Amazon - Echo Show (1st Generation) - Smart Speaker with Alexa - White

When I first read about Amazon Echo Show, I thought the sound quality would be inferior to Echo because of the small size, which to me would be a deal breaker. I read that the sound is actually superior to Echo & it is compatible with most existing security cameras, so I decided to buy one. Then Best Buy ran a strong promotion if you buy 2, so I caved and bought 2. (I have a number of Echo's and 2) Echo Dots in the house). I am completely BLOWN AWAY by Echo Show!! Here is a brief summary of thoughts: LIKES: 1- Substantially the Best Sound Quality of any Echo to date, with stronger bass, directional stereo, Dolby Audio & focused sound field to the front. You can rock out louder, with less sound to the sides & back, so you do not share your music to all, as does the Echo. 2- The 8) Far Field microphones are more effective than Echo. 3- High resolution 7" screen is perfect for a desk or kitchen. 4- Song lyrics are great! (Free optional setting to turn on lyrics). 5- Photos of the album cover & the band on all music are awesome! 6- 3) buttons on top: Mute / Camera Defeat with red on screen indicator; Volume UP & Volume Down. 7- Excellent resolution with built-in camera. 8- Auto presence detector turns Show screen on when you are detected. 9- Speak to Alexa, just as with Echo or Dot, & Show mutes the volume & shows what you asked on the screen, with the music volume lowered in the background. 10- Ask the forecast & you get written & verbal forecast. You also get a second screen showing the next 4 days, including real feel, a picture of the anticipated weather, chance of rain, etc. 11- Say: Alexa, show me the "Front Porch", or any of the numerous security cameras & within 2 seconds, there is a highly detailed live video with sound! 12- Video conference - I do not know anyone else with Show yet, so I cannot try this but call yourself & you can see the picture they will see to adjust your surroundings. 13- Uses the same power supply as Amazon Echo. 14- Sleek shape fits right in with contemporary surroundings (see photo of Show in the center of the desk with 2) 4K monitors & iPad Pro). 15- The touch screen sensitivity is perfect. 16- Build quality is First Rate! 17- Rubber feet protect any surface & are anti - slip. 18- Addictive! More than any other device, this is one you will want in the center of your desk, as shown in my photo, because once you add the video component, you will wonder how you enjoyed music, sports, & just about everything, without it! 19- See your shopping list. 20- See visual confirmation that the lights you ask Alexa to turn on actually turned on. DISLIKES: NONE! I would only offer one design option. I would offer an optional Amazon Echo Show Wireless Subwoofer for this beast, that you could buy later. It would work like the many Soundbars that include a Wireless Sub. That would allow SHOW to not only ROCK OUT, but to shake the walls at the same time! I am seriously planning to sell some Echos & Dots to pick up a couple more Shows. They are GREAT!!

Righht off the bat, I've used both Google Home and Alexa. Google is just better at recognizing your voice and understanding your commands, in whichever grammatical syntnax I use. I also find that it recognizes any voice much more quickly while playing music. Google is also better with accents, as some of my family members have accents. Google also is much better at finding random information from the web. Now, the positives. The Alexa is getting better all the time. Amazon is constantly updating. This latest update for the Show is really nice. News stories, calendar info, and Amazon delivery info scroll across the screen in a more fluid manner than before. I especially like the background photos that go with the news stories. One thing Alexa is better at than Google Home is connecting with Smart Home devices. Alexa has a been around longer and just has a longer list of compatible devices. I find that manufacturers come out with skills faster for Alexa than Google Home and sometimes work more consistently with Alexa (i.e. Netgear cameras). Alexa also seems to have more useful skills compared to Google Home Actions (that's what Google calls their skills). Google is catching up there also. Now, using a smart display, vs smart speaker, is nice for watching the news, shopping on Amazon, and streaming your home cameras. Not many of the other skills use the display yet. I rather have the screen than not have it because I use the three aforementioned skills very often. I'd probably purchase the new Show smart display because it's better in every way but this 7" display is still very good. It has Dolby audio and allows to stream Amazon as well.

