Lenovo's smaller Smart Display now comes bundled with free Google Home Mini

[Ulquiorra]

Google has made extraordinary progress in its fight against Amazon as far as both virtual assistants and smart speakers are concerned, despite making a late start with the Alexa-rivaling Google Assistant and Echo-slaying Google Home a couple of years back.

The entry-level, ultra-affordable Google Home Mini is obviously one of the reasons the search giant has started catching up to Amazon’s smart speaker sales numbers, with plenty of discounts and bundle deals managing to further boost the appeal of the donut-sized device over the past few months.

The direct Echo Dot challenger is once again available free of charge, probably for a limited time only, in combination with a new type of smart gadget. We’re talking about Lenovo’s recently released Smart Display, itself powered by the increasingly versatile and ubiquitous Google Assistant. Namely, the 8-inch model, which already seemed like a fairly decent deal at a recommended price of $199.99.

The same two Benjamins are now enough for Lenovo’s smaller Echo Show contender and Google’s in-house Echo Dot killer, and all you have to do to take advantage of this latest Best Buy promotion is add the Smart Display to your cart.

A complimentary Google Home Mini will be included automatically, saving you a cool $49. Of course, the teeny-tiny smart speaker is often marked down from a wide range of retailers, currently fetching $39 through Google’s own US e-store, for instance.

Basically, the 8-inch Lenovo Smart Display and no-screen Google Home Mini are capable of the same things, relying heavily on voice assistance and helping out around the house. But the former is obviously significantly more popular, convenient, and in lack of a better word, just all-around smarter.