A Google Assistant Smart Display for Every Room

There’s so much you can do with a Google Assistant Lenovo Smart Display. We’ll tell you how to use it in the kitchen, family room, office, bedroom and more.

Lenovo recently came out with a smaller version of their Smart Display with Google Assistant. 

We tried out their 10-inch Smart Display and gave you 30+ ways to save time, be more efficient, more informed, and add entertainment to your life.

These same tips apply to their newest Smart Display edition.

7″ Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant

The new 7-inch IPS touchscreen Smart Display (1024 x 600), does EVERYTHING the 10-inch does, only it has a smaller screen and takes up less space.  It also has a more minimalist metro look to it.

Since we covered 30+ ways the Google Assistant is useful in our previous article, for the 7-inch display, we’ll focus on its usefulness in different rooms in your home.

The Kitchen

With its smaller footprint, the 7-inch Smart Display takes up less room but still gives you the visual interface and voice control that makes this gadget so brilliant.

I use the Smart Display in my kitchen every day for things like:

• Adding items to my shopping list
• Playing jazz music while I cook
• Asking for and watching videos on how to cook a particular dish
• Asking for ingredient replacement ideas or measurement conversions
• Setting timers for things on the stove or in the oven
• Listening to the latest news
• Checking my Google Calendar events
• Setting reminders (like watering my plants outside or picking up my daughter after her special school event)
• Seeing what movies are playing at my local theater
• Using Google Duo to talk with my son on his phone when he is away from home
• Calling everyone to dinner using the broadcast feature – which allows me to say a message to all our Google Assistants throughout our home
• Checking the 5-day weather forecast
• Sending a text message to someone

The Office

With its metro look, it makes a nice touch to your home office or work office. 

It’s professional looking and allows you to listen to music through its 5-watt speakers with a passive radiator.  Music sounds great from it.

Don’t want to ask Google Assistant something in your open office environment?  No worries, she answers whispers too, just be sure to turn down her response!

In my home office, I use the Lenovo Smart Display for:

• Checking my stock prices
• Listening to music
• Setting and listening to reminders
• Asking Google to call someone for me, the Smart Display acts as a Bluetooth speaker
• Adding an appointment to my calendar
• Purchasing products
• Remotely monitoring the family room, dim the lights, or unlock my door
• Asking the phone number and hours of a store or restaurant I’m planning on visiting
• Calculating some quick math for me
• Making reservations for dinner
• Asking for driving directions to someplace.  Google Assitant will tell you how far away it is and then send a notification with driving directions to your phone
• Reminding you to do something, either at a specific time or when you get to a particular store or location (through your phone)

The Bedroom

If you don’t already have the Lenovo Smart Clock (highly recommended as well), the 7-inch Smart Display is a good option. 

The Smart Display, in fact, offers more features, it’s just less compact.

The Lenovo 7-inch Smart Display can show a clock, in fact it has a number of clock face options to choose from.

It has an RGB light sensor which adjusts the clock face color temperature to adjust to the type of lighting in the room.

Concerned about privacy?  Lenovo included both a physical microphone mute and camera privacy shutter to you can easily turn them off individually by simply sliding the switch.

Use the 7-inch Smart Display and your voice in your bedroom to…

• Check the time!
• Set alarms
• Set timers
• Check the weather for tomorrow to know how to dress
• Check the traffic in the morning
• Listen to the news
• Listen to audio books
• Watch Netflix or YouTube videos
• Duo chat with your kids using Android phones or the Google Duo app on Apple phones
• Play music or calming sounds before going to sleep
• Ask random questions that come to you
• Say “Hey Google, Good Morning” to get a rundown of your calendar, any reminders, and the daily news and weather
• Say “Hey Google, Good Night” to remind you to set an alarm (if your schedule varies), turn off lights, play some music, etc.
• Read a bedtime story (Google has a bunch of them)

Of course, the Smart Display can be used in any of your kids’ bedrooms as well, not just yours.  The Good Morning and Good Night routines can be customized to whoever, and does not need to include the news.

A new feature from Google, called My Storytime, lets you record your own voice to stories you read.  Uploading your audio file MyStorytime.com, allows your story to be read from the Smart Display by saying “Hey Google, talk to My Storytime.” 

The Family Room

I placed the Smart Display in my family room, right where I drink my coffee every morning.  It’s on a table next to my couch and I hooked it up to my Google Photos account, so it shows pictures from albums I select.  Love it.

