Amazon Echo Show (2nd Generation) Deals The Amazon Echo Show can seem confusing to those new to smart home devices. Essentially, it's a smart speaker, like the Amazon Echo, but it also fits on a large screen, adding video and touch functionality to the Echo's usual audio capabilities. A new update even expands your ability to make calls to UK mobiles and landlines, after a successful rollout of the feature in the US. Although this review is for the second-generation Echo Show, technically there are others. 3 display products you might be considering. For one, there's the new Amazon Echo Show 25, which comes with a new design, the ability to turn to face it as you move around the room, and is Netflix compatible. It was released on February 249.99 and will set you back $239.99 / £399 / AU$5. Then there's the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show XNUMX – smaller Show models to fit into tighter spaces. The first-gen Echo Show was a pretty tough sell at launch, coming with an Alexa assistant that didn't take full advantage of the larger screen and poor sound given its price and size. This second generation model allowed Amazon to fix most of the problems it found with its predecessor. In fact, it's back to the drawing board. And it was worth it. Everything about this Echo Show—its design, display, and features—is better than ever.
- Amazon Echo Show (229.99nd Gen) on QVC for € XNUMX
Amazon Echo Show FAQ: Quick Answers to Questions
Can I watch TV on Echo Show? You can watch TV, yes. But it will depend on the region you are in. For example, if you're in the UK, you can watch BBC iPlayer through a web browser on the show. In the United States, there is support for Hulu. There are also Alexa Skills dedicated to streaming TV to your show, like the Watch TV with Stream Player skill, but we haven't had a chance to test those for ourselves yet. Can the Echo Show make phone calls? If he can! Originally, this was just an Alexa-to-Alexa device feature, allowing you to call other Amazon Echo speakers. But in the US and UK, you can now make calls to mobile phones and landlines by sharing your contact book details with the Alexa app. What Does Amazon Echo Show? The Amazon Echo Show is a smart assistant, just like the Amazon Echo. Alexa is the voice-activated AI brain behind the device. Alexa can do a wide variety of things, like show you the weather forecast and answer questions to control other devices in your smart home. The big difference between the Echo Show and other Amazon devices is that the Show has a screen. This means that you can watch videos and tutorials on it, as well as make video calls. Need Alexa for Echo Show? Yeah. Alexa is what makes your Echo Show smart. Think of it as your own smart assistant and the mastermind behind the hardware. You ask her to do things and help you through the day, starting with "Alexa, what will the weather be like later?" to "Alexa, turn on the lights." You don't have to do anything else to get Alexa, the voice assistant is built right into Amazon's Echo line of smart speakers. Should the Echo Show be plugged in? Yeah. It must be connected to the network to work. Do you need Amazon Prime for Echo Show? No. The Echo Show works without Prime, it just needs the Amazon Echo app to be running. However, there are some advantages to being a Prime member, such as access to Amazon Music.
Prices and availability
You can order a second-generation Echo Show now for $229, $219.99, or AU$349. It costs more than the smaller Google Home Hub, which has weaker speakers, but still undercuts Lenovo's smart display with Google Assistant.
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Integrated
When designing the Echo Show this time around, Amazon placed the speakers at the back, making the front of the show almost take up the entire screen. That move added depth, with the second-gen Show being around 17mm thicker than last year's model, but it's a big draw, meaning Amazon may have a bigger screen on board and, as we'll see later, , better sound too. The ports and buttons are pretty straightforward. On top are volume controls and there's a privacy button, on the back a DC power port, microUSB port and Kensington lock, while on the front there's 10 inches of tactile goodness. There is a front camera reserved by four points. These are four of the Show's eight microphones, which are excellent, while on the back there's a cloth sleeve over the speakers. In a way, it actually looks a little less weird than the old one, losing some of the '70s pot design factor in favor of a more tablet-like design. Functionally though, the larger screen is much more comfortable to interact with and easier to see from across the kitchen.
