Lenovo wants to sell you a 21-inch $400 photo frame at CES 2020
The Smart Frame curates your photos, and Lenovo's Smart Tab M10 can tell if you're slouching.
Lenovo is starting off the decade with an old idea in a fancy new body. The Lenovo Smart Frame is a 21.5-inch digital photo frame that can hang on your wall and cycle through your favorite pics. Yes, you can easily find digital photo frames in every local convenience store, but Lenovo says this $400 frame has built-in AI to curate your photos and a color tone sensor to adapt the brightness of the picture to match the room.
Smart displays like the Lenovo Smart Display and the Google Nest Hub offer a screensaver-like feature while packing in extras like voice help from Google Assistant , step-by-step recipe overviews, videos on YouTube and more. The Smart Frame is much bigger. Lenovo has smart displays in 7, 8 and 10 inches and Google offers a 7 and 10 inch variety. At 21.5 inches, the Smart Frame is meant for a wall instead of a countertop, but it's only meant for showing off pictures.
The Smart Frame costs $400 (about £300 or AU$580), compared to the smart displays which cost between $100 to $250 or less. Granted, the Smart Frame serves a different purpose and is much bigger, but it also does less and Lenovo hasn't specified which photo software you'll be able to use to organize your pictures.
I'm a big fan of the 10-inch Lenovo Smart Display, but I'm skeptical that Lenovo's giant photo frame will be worth the money. Maybe I'll change my tune once I see it in person. Lenovo is showing off the Smart Frame at the CES trade show in Las Vegas.
Smart Tabs and security
Lenovo is also debuting a new Smart Tab at CES along with security software meant to help protect your smart home from hackers.
The Tab combines a fully functioning tablet with a dock that essentially transforms it into a smart display. Lenovo showed off models with Amazon's Alexa last year at CES and Google Assistant last fall at IFA in Berlin.
The second-gen Lenovo Smart Tab M10 FHD Plus with the Google Assistant offers the same tricks as the company's previous tablets. When you pick it up and carry it around, it functions as an Android tablet. Dock it, and it makes use of Google's Ambient Mode to turn into a smart display. You can command it with your voice and scroll through information relevant to your question. For example, ask about the weather and you'll see the full forecast.
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The M10 will start at $189 and offers a new Kids' Mode with dedicated content, Posture Alerts which will remind you to sit up straight, and a Bumpy Environment Alert that can sense if you're riding in a car and prompt you to watch the road.
While the M10 will attempt to protect you from yourself, Lenovo Connected Home Security will monitor your network and protect your home and smart gadgets from hackers. The monitoring service can use any Lenovo computer as a base of operations, and Lenovo tablets and Smart Displays can run the service as well thanks to an upcoming software update. After a 30-day free trial, Lenovo's smart home security will cost $30 per year per family.
Check out the rest from CES here.