At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2019, Lenovo presented two tablets that can be used like an Amazon Echo Show thanks to their docking station with integrated speaker.
Both tablets are available in Germany from the end of January, the Smart Tab M10 costs 200 euros, the Smart Tab P10 is offered for 280 euros. Both the M10 and the P10 have a 10.1 inch display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. The price difference is due to the equipment and the components used. The P10 has four speakers and a fingerprint sensor as well as a display with a brightness of 400 cd/m², the M10 only has two speakers and the maximum display brightness is 320 cd/m². The inexpensive version of the tablet also doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor.
The main memory of the M10 also has only three GBytes instead of the four of the P10 and the battery capacity is only 4,850 mAh instead of 7,000 mAh. The memory capacity of the more expensive tablet is with 64 GByte twice as big as that of the cheap M10. Both tablets also feature a microSD card slot for memory expansion and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Octa Core Processor (1.80 GHz). Android 8.0 Oreo is used as the operating system. Whether there will be an update to Android 9.0 Pie is questionable due to the relatively low price.
Use as Amazon Echo Show Alternative
The interesting point about the Lenovo Smart Tabs are their two possible usage options. The devices can be used both as a conventional tablet and as an Amazon Echo Show Assistant.
Included in delivery is a docking station in which the tablets can be stored in landscape format. The docking station charges the battery and reproduces the sounds of the laptop via the integrated stereo speakers. According to Lenovo, the sound should be significantly better than via the small speakers integrated in the tablets.
Thanks to the docking station’s built-in far-field microphones and Alexa integration, voice commands can be given to the tablet on call when it is in docking mode. Lenovo has not yet announced whether all functions will be covered or only a part of the extensive Alexa functions will be usable. Currently, some features such as Alexa calls and Alexa multiroom use can only be used with devices that come directly from Amazon.
In show mode, the tablet displays information such as the weather in large letters so that it can be read from several meters. Until now, this function could only be used exclusively with Amazon Tablets and Echo devices.
