With the amount of smart home hub/speaker hybrids saturating the market, Lenovo was one of the first brands to break new ground by creating a smart home hub and tablet hybrid with Alexa support. Now, Lenovo is continuing the trend with two new offerings: The Smart Tab M8 and, for the first time in their premium tablet series, the Yoga Smart Tab.
The new Lenovo Smart Tab M8 follows suit by becoming a smart display when docked into the Smart Charging Station. But unlike the previous models, the Smart Tab M8 will no longer support Alexa and instead have Google Assistant on board. When docked, it switches to Google Assistant’s ambient mode and acts as a hands-free smart home assistant, performing tasks such as scheduling reminders, playing music, and controlling smart home devices.
The Smart Tab M8 packs in an 8″ HD IPS display, two side speakers that are tuned with Dolby Atmos, a 3.5mm audio jack and a nano sim card slot for its LTE variant. There will be two internal memory options available: 16GB and 32GB, and both will carry a micro SD card slot for expandable storage. It also sports a 5 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera. Internally it’s equipped with a MediaTek A22 processor, 2GB RAM and a 5000 mAh battery.
Now if you’re looking for something a little more premium, the Yoga Smart Tab may be for you. Lenovo’s Yoga series already boasts of an impressive lineup of devices and the Yoga Smart Tab is a welcome addition.
Unlike the Smart Tab M8, the Yoga Smart Tab omits the use of a dock to activate its smart home hub functionality. Instead, when the device is idle, a release button can be pressed to switch into Google Assistant’s ambient mode. A built-in kickstand allows the device to be propped up in 4 different ways for a hands-free experience.
The tablet is equipped with a 10” FHD IPS display and houses dual JBL stereo speakers that are also optimized by Dolby Atmos. It also has a 3.5mm audio jack and micro sim card slot. Internally, it’s powered by the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 with an option for either 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and it runs Android Pie as its operating system. As for its internal memory, there will be 32GB and 64GB variants. Both will have SD card slots for expandable memory. It carries a larger battery capacity of 7000 mAh, GPS, face unlock, an 8 MP rear camera, and a 5 MP front camera.
Both tablets are very capable and worthy to consider if you’ve already set up a smart home. The Yoga Smart Tab is fit for a user who demands more premium features and functionality while the Smart Tab M8 is great for the casual user. In any case, we’re really digging this new tablet trend from Lenovo of combining smart displays with standard Android tablets.