Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 review: Audio and video are just the starting point, interaction and resources are the core competitiveness

"Xiaodu plays xx music", "Xiaodu, do you think Peng Yuchang is handsome?", "Xiaodu, please call me in 5 minutes"... accompanied by the "teasing" voices in "Longing for Life", Xiaodu smart speaker successfully broke the circle.

According to the smart speaker data report released by StrategyAnalytics, global smart speaker shipments reached 146.9 million units in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 70%. Among them, Xiaodu smart speaker shipments totaled 19 million units throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 171%, ranking first in the world.

It was thought that in 2020, Xiaodu smart speaker would continue last year's product strategy of seizing the market with low prices. However, on October 29, Xiaodu unexpectedly released a Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 product priced at 999 yuan.

In a market where the average price of smart speakers is only two or three hundred yuan, what confidence does Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 have to dare to reach a price point of one thousand yuan?

Light luxury appearance

After unboxing, the first feeling that Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 brings is "calm and elegant". The minimalist design coupled with the calm color tone gives Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 a sense of luxury.

On the front of the body, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 uses a 10.1-inch ultra-large IPS screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800. This is almost the product with the largest screen in the current smart speaker market. When placed on the desk, it has a strong visual impact.

It is worth noting that there is a mesh-designed speaker under the screen of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10. Although this speaker occupies nearly half of the front area, the light color and matte material ensure that this mesh-designed speaker does not steal the show and weaken the main focus of the screen.

Different from traditional smart speaker products that directly use the body as the base, the Xiaodu Smart Screen flagship model X10 extends the cylindrical electronic space behind the body forward, forming a semi-circular design on the front of the body. Looking from a distance, it will give the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 a sci-fi feeling of floating in the air.

From the side, the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 not only uses a more expensive metal frame, but the entire body has a backward tilt, which is not only more friendly to the user's frontal perspective, but also can effectively correct children's viewing perspective.

Different from other smart speakers that are "dumb, big, black and rough", the appearance of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 reveals a sophisticated design language, mainly thanks to the work of fuseproject, a well-known design company in Silicon Valley, USA. According to Yves.Beher, the founder of fuseproject, "The design concept of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 comes from windows. It brings different information, entertainment, knowledge and distant relatives and friends into home life, bringing infinite possibilities to life."

From the appearance, we can find that Xiaodu did not use the traditional "audio" orientation to build the X10, but tried to combine it with the scene as much as possible to create a work of art, which is undoubtedly extremely rare in the fast-paced consumer electronics field.

Material stacking maniac

Since it is a smart speaker product with a screen, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 must meet the user's needs in terms of "sound and picture".

From the hardware level, the sound and picture of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 are indeed as "stacked" as its appearance. For example, the flagship 8W speaker and 300cc large sound cavity are installed under the mesh woven material under the screen. When watching movies, the heavy bass effect of Xiaodu X10 is particularly shocking, with a strong sense of presence. When listening to high-quality music, the resolution of Xiaodu X10 is also very good, whether it is the sound of human voice or musical instrument, it can be displayed in detail.

Of course, for content products, having flagship configurations but no resources is like having no rice. Fortunately, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 is backed by Baidu, which has a deep accumulation of content.

According to Baidu, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 has been connected to more than ten mainstream medium, short and long video platforms including Douyin, iQiyi and Tencent Video. The content is so rich that even if users watch it 24 hours a day, it will take at least decades to watch it all. In terms of intelligent convenience, when we use it, we only need to shout to X10 "Xiaodu Xiaodu, I want to watch videos on XX platform", and we can watch the corresponding content with one click.

On the one hand, Baidu is willing to pile up configurations, and on the other hand, it has almost all-in resource accumulation. Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 has undoubtedly exceeded the basic tasks of a smart speaker product with a screen, which is sufficient for users' daily use.

Full Dimensional Interaction

Many people may not be used to the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 for the first time, because the X10 does not have the return and home buttons commonly seen on traditional devices. In fact, this is the uniqueness of the X10, which builds a full-dimensional intelligent interaction through voice, gestures and other methods.

If we use a traditional smart device and want to complete the three steps of reading news, checking the encyclopedia, and watching movies, we need to open the news app with our fingers, return to the home page, then enter the browser, enter the encyclopedia entry, return to the home page, find the video app, and enter the video content we want to watch.

