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In this article, I give you my Lenovo Smart Display 7 review with specs included. More precisely, this is the Lenovo Smart Display with a 7-inch diagonal. I’ve reviewed their smart displays before which were considerably more expensive and also larger, eight-inch and ten-inch versions.

So, the latest generation is on the market with a lot of improvements. But first, what is this sort of thing? It’s a home assistant and a display. That’s what the name tells you. And, this is a lot like Google home products with a display built-in. Something like Google nest hub, that sort of thing.

So, it does everything a Google Assistant can do on your phone so you can say ‘Hey Google, what’s the weather gonna be?’, or ‘who’s the president of USA’, etc. All the usual things you can ask.

It also handles home automation stuff so if you have smart lights Phillips hue, or C by GE, if you have a Nest thermostat, all of those sorts of things, you can control with your voice on this. Really gonna new so it can do more than that because, obviously, you could just use your phone for that.

First off, the display is a 7-inch touchscreen. It’s IPS and it’s 1024 by 600 resolution. That might not sound that high but given how small the display is it actually works out fine. And, as wide viewing angles which you have on form IPS I think n it’s a touchscreen so you can interact with touch the swipe through information too.

So, if you use it in the kitchen then you can ask it for recipes, for example, you can play a YouTube video, you get the idea. Also, it streams music, not only YouTube music but also Spotify, Pandora, and these are pretty popularly used for these things.

Speaking of that the speakers now are along the bottom edge where that mesh grille is. Which is a good idea before they hand them off to one side with the Lenovo smart displays which was kind of weird so now you have a more normal stereo separation kind of thing going on.

And it has a passive radiator to improve bass. So the sound on this is pretty good actually especially for a 7-inch product. This is not gonna beat out a 300-dollar speaker obviously. But given the size of the device and probably correspondingly not a huge room you’re gonna be putting it it’s loud enough and full enough that it’s very pleasant to watch if you listen to rather if you’re playing videos playing music that sort of thing.

Also, one thing the competing Google 7-inch home nest product doesn’t have is a camera. This one has a camera. Uh-huh and it also has a privacy slider switch so if you’re paranoid about it say you’re using at the bedroom which is a good size for you can turn that camera off. But what’s it there for this is for Google duo video chatting.

Unlike the new nest hub max which is a big 10-inch product that costs two hundred and thirty dollars from Google it doesn’t use the camera to recognize who’s looking at it. So if you have several family members that way I’ll show you the right calendar for the right person that sort of thing.

That’s not so you’re gonna get here. This is just for video chat. And of course it has a microphone because primarily your best mode of interaction and this is gonna be using your voice telling it hey goog Ellie I don’t want to set off while you’re enjoying devices out there.

Turn on the bedroom lights or something like that or play Spotify and play this tune on Spotify that sort of thing. You need a microphone. But there is also a microphone mute switch so if you are using it in the bedroom and you and your spouse or a loved one are getting jiggy with it you know you can have complete privacy just slide the switches and you’re good.

Doubtless because you might be using in the bedroom you can avail yourself of the photo frame feature and show the photos of your choice in your own album or you can have it show pretty stock photography or a fine art photos.

Or there’s a couple of different clock faces you can choose from. It doesn’t have an it does have an ambient light sensor that could set the brightness automatically for you. I find it’s a little bit twitchy. Like if your head moves and there’s a lamp somewhere behind you and I wish they would make it a little bit less reactive and quick.

And it also has a temperature sensor so it can match the room lighting warm lighting at night for example it won’t look like very blue-white on the display. So that’s good. Whether or not you’re using the ambient light sensor well it knows Wednesday and when it’s nighttime so it automatically adjusts for that and it goes into dark mode at night.

So if you are using it as a bedside clock I find it better than most any clock I’ve used. These Lenovo smart displays and also there’s smart alarm clock that I like a lot too. Because it really is just bright enough to see but it’s not gonna keep you up at night.

When it comes to Google assistant based devices like this versus Alexa I think in part it’s gonna really matter which ecosystem you prefer to be more tied into. I’m already using Android phones a lot of Google Assistant home automation products so for me that makes sense. But for some of you who aren’t fond of Alexa and Amazon products and shopping via Amazon perhaps even with your voice then Alexa products can make some sense to.

Either way you’re gonna give up that sense of privacy when it comes to either company. So which one are you already giving more of your data to. So why would you want one of these other than the privacy concerns around these sorts of things.

Well one you know they’re kind of addictive. Once you get one you want one here and there and in different rooms between cuz you get used to controlling everything using your voice assuming you do have things like smart lights and a smart thermostat and all that sort of thing.

Even robot vacuum cleaners you can control them. So it’s just handy to have it in any given room. Given the size of this one this one’s kind of perfect for the bedroom. It’s great it’s just big enough so say maybe you want to watch some youtube videos or Netflix or whatever it is before you go to bed you can do that and have a nice looking display to do that with.

If you want to listen to music it’s a great way to have music in any room streaming to the room. If you’re cooking and makes a lot of sense because you can bring up recipes cooking shows on youtube for example or you can set a timer simply using your voice not your messy and gooey covered with flour hands that sort of thing.

And also you can get recipe cards that sort of thing get the idea. And also in the warning is pretty handy too. You can set up routines for waking up or going to bed so in the morning when you wake up you can just say good morning oh oh GE.

And it’ll tell you what the weather forecast is what appointments you have coming out that day and what the news items are. And you can get news sources on this too so you can find out the news of the day if that’s not too depressing for you these days.

So that’s the Lenovo smart display 7-inch nice low price. Before the 8 inch was $1.99 now this one’s gonna go for around $99. This price is 129 B&H is the launch retailer and they’re selling $4.99. I’m sure when other retailers get it for the holiday season they’ll probably matching that price as well. So compared to Google’s own seven-inch offering this one’s a bit newer.

This one gets you a camera if you have a use for the duo video check. The design of it is certainly nice. No more faux bamboo look or anything like that you’ve got Blizzard white the back and you’ve got the nice kind of fabric gray mesh grille that Lenovo does well. It’s a pleasing display the resolution is certainly sufficient looking. It’s bright it’s colorful thanks they say.