Lenovo: Smartwatch concept and Chromecast competitor ABSMARTHEALTH

April 28, 2020

Lenovo presented a whole stack of new hardware at its in-house exhibition Lenovo Tech World in Beijing – and gave a few insights into how the future of wearables and smartphones can be imagined in the Far East.

Dual screen smartwatch

Probably the strangest device to be seen in Beijing was the smart health watch called Magic View. The watch has a second display below the digital dial, i.e. in the bracelet. However, this is not an ordinary display: the image is – as with Google Glass – displayed using a prism. The result is, according to Lenovo, a display 20 times larger than would be possible with an ordinary smartwatch display. In order for this to work, however, you have to hold the watch directly in front of your eyes, which I first imagine is rather uncomfortable. Second, it looks pretty stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQu6W-MIC8 [/ embed] In this clip you can see a short demo of Lenovo's smartwatch concept. 

Projector smartphone

Oh dear, smartphones with integrated projectors. It has never been good – and frankly, I have my doubts whether it will ever be. Lenovo is not deterred by this and has nevertheless shown a corresponding device with the Smart Cast – with a laser projector. The user should then be able to place the smartphone on the table in front of him, and this throws an image on the surface in front of the cell phone, so that the user has two displays.

The device should also be able to recognize gestures and inputs on the projected display via the integrated front camera. The pianist Lang Lang was thrilled to demonstrate the input on the projected display at the Lenovo event. And I have to confess that it looks surprisingly little shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPKAiat62eQ [/ embed] Lang Lang is playing with the Smart Cast prototype in this ehealth. 

Lenovo Cast

However, the Lenovo Cast is not a study. As the name suggests, it is a Chomecast competitor that the user connects to the TV via HDMI – and thus makes the stupid TV “smart”. So there is the possibility to send photos, videos & Co. from the smartphone or tablet to the cast. In contrast to Amazon's Fire TV Stick and analog to the Chromecast, Lenovo's device cannot be used completely independently, but requires additional hardware.

Lenovos Cast supports devices with Windows Phone from 8.1, Android from 4.3 and iOS. The small box, which is more reminiscent of a more compact Apple TV than the HDMI sticks à la Chromecast, should be available in stores worldwide from August – cost: $ 50.

For the sake of completeness: there were also two new mid-range notebooks Z41 and Z51 and the business tablet ThinkPad 10.

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