Google Assistant is going to be a big trend at CES 2019 with KitchenAid highlighting just how ubiquitous and widely adopted Smart Displays will be. The home appliance brand is doubling down on how ideal for the kitchen this form factor is by adding IPX5 water resistance.
The marquee feature of any Smart Display is its screen with the KitchenAid unit (via CNET) coming in at 10-inches. Comparable to Lenovo’s, it has a sizable black bezel and no branding on the front face. That mark is present, however, on the right-side as a red tag that jets out.
Volume toggles and the standard microphone mute switch appears at the top-right edge, with speaker grills underneath. The KitchenAid Smart Display is wedge-shaped with a larger bulge below that slightly tapers near the top. Besides the tag’s dark red splash of color, the device is white from the sides and rear.
Of course, the most notable aspect of this Assistant device is its IPX5 waterproofing. This liquid ingress protection defends against water jets, so it ideal for wet hands and countertops, but not so much a drop in the sink.
The KitchenAid Smart Display runs Android Things like all third-party devices, but the company took to differentiating its offering with exclusive cooking content. Parent company Whirlpool owns food app Yummly, which will offer personalized recipe recommendations based on your past cooking. This should compliment the recipes that Google Search already offers and allows users to save.
Otherwise, this Smart Displays supports all the standard features like the “Hey Google” hotword, questions and answers from Search, slideshows with Google Photos, playing YouTube, and controlling Assistant compatible smart home devices.
The KitchenAid Smart Display will be available in the second half of 2019 and priced in the $200-$300 range. For comparison, the other 10-inch Smart Display from Lenovo costs $250.
9to5Google’s Take
All Smart Displays are inherently ideal for the kitchen thanks to hotword support, the screen, and cooking recipes from Google Search. It will be interesting to see whether KitchenAid — and others — can get a foothold in the Smart Display space by optimizing the hardware and experience for very specific use cases.
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