Lynx's gorgeous grill has brains to boot
Give up, other grills, because Lynx's voice-activated, Wi-Fi-enabled model is changing everything you thought you knew about burger flippin'.
LAS VEGAS -- Forget everything you thought you knew about "smart" grilling, because Lynx is upping the ante in a major way.
Lynx, a manufacturer of uber-premium outdoor grills, announced a prototype at last year's CES. The thing sounded pretty awesome -- voice-activated, Wi-Fi integrated, a related app -- but it was just a concept, so we didn't know exactly what to expect from a production model.
Fast-forward to CES 2015 and Lynx is back showcasing models that are ready to hit retail this March, just in time for grilling season.
I got to spend some time with the $7,500, 36-inch model and was impressed (there's also a $6,000 30-inch model and a $9,000 42-inch model). The team walked me through the cooking process and even let me try my hand at "cooking" scallops, which can be initiated the old-fashioned way (manually), via the related Android or iOS app or with voice commands.
The voice control feature was extremely responsive. "Smart Grill" is the trigger phrase that gets everything up and running. Say, "Smart Grill, cook scallops," and Lynx's clever food-making machine will respond to acknowledge that it heard you.
Then, it will ask follow-up questions, like how long you'd like to cook it and so on, in addition to telling you exactly when to flip something over and when to take it off the grill. But you can also edit the specifics, like cooking time within the app, if you have other preferred settings. It's even designed to remember the way you cooked your scallops the last time, so you can say, "Smart Grill, same as last time" and it will preheat to your optimal temperature and work its magic.
We've asked for a Lynx Smart Grill to review, so check back for updates in the spring. In the meantime, check out the rest of CES 2015.