Lenovo ThinkSmart View
This little office helper makes sense on paper, but practice is another matter
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PRICE £283 (£340 inc VAT) from lenovo.com
If ever there was a product for our times, it’s the ThinkSmart View. The idea is that this device sits on your desk to handle videoconferencing duties, display your calendar and show the stream of messages from colleagues. That leaves your main computer uncluttered with notifications and admin duties, so you can focus on the things that matter.
While it’s true that the ThinkSmart View can do all this, I should emphasise that it’s 100% tied to Microsoft Teams, meaning Zoom and Slack users need not apply. When you switch it on, having connected it to your wireless network, you’re prompted to enter your Teams login and it won’t be long before you can see your calendar and use the touchscreen to check meeting details.
If you can, I recommend pairing a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, because it’s a pain to use Android’s keyboard (Android being the underlying operating system) once you get beyond, say, five letters. You’ll probably find it easier to set up new meetings in your main computer’s Teams app.
Once a meeting is in motion, you should be quite happy with the call quality. An 8in IPS screen with a 1,280 x 800 is enough to make images look sharp from normal desk viewing distances, and voices come through loud and clear via the 10W speaker.
That said, colleagues on the other side of the calls may not be quite so delighted due to the angle of the camera; it doesn’t quite match the nose-gazing tendencies of old Dell XPS 13 laptops, but they’re looking up at you (there’s no point doing your hair before meetings, as the top of your head is likely to be lopped off the image). It also feels weird that the camera sits to the right of the screen rather than above it.
There are some nice features worth noting. You
“You can easily switch off the camera with a privacy button, and there are advantages to having a desk-mounted calendar”
can easily switch off the camera with a privacy button, and there are definite advantages to having a desk calendar always on display. There’s also no lag, with the Snapdragon 624 processor proving a speedy choice for the tasks. This is a nicelooking and well-made product, too.
However, I can’t escape the fact that Lenovo is charging so much for a relatively basic device. Yes, it solves a problem for users who find themselves distracted by notifications and want to offload all Teams duties to a separate device – and there are even more advantages for IT managers who want a fuss-free way to deploy Teams to their remote workers – but this feels like an expensive way to solve the problem.
SPECIFICATIONS
8-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 624 processor 8in IPS touchscreen, 1,280 x 800 resolution 720p 5-megapixel camera 2GB LPDDR3 memory 8GB storage 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi mic 263 x 12-111mm x 142mm (WDH) 1kg Microsoft Teams certified 1yr warranty