After a few months of figuring out how Alexa works, I’m confident that I can give an accurate review on this product. When I first got Alexa I was asking it so many questions; I’m sure everyone has done the same when they purchase a new toy and really want to try it out. So far I’m happy to report that there have been no glitches or bugs with it whenever I use it. I would recommend purchasing this product whether it is the dot or video screen one. For me, this product has allowed me to keep up with the daily news, listen to music whenever I’m working, and helping me with the definition of some words that I do not know. Like all products there are a few downsides to the Alexa. The main one that I have seen is that occasionally Alexa will activate at the command of some words. Normally these words are very similar to “Alexa,” so I believe that it might have heard its name and activated. The other problem that I have found, while this might not affect that many people, is that I can turn on and off the lights in my mother’s house; she lives in another state from me. My mother and I have found the problem behind this, when you get Alexa it will ask you for an Amazon account. When setting mine up we used my mother’s account, which in turn connected to her other devices at home. This product is also more focused more on the people who work at home and towards students in general. For the individuals who work at home, they may be wanting to listen to music or needing to set reminders while working on what they are doing. As for students in general, I can say for experience that it is nice listening to music or the news just by asking for it when I get ready for the day or when I’m doing homework. Overall, I would recommend getting Alexa as it provides a great way to stay in touch with the news and can be a decent sound system as well since it does connect to your phone via Bluetooth.

The Alexa Show was purchased to replace another much older device and while the Show is a good device it is lacking in some aspects that I had in the older device. I'm not sure if I'm missing it in the Show but I was able to get internet cameras on the older device (such as San Diego Zoo Elephants) that you can't get on the Show. While certainly not a deal breaker it was fun to watch. Setup was pretty straight forward and easy. It is a good aspect that we can talk to the device and it knows what we want to a certain extent. It is very literal at times and you have to make sure you have the exact code words or you get something other than what you want. (such as "play" or "start" or "open") I use it as an alarm clock and it is quite easy to set up the same time for my week but it would be a little more difficult if you have to work one weekend day of the week and then 4 more or other combination. You would have to set up several different alarms, one for each day as far as I can see. Some of the alarm sound choices are a bit alarming, I don't really want to be terrified awake each day. I found one that was mellow and at a moderate sound level works well. It would be nice to be able to add your own alarm sounds so you could have it customized to what you'd like. I don't see that yet anywhere. Another thing about the alarm is if you try to dismiss it and touch the screen the wrong way it puts the alarm into snooze mode instead of turning it off. If you tell it to dismiss the alarm it works fine but there are times I'd rather not say anything at that time of day and just dismiss it with a swipe, which is possible, but very sensitive and if you miss, here comes snooze! Just little things that may get fixed in the future with enough feedback from the customers but some may not effect people as much as some people who have more impact with a particular anomaly. I am thinking of getting a thermostat that hooks to it so I can monitor and change the heat and cooling but that is in the future at this time. Hoping that works well when it arrives.It will be nice to raise the temp a degree in the cold of winter without having to get out of the warmth of the bed. All in all I'd say it's a good emerging technology but needs a little work. Considering this type of thing was science fiction not too long ago It's kind of where we're heading.

If you are looking for something to help you keep more organized or keep you up to date with weather, markets, and the latest news the Amazon Echo Show is what you are looking for. Honestly, the product is top of the line technology, and is easy to use as long you are patient and work with it, and read the directions. The size of it is truly perfect; it honestly reminds me of the size of normal alarm clock that would have on a nightstand, and with that it truly can serve that purpose. It also has a touch screen, and I feel it is very durable and can stand to last. The sound quality is also superb, with dual 2-inch speakers. It has Bluetooth capabilities as well, but it only works with android, Samsung, Fire OS, IOS device, excluding Mac products. The Echo Show comes in two colors black and white. The product has many different features and functions, and they can accommodate pretty much anyone’s needs. The top feature is the Alexa App, which is an application in which you can call commands and ask it questions about most anything. Then I believe the music capabilities are truly amazing and how you can ask it to play almost any song or playlist whenever you want. Also you can tell it to volume up or down as well. Another new modernized technology it has is the capability to do hands free voice command Smart Home options. A couple things that could be improved, is sometimes that it does not fully hear your exact words, and it will search for something you aren’t expecting. The other function it could have is it could have single voice recognition to only several voices, so then you don’t have the entire room trying to mess with it constantly. The price is also fair as well, for its creative capabilities it has. So if you are trying to find some new technology to add to your home the Echo Show would be a great addition for you.

