Lenovo Announces $2,345 FHD Smart Display for Video Calls

Smart displays have struggled to gain a foothold in a saturated market. Even an old smartphone or tablet can compete with the best smart displays for the money. From the Facebook video conferencing display and the Amazon Echo Show 15 to Samsung’s desktop-sized series of smart monitors, companies have struggled to find a goal that remains the same. Next try is Lenovo’s 27-inch ThinkView Plus. It’s trying to carve out a niche for smart displays for business purposes, but it’s doing so with a limited focus on Microsoft Teams.

Announced today at the Information Systems Europe Conference in Barcelona, ​​the ThinkView Plus is a two-piece video conferencing display with a USB-C monitor.

On the monitor side, you get decent connectivity options – one HDMI, one DisplayPort in and out, two USB-A ports, and one USB-C (versions not specified). However, with a resolution of 1920×1080 and a pixel density of just 81.6 ppi, you won’t get the image quality you’d expect at this price alone. Lenovo did not list the ThinkView Plus panel type or other related specifications.

The real cost comes from the display’s octa-core Qualcomm QCS8250 SoC, which enables ThinkView Plus Wi-Fi 6 support and allows it to run commands, including accessing calendars, chats, and files, on an unspecified version of Android without a computer (the display’s predecessor uses Android Open Source Project 8.1).

There’s also a built-in 4K infrared and RGB camera that connects to the SoC to trigger AI-based features like auto-framing and auto image quality adjustment.

There are also four microphones, a pair of 5W speakers, which, while interesting for extended use, are considered removable and upgradeable. The display will ship with a passive stylus and Microsoft’s whiteboard app.

Lenovo sees the display being used for “hot desks, phone booths, desktops, and home office use cases,”the post said. However, the low resolution of the monitor will not allow it to be used in many offices.

In monitor mode, users will be able to share screens between the system and a smart monitor “to view content and presenters at the same time,”Lenovo said.

Trying to make smart displays a smart investment

Lenovo’s ThinkView Plus is a follow-up to the 2020 ThinkSmart View, an 8-inch, 1289×800 IPS screen that currently retails for $350. It was one of the first so-called Microsoft Teams displays, described by Microsoft as multifunctional devices designed for Teams with exclusive features such as the ability to use “always-on and easy-to-view displays to view important activities and notifications without context.”enabling [user’s] primary work device, “Hands-free Cortana”, and the ability to leave a note, video, or audio on the lock screen.

Thanks to the size of a desktop monitor, the new ThinkView Plus should offer more flexibility than its predecessor. But Lenovo hasn’t exactly solved the smart display mystery.

With a focus on commands and the exclusion of other popular alternatives like Zoom, ThinkView Plus feels rather limited initially, which is especially worrisome in a new tech category that already feels niche.

ThinkView Plus also doesn’t have a clear advantage over existing products. We could see him in the office phone booth for quick calls and maybe on the hot desk. But in both cases, a laptop with a decent webcam or a higher resolution monitor equipped with a powerful USB webcam can get a similar effect for less money.

It’s similar to Samsung’s line of consumer smart monitors that offer TV streaming services and a remote control, just like the many smart TVs that many people already own, which are larger and have more advanced display technologies like OLED. Many of Samsung’s smart monitors are cheap, but that’s not the case with Lenovo’s business-oriented ThinkView Plus.

The Lenovo ThinkView Plus will also have to compete with other displays with built-in webcams, including the Dell UltraSharp U3223QZ, which has 4K resolution, a 4K camera and, as we learned during testing, a quality IPS Black panel.

As the International Data Corporation predicts that smart home shipments will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent between 2022 and 2026, we will continue to see companies experiment with how to make smart displays a “thing,” especially that they can’t do it. money from smart speakers. The Facebook Portal has already completed the transition from consumer to business. Let’s see if ThinkView Plus can help smart displays find their place in offices when it hits “select markets”in mid-2023.