On the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, we only need to say "Xiaodu Xiaodu, I want to read the news, check the encyclopedia, and watch a movie" in turn, and it can complete the corresponding operations. This not only improves our operating efficiency, but also simplifies the operation steps of the smart terminal. It is very friendly to the elderly or children.

In addition to voice interaction, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 also builds a very advanced interactive logic through eye detection and gesture recognition.

Because when watching videos, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 is a certain distance away from us, so when calling Xiaodu to pause, it may be affected by the sound of the video. At this time, we only need to make a "stop" gesture in front of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, and X10 will pause playing; if you want to continue playing, just make an "OK" gesture, and X10 will continue playing.

As a smart screen product for home scenarios, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 is obviously aware that its main audience is not geeks, but more "digital novices". Therefore, the X10, which reduces as much as possible in the interaction aspect, has the underlying foundation to become a "national device".

Smart Butler

The reason why the smart speaker market has become increasingly popular in the past two years is mainly because with the explosion of the Internet of Things market, smart homes will exceed one trillion in scale. These fragmented smart terminals are in urgent need of a central control platform. High-quality and low-cost smart speakers have naturally shouldered this historic task.

According to Baidu, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 can currently control more than 170 million smart devices, covering more than 500 mainstream home appliance brands, more than 60 categories, and supports screen projection on more than 180 million smart TVs.

When we want to control smart home devices, we only need to shout out commands to Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 such as "Xiaodu Xiaodu, help me turn on the lights", "Xiaodu Xiaodu, adjust the air conditioner to 27℃", "Xiaodu Xiaodu, help me turn off the lights at 10 o'clock in the evening", etc., and Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 can complete the corresponding operation with one click, which greatly simplifies the intelligent control logic of our operating equipment.

It is worth noting that Baidu has also fully utilized its advantages in content and customized a lot of family-oriented content for family scenarios. For example, if we want to make steak but don’t know how to make it, we just need to shout “how to make steak” to the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, and the X10 will play a detailed steak making tutorial.

Considering that smart home is a closed scene, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 is equipped with its own high-barrier IoT ecosystem and strengthens the concept of "smart butler". In fact, it has achieved a high-dimensional breakthrough in terms of functionality. This absolute advantage also constitutes a major core competitiveness of X10 to continue to attract users in the future.

Early childhood education artifact

The interaction of Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 is very friendly to children. Some parents may worry that X10 will take up too much of their children’s time. In fact, Xiaodu has already considered this issue and has created a "children's mode" specifically for children.

From the content level, Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 has added a lot of preschool education, primary school/junior high school education content to help children learn better. Of course, since there is a 5-megapixel camera on the front, if parents are worried that their children are playing too much, they can also make video calls with their children who are using Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 through the mobile phone app to monitor their children's learning in real time.

In addition, when a child is detected in front of the device, Xiaodu can also present cartoons and learning content in a targeted manner, and detect the distance between the child and the screen in real time, making it an expert in taking care of children.

With the development of smart terminals, more and more manufacturers have recently launched targeted educational terminals for students. However, through X10, we can find that Xiaodu has realized the overlap between smart speakers and educational terminals in terms of equipment and functions. Therefore, on the basis of smart speakers and home central control, X10 has been given educational functions, which actually demonstrates Xiaodu's high sense of product responsibility.

Summarize

During the industry bonus period, the smart speaker market was bustling, but judging from the extremely low average price, this bustle actually inhibited the leapfrog development of the industry. Against this background, Xiaodu launched the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, which is actually correcting the development of the industry as an industry leader.

From the product perspective, due to several years of technological accumulation and the support of Baidu's strong resources, we can find that "smart speaker" is only the starting point of the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10 product. On top of this, it also brings users more additional functions, such as children's mode, full-dimensional interaction, and so on.

It is particularly noteworthy that the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, which has exceeded its expectations in terms of appearance and functionality, is priced at less than 1,000 yuan. From this perspective, Xiaodu has actually set a competitive benchmark for the future of the smart speaker industry. It is foreseeable that after grabbing the market with low-priced products, the Xiaodu Smart Screen X10, which has a first-mover advantage, is likely to help Xiaodu become the future standard setter for the smart speaker industry.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.