The Echo Show is definitely an interesting product. If you haven't interacted with one in person, it's basically an Android driven touchscreen built into an Echo device. Unlike a typical Android tablet, however, there are no icons and very little interaction is done with the touchscreen. By default, the screen simply shows the time and current weather in the top left, with a rotating view of Alexa tips, calendar events and news items on the bottom portion of the screen and a randomly chosen background picture. When you talk to Alexa, a blue gradient bar appears on the bottom edge of the screen (reminiscent of the blue light on the original Echo) and the text of her response shows up on the screen. If there are multiple choices, they are listed on the screen and you can reference them by number as well as touch them. The camera integration with various Smart Home providers also works decently, albeit a bit slow to connect sometimes. But overall, the touchscreen on the Echo Show puts an interesting spin on the concept of the Echo devices.

I recently bought this over the holiday shopping period at a savings of $50 and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm a big Amazon Echo fan. I started with a refurbished Echo 1st generation about 2 or 3 years ago and thought it would be nothing more than a toy. But I bought the Best Buy Vivint Smart home products and learned how to control them with the Echo and fell in love with it. I also thought the music quality was very good. I eventually bought three more Dots to spread around the house, along with smart plugs, bulbs, etc. I now have my entire home set up nicely for voice control through Alexa. When I saw this Echo Show on sale at Best Buy, I hesitated on buying it immediately because I didn't think I would use it that much and, even on sale at $180, it's still expensive, However, it didn't take long for me to love it even more than the rest of my Echoes. The screen is clear and crisp. The sound from it's two speakers is far better (in my opinion) than even the full size Echo. I love how it show's reminders and appointments on the screen instead of just a verbal announcement. And even though you can't get anymore information from the show than the rest of the echoes, having that information on a screen to view, especially for things like theaters and times for movie showings, is invaluable. And the screen is very touch sensitive so I've had no problem navigating through information even though the emphasis is for voice control. Also, when you ask for the WX, it gives the current forecast and a seven day forecast on the screen along with the "feel like" temperature, etc. Now I can't wait for the new Amazon Echo Spot to come out this month. It will replace the Dot that sitting next to my bed.

I had reservations for the purchase of this Echo show, they quickly eroded after setting it up and using it now since Christmas day. Everyone in my family loves the camera function, sound quality, picture resolution and basically everything about it! It isn't totally perfected yet but it is a work in progress when it comes to the skills and how you choose to use this device since it is definitely designed for Amazon and their customers. Versatile enough so that everyone could find something to enjoy from music, pictures, videos to having your favorite book read to you. One of my favorite features are the Ole time radio series offered in the skills. Takes you back in time as you relax and very similar to a good book. Just my preference and it does offer much more and new skills are daily being added. Although we have several echo dots everywhere, my 6yo loves to come to the echo show to hear her music or to see new pictures uploaded to our cloud. The sound is amazing for its size, that's a huge plus. Pictures are dynamic and so far the only issue with me anyway is it's shape. Slightly odd but it seems to blend into our decor pretty well. Hopefully newer and even better skills will be made as this is a real gem in the rough with tons of applications still ahead that it can be used for. I have it connected to our home security system, robot vacuum cleaner and at times to my cell phone. Taken all together it is useful, fun and a nice addition for our gadget loaded home.