Amazon looks set to take over the world with its Alexa voice assistant, which continues to pop-up in a multitude of third-party products. The Amazon Echo Show - which combines the Alexa voice assistant with a touchscreen for additional presentation and interaction - is a prime example of where the tech is headed.

Our quick take

The concept of the Lenovo Tab 4 tablet mated with Home Assistant is a great alternative to an Amazon Echo Show thanks to its Alexa integration. In its current state however, it doesn't leverage the right level of usability to be deemed as a better alternative.

Perhaps future software changes and tweaks will see this improve, as we can see heaps of potential in what the Lenovo Home Assistant could be - especially if it didn't need to be plugged into the mains at all times or docked with a Tab 4 tablet to provide full functionality as a voice assistant.

Lenovo Tab 4 with Home Assistant p

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Lenovo Home Assistant

Amazon

And it hasn't taken long for an interesting reimagination to arrive in the shape of the Lenovo Tab 4 with Home Assistant: a tablet which can clip onto a small Echo-like Home Assistant speaker to become, in essence, an Echo Show-like device (albeit minus the calling functionality, as that's not currently open in the Amazon API).

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Only it's not an Amazon product at all, it's a Lenovo one. And a really interesting one, because, conceptually speaking, it's far more versatile than the rigidity of Echo - given it can be used as a standalone tablet minus the Alexa aspect of things. The Lenovo is also visually more arresting than the blocky Echo Show, which gives it another edge over the first-party product.

Problem is, clever as the Lenovo Tab 4 with Home Assistant looks and sounds, it's not fully realised - at least, not yet, not in the pre-release form we saw the device in at Lenovo's pre-IFA conference.

Why? A couple of things: the way the tablet clips into the speaker section via a USB-C port is clumsy, as it's fiddly and takes too long if it doesn't go right first time. Without a hardline power source Alexa also won't work, so you can't roam around the house without the speaker portion being fully powered (the tablet can't do this).

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Functionality wise, too, the Home Assistant just isn't quite there. Lenovo tells us that there are two far-field microphones used to interact with Alexa from up to four metres away, but in the tests we tried and witnessed it wasn't possible to interact with Alexa without pressing-and-holding a virtual button on screen. We would rather than Alexa was always listening.

As a speaker, the small scale of the Home Assistant - which contains two 3W speakers - isn't going to blow your socks off, but it's practical at this smaller scale. There are no controls on it, however, with the tablet assuming command of volume adjustment once docked.