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Over the weekend, Amazon ran a promotional price drop for their Echo Show, selling for $149 instead of its normal retail price of $229, as part of the Super Bowl commercial. I thought it was such a good deal, that I ended up buying two (one for myself and one as a gift).
The main reason I needed two was to utilize its ability to video call each device (or if you trust the other person, you can enable “drop in”). I don’t really think it’s all that intrusive, especially if you have your device in a kitchen or public area. By default, the drop in feature is disabled.
At first, I wasn’t quite sure what Echo Show was all about, but it took a while for me to really appreciate it. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Echo Show, at least in the way I’m using it, is more or less a clock with a digital picture frame and weather at a glance. Think of it as a really smart (and expensive) clock.
Here’s a daily scenario, in the morning, when you’re making coffee, you can ask Alexa to show your daily news flash. Depending on what “skills” or features you enable, it will show your daily commute (you must set up your work destination location), weather, and various recent news clippings.
Here’s another scenario, you can ask Alexa for a recipe… especially useful if you have it set up in the kitchen. If you have the Echo Show in the living, you can probably ask it for television listing. Or perhaps settle an argument by asking Alexa for the answer. If you’re bored, you can always ask it for a joke.
Like the other Amazon’s Echoes, the Echo Show it does have excellent speakers. At maximum, it’s loud, without sounding distorted, and has excellent bass. The microphones will pick up the “Alexa” wake word anywhere in the room, providing you say it loud enough and not mumble. I believe this was done by incorporating several microphones around the device, so that you can be in front or back and it will “hear” you.
Although I don’t have Alexa-enabled cameras or “smart lights”, I can easily see how the Echo Show can work with these devices. Amazon suggest you can use it as a baby monitoring viewer, or better yet, use it to see various smart security cameras. Very cool, if you think about it, it’s something I plan on looking into at a later time.
Now for some things I don’t like about the Echo Show. It’s ugly and it’s very heavy. I suppose that’s fine since you’re not going to be moving it around and you’re not look at its backside.
The 7-inch screen is too small to really enjoy watching a movie on it… unfortunately, there’s no output option to “cast” or HDMI-out to a larger screen. I would love the ability to hook up the Show to a bigger monitor.
The other thing is, to really unlock the Echo Show, you need the $100 annual Amazon Prime service. Prime will let you use their digital photos and gives you access to Prime Music and Television streaming. There is a workaround with the Prime Photos, you just need to get the Alexa on your phone and change the Echo Show’s background photos. Every time you change the photo, it will automatically add to your gallery.
If you already buy music from Amazon via CDs or Vinyls with its “Autorip” feature, you can stream those songs on your Echo. Alternatively, you can play your music using your cellphone's Bluetooth connection.
The other workaround is that if you’re already subscribed to Spotify and other music services, Amazon will let you stream those songs.
The same with movies, if you have UltraViolet digital copies in your locker, you can access your films on the Echo Show.
I think right now, the Echo Show is too expensive. Normally at $229, I wouldn’t even consider it or even recommend it… because you can buy an Xbox One with that much money! At the moment, the Echo Show is on sale for $179, which I still think it’s expensive at that price. But if you see the price dropping to $150 or less, I think you should consider getting one.
P.S. At the time of this writing, there is a dispute with YouTube, so its service is not available on the Amazon Echo Show. As far as I know, Google will be developing a similar device, so if you’re willing to wait, I’m almost certain the Google product will be a better choice.
The main reason I needed two was to utilize its ability to video call each device (or if you trust the other person, you can enable “drop in”). I don’t really think it’s all that intrusive, especially if you have your device in a kitchen or public area. By default, the drop in feature is disabled.
At first, I wasn’t quite sure what Echo Show was all about, but it took a while for me to really appreciate it. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Echo Show, at least in the way I’m using it, is more or less a clock with a digital picture frame and weather at a glance. Think of it as a really smart (and expensive) clock.
Here’s a daily scenario, in the morning, when you’re making coffee, you can ask Alexa to show your daily news flash. Depending on what “skills” or features you enable, it will show your daily commute (you must set up your work destination location), weather, and various recent news clippings.
Here’s another scenario, you can ask Alexa for a recipe… especially useful if you have it set up in the kitchen. If you have the Echo Show in the living, you can probably ask it for television listing. Or perhaps settle an argument by asking Alexa for the answer. If you’re bored, you can always ask it for a joke.
Like the other Amazon’s Echoes, the Echo Show it does have excellent speakers. At maximum, it’s loud, without sounding distorted, and has excellent bass. The microphones will pick up the “Alexa” wake word anywhere in the room, providing you say it loud enough and not mumble. I believe this was done by incorporating several microphones around the device, so that you can be in front or back and it will “hear” you.
Although I don’t have Alexa-enabled cameras or “smart lights”, I can easily see how the Echo Show can work with these devices. Amazon suggest you can use it as a baby monitoring viewer, or better yet, use it to see various smart security cameras. Very cool, if you think about it, it’s something I plan on looking into at a later time.
Now for some things I don’t like about the Echo Show. It’s ugly and it’s very heavy. I suppose that’s fine since you’re not going to be moving it around and you’re not look at its backside.
The 7-inch screen is too small to really enjoy watching a movie on it… unfortunately, there’s no output option to “cast” or HDMI-out to a larger screen. I would love the ability to hook up the Show to a bigger monitor.
The other thing is, to really unlock the Echo Show, you need the $100 annual Amazon Prime service. Prime will let you use their digital photos and gives you access to Prime Music and Television streaming. There is a workaround with the Prime Photos, you just need to get the Alexa on your phone and change the Echo Show’s background photos. Every time you change the photo, it will automatically add to your gallery.
If you already buy music from Amazon via CDs or Vinyls with its “Autorip” feature, you can stream those songs on your Echo. Alternatively, you can play your music using your cellphone's Bluetooth connection.
The other workaround is that if you’re already subscribed to Spotify and other music services, Amazon will let you stream those songs.
The same with movies, if you have UltraViolet digital copies in your locker, you can access your films on the Echo Show.
I think right now, the Echo Show is too expensive. Normally at $229, I wouldn’t even consider it or even recommend it… because you can buy an Xbox One with that much money! At the moment, the Echo Show is on sale for $179, which I still think it’s expensive at that price. But if you see the price dropping to $150 or less, I think you should consider getting one.
P.S. At the time of this writing, there is a dispute with YouTube, so its service is not available on the Amazon Echo Show. As far as I know, Google will be developing a similar device, so if you’re willing to wait, I’m almost certain the Google product will be a better choice.
