Lenovo has come up with a unique way to turn your humble house into a smart home with its new Home Assistant Pack.
Unveiled during IFA 2017, this "pack" consists of a speaker onto which you attach a Lenovo Tab 4 tablet. This creates a sort-of makeshift Amazon Echo Show, i.e. a speaker with a display.
The types of information you'll see on tablet's screen include weather updates, a look at your calendar and what music is being played.
The speaker base features two three-watt speakers, and it can detect your voice from up to three meters away with its double built-in mics, Lenovo said.
It's also light, weighting 300 grams, or just over half a pound, letting you take the speaker and dock from room-to-room as you like.
If this all sounds appealing, there is a catch. The Home Assistant Pack only works when connected to a Tab 4 series tablet, a device we were pleasantly surprised by when we first encountered it in our hands on Lenovo Tab 4 review.
As the tablet comes with either an 8- or 10-inch screen, your Home Assistant Pack has a little built-in customization.
There's also an optional Kid's Pack, which turns the Tab 4 into a device for young ones, and a Productivity Pack that transforms the Tab 4 10 and Tab 4 10 Plus into a 2-in-1 for us older folk, according to Lenovo.
The Home Assistant Pack starts at US$79.99 (about £65 / AU$100), with prices varying by country when it launches in October.
By comparison, the Amazon Echo Show costs $230 (about £180 / AU$290), however it comes with the screen built-in.
The Tab 4 itself is a great value, only costing $109 (about £85 / AU$140) and $149 (about £115 / AU$190) for the respective sizes. So, for a Tab 4 8 and Home Assistant Pack, you'll spend $188.99. Still less than the Echo Show.
- IFA 2017 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new phones, watches and other tech as they're announced.