But it’s also handy for many other reasons.  Even though our family room is rather large, the Smart Display uses dual-array microphones to pick up voice requests from across the room.

As a family, we use voice commands in the family room to…

• Tell us jokes (Hey Google, tell me a joke)
• Check the weather
• Play YouTube videos
• Play music from Spotify, Pandora, and more
• Request pictures from my Google Photos account
• Listen to the news
• Listen to audiobooks
• See when stores are open until
• Check the latest movie listings
• Map out how far stores are away from us and obtain driving directions (automatically sent to my phone)
• Ask random questions
• Play fun games (there are a ton of them, just google it!)
• Send pictures or videos from your Smart Display or phone to your TV (if you have Google Chromecast plugged into your TV)
• Find your phone (or another family member’s) if it went missing.  It will call your phone, even if your volume is muted
• Display pictures of our cute puppies
• Ask to show you nearby restaurants or Thai restaurants to decide where to eat for dinner
• Check the latest sports scores

The Garage

OK, now this wouldn’t be my top spot to place the Smart Display, but it can be handy here, if you use the garage (or a workspace).  Think of all the household and toy repairs that need to be done.  How can anyone know how to fix everything?

With YouTube, it’s easier.  Use the Smart Display in the garage to…

• Find YouTube videos on how to fix something
• See how late Home Depot is open until
• Listen to relaxing (or not) music
• Purchase tools or materials directly from Google
• Remind you to do something after you’re done with a project
• Set a timer to ensure you’re on time to dinner or to say goodnight to the kids
• Turn on or off lights in the house
• Use Google Duo to talk to your spouse inside the house
• Broadcast a message to family members in the house like, “I need some help in the garage, please come out.”
• Listen to the news
• Listen to an audiobook

The new Lenovo Google Smart Display is compact yet it gives music great sound and adds to your decor no matter where you place it.  

I use Google Assistant often, it is so incredibly handy. 

If you add other smart home devices to your Google Home app, you can do even more.

I set up a routine called “Goodbye.”  When I leave say say, “Hey Google, Goodbye,” all the smart home lights I hooked up to Google Home turn off. 

Google will then call my cellphone.  This is helpful because it prevents me from leaving home without it.

With millions of actions Google Assistant can help you with, as well as access to apps like Google Photos, YouTube, Maps, Duo, Spotify, Pandora, and more, it truly is your personal assistant.

The Lenovo Smart Display 7″ gives you access to all of this.

Features:

• 7-inch IPS 1024 x 600 touch display
• 2 front-facing 1.5 in. 5 watt stereo speakers with a passive radiator
• Dual mic array that can pick up voices across the room
• 2 MP camera for Google Duo video conversations
• You can turn off the camera with a physical sliding shutter
• Bluetooth 5.0 
• Includes all the functionality of Google Assistant within

Pros:

• Can view the screen well from various angles
• Offers ambient light auto adjustment for reading
• Allows you to send things from your phone to the display like movies, music, and photos
• Microphone is able to pick up voices across the room
• Its touchscreen allows you to interact with the data to see more
• You can use your routines with it (that you set up in the Google Home app) like Goodnight and a series of actions occur
• Takes up little space on a kitchen counter, desk, or bedside table
• Acts as a Bluetooth speaker so you can send your music to it from your phone for better sound
• Can link up to other Google Assistants in your home to play the same song on all Google Assistants throughout your home
• Can act as an intercom to intercom another Google Assistant or to send a broadcast message to all assistants

Cons:

• There’s no portrait/landscape rotation for this model 
• Was not able to send movie from the Disney Plus

The Lenovo Smart Display 7″ is currently on sale from B&H Photo for $99.99 plus shipping.  This is a $30 savings.

A Mom’s Perspective

The new Lenovo Smart Display 7″ is an incredibly handy device.  No matter what room you use it in, you’ll use it!  If I could, I’d have one in every one of my rooms.  The intercom feature is so handy with families.

I also love that I can set alarms and timers with my voice.  Having one of the Lenovo Smart Displays in your kitchen along with the Smart Display 7″ or Smart Clock in your children’s rooms can help you communicate via intercom.  Kids can easily set their alarms via voice as well as find out the weather, get homework help, or learn about topics they are curious about.

Parents can use the Smart Display in the kitchen to follow recipes – either static or via video.  It’s easy to ask Google to play music while cooking as well.

Soon you’ll wonder what took you so long to get a Smart Display (or 2, 3, 4+) in your home!

*I was given a Lenovo Smart Display 7 in exchange for evaluation.   All opinions are my own.