Lenovo Tab 4 Home Assistant

PRICE €80 ON SALE October 2017

Lenovo’s Tab 4 has been available since the start of this year but, on its own, didn’t seem anything special; just another affordable, durable Android tablet. With the introduction of the Home Assistant, suddenly it’s far more desirable – especially for those waiting for Amazon’s Echo Show.

You can buy the Home Assistant on its own for €80 or bundled with the 8in Tab 4 for €300 (there’s currently no confirmed UK price). The speaker can be slotted into place or, exactly like an Amazon Echo, detached and used as you please. It’s set an angle, with two microphones and two speakers all contained within a black shell that’s a fraction under 10cm tall. The angle means the Tab 4 screen slants upwards when slotted in, making it easier to see what’s on the screen. There’s also a big mute button located on the top of the device that lights up red when pressed, so it’s quite clear when the device isn’t listening out for the “Alexa” command.

The visual feedback shown on the Tab 4 screen is exactly the same as you’d find on the Echo Show. Ask it to play a YouTube video and it’ll show that on the screen too. Likewise, if you ask for directions, they’ll appear on the Tab 4 screen as a map. In fact, the only thing Lenovo says the Home Assistant can’t do – which the Echo Show can – is make video calls. But that should just be a matter of time: Amazon just needs to make this feature available to manufacturers via its Alexa API, and once it does Lenovo will upgrade it.

My only real gripe with the system during my hands-on time was how cumbersome it was to reconnect the Tab 4 once you pulled it out of the Home Assistant housing. Hopefully, that’s something that just takes time to get used to. The Home Assistant stand is also flexible enough that even future versions of the Tab 4 should work without issue thanks to interchangeable connectors.

There’s no UK price yet, but it’s likely to be more expensive than the Echo Show when the latter eventually launches, thanks to Amazon’s tendency to subsidise the price of its products. Still, the Home Assistant is more versatile and arguably more tempting. VAUGHN HIGHFIELD

KEY SPECS 2 x 3W speakers 2x ● microphones 130 x 178 x 100mm ● (WDH) 300g ● READ MORE pcpro.link/278tab