Amazon Echo Show review

Pros and cons

The Amazon Echo Show 2nd Gen follows the Echo Spot as the second screen-based smart device Amazon’s rolled out. We’re seeing more “smart displays” emerge as part of the overall smart home scene, and Amazon’s take is among the largest you can buy. But is bigger always better?

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Design

• Big, bold design
• Easy to see from across the room
• Choice of colors

• Read more about the Echo Show's design

  The Amazon Echo Show is a smart display where the screen dominates the visual design, thanks to the inclusion of a full 10.1-inch, 720p-capable display. It does have some pretty hefty bezels, but the eye is still drawn to that much visual real estate.

  The rear of the Amazon Echo Show is wrapped in fabric that comes in a charcoal or sandstone finish, with rear speakers that work best if you place the entire unit near a wall. You’ll need to give it plenty of space, as it measures 9.7 x 7 inches. It’s also pretty hefty for a smart home device, weighing just under four pounds.

  While that weight isn’t a deal breaker, I did have some flashbacks to the era of CRT TVs while setting it up. Most smart home devices are much lighter than this one.

Speaker/Video quality

• Large screen
• Not enough video sources
• YouTube capable, with limitations
• Software needs tweaking for visual search elements.

• Read more about the Echo Show's performance

  The Amazon Echo Show features dual two-inch speakers with plenty of grunt, although not quite the highest level of audio output I’ve heard.

  Still, across a crowded room and especially at higher volumes, you’re not going to miss a word that Alexa has to say, or a line of dialogue if you’re watching video content.

  I’ve yet to test out the speaker quality for the new generation Amazon Echo Plus, but the Amazon Echo Show comfortably sits alongside the older Echo Plus in terms of audio quality. If you’re fussy about your music playback quality, you might find the Echo Show’s audio lacking, but it’s fine for the average user.

  However, that presumes you can find content to enjoy on it. As with the smaller screen-enabled Amazon Echo Spot, the larger Echo Show supports Amazon’s own video service.

  The problem is that there just isn’t that much content yet. Yes, you can (and should) watch American Gods and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but the reality is that the overall Amazon Prime Video selection is tiny compared to the likes of Netflix or Hulu.

  But there is a workaround here: If you want to watch services like YouTube, it’s possible to do so via one of the Amazon Echo Show 2nd Gen’s two built-in browsers, Silk and Firefox. Navigate to the mobile YouTube page and watch videos using the Amazon Echo Show 2nd Gen’s onscreen keyboard.

  Voice commands are not supported in any way, so you might as well be using a more portable — and powerful — tablet. Alongside its smart display features, the Amazon Echo Show could make an excellent kitchen or small display area TV — if there was only more content available.

  I’ve been testing out the Amazon Echo Show alongside the Google Home Hub, and the difference in the way the two devices present information is rather striking. Ask for a nearby gas station from the Amazon Echo Show, and it’ll give you a list. But ask the Google Home Hub and it’ll not only bring up the same information, but also give you a map and photo.

  You can use the device as a large photo display, but you’ll have to upload your photos to Amazon Photos to do this.

  All in all, Amazon’s delivered the goods in terms of hardware, but the software still needs time to catch up.

Smart home quality

• Easy voice control of your smart home devices
• Acts as a Zigbee hub as well
• Can view compatible video cameras onscreen
• Skype integration coming soon

• Read more about the Echo Show's smart home functions

  It’s a more pleasing story in the smart home arena on multiple fronts.

  Like any other Echo product, you can configure the Amazon Echo Show to talk to a wide range of smart home appliances, making it easy to control lights, cameras and more with just your voice.

  The use of a display means that you get the ability to answer video calls through devices like the Ring Video Doorbell.

  To add to that scenario, the Amazon Echo Show is also a full Zigbee hub for home automation purposes. I didn’t have Zigbee-capable gear to test this out, but if you’re already in that space, the Amazon Echo Show should integrate seamlessly.

  Unlike the Google Home Hub, the Amazon Echo Show does incorporate a video camera into its front display, so it’s capable of video calling via the same “drop in” mechanism used on the Echo Spot. Amazon says it’s working on including Skype compatibility for the Amazon Echo Show in a future update as well, which would give it even more flexibility.

  

Verdict

• Good for existing Amazon Echo households
• Nice hardware, but the software is a bit of a letdown.

• Read the full Echo Show verdict

  Amazon’s nailed the hardware but not quite the software side of the equation with the Echo Show. If your house is already equipped with multiple Spots, Dots and Plus speakers, the Amazon Echo Show is a natural part of that ecosystem. But it’s not necessarily what I’d buy first if I was getting into the Amazon Echo world.

Pricing and availability

The Amazon Echo Show 2nd Gen currently sells for $229.

Amazon Echo Show 2nd Gen: What the other reviewers say

Specifications