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Screen
Speaking of the display, it's a 10-inch 1280 x 800 resolution LCD panel that won't blow your socks off up close, but looks absolutely perfect from a distance, so you'll probably still get the show. More important than resolution, viewing angles are sharp and highly responsive. Of course, if it was an OLED Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 display with more black inks and punchy colors, it would have been even better, but the Show delivers what we've come to expect in terms of quality for the asking price. Equipped with adaptive brightness, the Show can detect the ambient light in the room and automatically increase or decrease the brightness of the screen. As with most Android smartphones, there's a familiar brightness slider, accessed by pulling down from the top of the screen for more manual brightness control. Sounds good enough for this type of product, but there's no more granular control over things like white balance or contrast in case you were wondering. In the settings, you can also customize what appears on the screen, with preset artwork, a Prime Photos slideshow, or a simple black background being the three options currently available.
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Talk to Alexa
Despite its screen, voice is still the main way Amazon wants you to interact with the Echo Show. You can choose from a variety of buzzwords to activate it, and it can do everything an Echo Smart speaker can and more. That means you get a great Zigbee smart home hub (a feature previously exclusive to the Echo Plus in the lineup) that can manage smart lights and plugs to compatible heaters and locks. Setup is a breeze with the help of the Alexa app on your phone, and in many ways, smart home management is where Alexa gets ahead of the Google assistant. The benefits of the display are apparent when you pair the Echo Show with smart home visual gear like cameras and smart doorbells, even if you're not touching it. You can see who is at the door, for example, with a simple voice command. If you're at an Echo showhouse, or have friends with them, you can also video call or video call, if permissions allow, simply by saying "Alexa, call Sean" or "Alexa, go to daycare." "While Amazon and the smart home ecosystem are areas where the Echo Show shines, the skills vary wildly in terms of quality. Taking cooking as an example, we made some recipes using the Recipeia app, the default search app for recipes, and it was maddening. For example, it was unable to resume a recipe after leaving it for five minutes despite multiple commands "Alexa, next step", "Alexa, open Recipeia", "Alexa, next step". Apps like Daily Stretch are really simple, lovely, and fun to use, but having to go through a lot of frustration to access a usable skill is a hassle.Alexa also can't search the web via voice commands, a simple task that should be done by a screen and a web browser.
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Touch functionality
Without interacting with it, the show will automatically cycle through Trending Stories: bleed-through images paired with subtitles. You can easily turn these off or turn on additional home screen content in Settings, with options like sports schedules and scores, Alexa skill notifications, information about upcoming events, and more. The drop-down bar at the top of the screen gives you quick access to your home screen, alarms, smart home hardware and routines, and settings. There's also a brightness slider and a do not disturb feature, which is different from the privacy feature, accessed by pressing the hardware key at the top of the program. Amazon has resisted including an app drawer in the program or a list of all Alexa skills accessible through touch. Instead, it's clear that the show is meant to be voice first, touch second. Regardless, the inclusion of a web browser is incredibly welcome. You can choose between Amazon's Silk or Firefox browser, and you can interact with a full-size keyboard or voice input to search for items. This is a key area where the second-generation Echo Show takes advantage of the extra screen size on offer and makes you feel like a centerpiece with friends much more than the original. It also opens YouTube to the Echo Show for the first time, which is a game changer.
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Echo Show Video Services
Speaking of YouTube, if you want to search YouTube by voice, it's off limits - you have to go through the browser. It's not necessarily Amazon's fault (Google, we're watching you), but it's a sad fact. YouTube also has a lower resolution than we'd like, and the service recognizes the Echo Show browser as a mobile device and adjusts the resolution accordingly. You can now search for Vevo music videos by voice, which is great, but other services we'd have expected on board, Netflix for example, are inaccessible, even via browser. In the UK, BBC iPlayer is available via a browser, and in the US there is support for...