeper into the experience.. Hey.
Google show me how to get there.. [ Machine ] The best way to get Carlo’s Bake Shop.. Your obviously gon na get directions through Google Maps. And what’s really interesting, is it’s also gon na send these directions to your phone as well? So you can pick up and go out and drive to wherever you need to go.. So you might be wondering: what’s this running, is it Chrome? Is it Android? It’S actually Android Things which boots into the Google Assistant experience that we’re seeing right, here. We’re seeing a Google Duo. We see Google play music, we see Maps YouTube. A lot of Google services at the moment..
There’S gon na be third party user support in the future. That doesn’t mean via Android apps or anything like that. So it’s a new platform essentially that Google’s created. And Lenovo is one of the first hardware makers to sort of launch this at CES.
This show. There’s actually two different models. There’s an eight inch and a 10 inch.. The eight inch has got just a regular HD display..
The 10 inch has got a full HD display, but Lenovo has done some interesting things on the hardware.. So around the back of the eight inch model, you’ve got a matte finish. And on the 10 inch model it is actually bamboo.. Those aren’t gon na be exchangeable. That’S just how they designed them. Lenovo built a stand into the base so that you can change. Whichever way you want them to stand., So that’s pretty neat as well.
They’ve also done a really interesting privacy feature, which is the webcam, has a shutter, a physical shutter, so it can shut off. And you’ll be able to see that from the distance with a red Dot, essentially, that will show you that it’s actually turned on.. That’S a pretty good to see in these sort of devices. We’ve seen a device like the Echo Spot. That’S got a camera, that’s pointing at your bedroom, there’s no control over the actual webcam..
Even though there’s a lot of software restrictions, it’s still quite nice just to have that as a privacy control anyway.. These are like miniature little TVs. They’Ve got a retro sort of look to them. And I can see that they’d fit in with your kitchen..
You obviously could get YouTube for your recipes and got Google Maps for your driving directions. That kind of makes sense at that part of the home. And they’re small enough to sit on the side and just be there for when you need to call them.. I feel what’s really more interesting, though, is the actual platform and where this will go.. These are obviously limited to this eight inch and 10 inch form factor on these devices. There’s gon na be other ones obviously., But what I think is really interesting is where it goes. Could it be part of your toaster or could it be on your fridge? That’S kinda, where I see this essentially going in the future. In terms of when they’re gon na be available when you can get your hands on one of these., Google and Lenovo are both saying this is gon na be summertime.. The eight inch model here is priced at $ 199 and the 10 inch one is priced at $ 249., So you’re gon na be able to get these in the summertime. And that’s when we’re gon na see exactly what happens with it.
You’re. Obviously, seeing the Amazon Echo Show – and it’s pretty early days for that particular device., We haven’t really seen it’s full capabilities yet.. This is obviously a major competitor to it.
And it’s what we’re expecting to see., Whether either device is successful or not, we’ll have to see, but I think it’s gon na be an interesting battle for the rest of the year.. Okay, thanks for watching. We’re gon na be at CES all week, so subscribe to our YouTube channel and you’re gon na be able to see a lot more devices just like this .
