Lenovo Smart Display vs Amazon Echo Show 5 vs Google Nest Hub: Which is the best?

India is a valuable market for global tech players, owing to its vast internet user base and the great potential it holds for affordable smartphones, smart home devices, and wearables market. Besides the affordability factor, availability of the right product and consumer curiosity are also propelling major companies to capitalize on India's growth. Tech giants including Google, Samsung and Amazon are ramping up their businesses and bringing in a portfolio of hardware products to leverage the enormous potential the Indian market offers.

The global smart displays market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 34 percent between 2018-2025 to reach USD 6,665 by 2025. Given the market trend, several new players like LG, Samsung, Lenovo are also making their way to the smart home devices market in India. Following the success of Amazon's voice-controlled smart home displays, search giant Google and PC major Lenovo launched yesterday their Smart Displays in India.

Let's look at some of the recently-launched smart home displays and how they stack up against each other.

Amazon Echo Show 5

E-commerce giant Amazon expanded its Echo product portfolio in India with the introduction of Echo Show 5 smart display-cum-speaker, the most affordable device in the Echo lineup to date. Launched back in June 2019, the Amazon Echo Show 5 sports a 5.5-inch touch screen with 960 x 480-pixel resolution, a full-range 1.65-inch built-in speaker and 1-megapixel in-built front camera for video chatting. 

The Amazon Echo Show 5 is powered by MediaTek MT 8163 chipset. The high-end device connects to Alexa, Amazon's own AI-based voice assistant, to control and manage compatible smart home devices like smart lights, ACs, security cameras, play your favorite music or news while doing any other task, and connect you to friends and family via video calls.

On the connectivity front, the Amazon Echo Show 5 supports WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth A2DP for audio streaming from your mobile device to Echo Show 5 or from Echo Show 5 to your Bluetooth speaker and AVRCP for voice control of connected mobile devices. The device also comes with a built-in shutter that allows the microphone and camera to be switched off with a press of a button, thus offering you ways to control your privacy. The Amazon Echo Show 5 is available in two color options: Black and White at just Rs 8,999.

Google Nest Hub

The Google Nest Hub, previously known as Google Home Hub, boasts a 7-inch (17.78 cm) LCD Touch Screen, significantly larger display than the Amazon Echo Show 5. It comes with two far-field microphones that detect your voice from across the room so that you can control your Nest Hub while performing other tasks, a full-range speaker for crystal clear sound and Ambient EQ light sensor that helps the smart display automatically detect and match the lighting and colors in any room.

Integrated with the Google Assistant and Voice Match, the smart display allows you to view and voice-control multiple compatible smart home devices such as smart lights, ACs and smart TVs from a single dashboard, access best and latest pictures on Google Photos, watch your favorite video and music channels like YouTube, Gaana, JioSaavn, access your personalized schedules, daily commute reminders and more.

The Google Nest Hub is compatible with more than 200 million connected devices from over 3,500 smart home brands including Philips, Orvibo, Anchor by Panasonic, Syska, T-Link, Oakter, Wipro, Smitch.

Unlike the Amazon Echo Show 5, the smart display lacks an in-built camera which means you can't enjoy video chat with your near and dear ones. On the connectivity front, the smart display supports WiFi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz) and Bluetooth 5.0. Available in chalk and Charcoal color options, the device is priced at Rs 9,999, which is higher than the Amazon Echo Show 5.

Lenovo Smart Display

The Lenovo Smart Display is integrated with Google Assistant and comes in two sizes 8-inch HD display with 1280 x 800-pixel resolution and 10-inch FHD display with 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution. With the 86-degree wide-angle view, the display can be rotated between landscape and portrait mode. The device houses a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, a powerful 10W full-range speaker with a dual passive radiator and dual microphone arrays.

The Lenovo Smart Display is powered by the Qualcomm Home Hub Platform based on​ Snapdragon 624, Octa-Core A53 1.8 GHz and 14 nm technology​. On the memory front, the device comes with 2GB of RAM and 4GB of eMMC storage.  For safeguarding the user privacy, the Lenovo Smart Display comes with Privacy Shutter and microphone mute button.

Just like other smart displays, the Lenovo Smart Display helps you voice-control and manage smart home products. From air purifiers to coffee makers, the device works with more than 5000 smart home devices from more than 250 brands. It can control all gadgets featuring the “works with the Google Assistant” badge. With the high-definition touch screen and powerful speaker, you can watch your favorite YouTube videos, TV shows or news and listen to music, radio or podcast. 

On the connectivity front, the device supports dual-band WiFi (802.11 ac) and Bluetooth BLE. The Lenovo Smart Display is priced at Rs. 14,999, much more than Amazon Echo Show 5 and the Google Nest Hub, and will go on sale on August 28.