Lately there’s been a lot of interest in smart assistant speaker, a category that includes Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. And now another major company is getting in on the action.
Lenovo today unveiled its Smart Assistant. The device has a lot in common with Amazon’s Echo, including support for Alexa, which offers many of the same features as it does on the Echo. That includes answering questions, searching the web, playing music, creating lists, and more, all of which can be done using your voice and the device’s far-field microphones.
The Lenovo Smart Assistant also looks quite a bit like the Amazon Echo. The cylindrical device functions as a speaker and includes a 5W treble and 10W woofer. Lenovo is also prepping a special Harman Kardon edition of the Smart Assistant with an all-black shell and two-inch sound cavity.
Lenovo will launch its Smart Assistant in May for $129.99, a full $50 less than the Amazon Echo. The special Harman Kardon model will cost $179.99.
While the Lenovo Smart Assistant has a lot in common with Amazon’s Echo, the device itself has a bit more style going for it, sporting colorful mesh on the bottom half of its body. The fact that it starts at $50 less than the Echo is good for Lenovo, too, but that price also puts it head-to-head with the Google Home.
We’ll just have to wait until May to see how well Lenovo Smart Assistant does against its competition, but one thing that we do know now is that the smart assistant speaker category is still heating up.