Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, is just a digital voice but that does not mean that it is limited to living in the ECHO speakers.
For years, Amazon also has a line of intelligent screens, Echo Show, which add visual information to the data that Alexa provides.
This month the company has launched in Spain the largest of them, Echo Show 15. As its name implies, it is a 15-inch screen (15.6 to be accurate) and only that already makes it something different in a product.
To the rest of the range, which is usually moved between 6 and 10 inches in size.
I have been testing it during the last two weeks and, in general, it is a product that fits well into homes that already have other ECHO devices.
The design of the product is nice and reminds a picture or a framed photo.
It’s not by chance.
This is the first Echo Show designed to hang directly on the wall.
It is sold with all the necessary anchors and can be oriented both vertically and horizontally.
It can also be used supported by a lectern, although you have to buy it separately, but it is clear that for the vast majority of users, this is an echo designed above all leg hanging on the wall, and probably the kitchen.
In a way this screen aspires to replace the small size television that many households usually have in that room.
The installation is easy, both physics and the operating system, and during installation is when one of the functions that may may be more controversial from the device will be configured: the ability to recognize the face of users.
The idea of ECHO Show 15 is that it works like a digital bulletin board for the whole family.
You can show a calendar, notes and reminders or photos, but you can do it in a personalized way depending on the person in front of the device.
Do you want to leave a note to a specific family member?
No problem.
The Echo Show 15 will only show it when that person is ahead.
The same with your personal calendar.
Face recognition works well and there are several barriers to protect privacy.
First, and more important, is that it is completely optional.
The product can be used without the face recognition function, simply as a common digital advertisement plank for the entire house.
Second, this recognition occurs on the device itself, nothing is sent to the cloud.
And third, like other ECHO products, has physical switches that block microphones and cameras.
Whether the customization function is used as if not, ECHO Show 15 is presented as a board with several widgets, small applications that are active on the screen simultaneously.
They can be notes, quick controls for domotic elements, calendars, time and things like that.
These widgets reside on a tab that can be removed to leave more space on the screen for photos and other applications.
They are useful but the main problem I have encountered is that Echo Show 15 is the only device that uses them and although Amazon has opened the door to developers to believe more, the catalog is still very limited.
When the Echo Show 15 truly accesses as a product is in very specific use cases.
It has access to several video platforms on demand, such as Netflix or (obviously) Prime Video, and also some live television channels.
It is a good screen to see a series while cooking or clean (the speakers have a more than decent quality).
It also offers video check-up applications that it is possible to follow on the Step by Step screen and it is also a good digital photo frame for the whole family.
In homes in which there are already other ECHO devices or products associated with Amazon, such as Ring Videotimbres, Echo Show 15 works well as Central Hub.
You can see if someone knocks on the door while you follow a straight or see the news, or you can talk to another room in the house with the intercom function.
It is also a pretty good device for video calls to other Amazon devices, although the camera has 5 megapixels only.
In general, it reacts rapidly both to the tactile interaction and the voice and alexa commands, in voice, has many skills to adapt to the needs of each drowning, although if the only thing that is going to be used is Alexa in voice format, a
Echo speaker will have better sound quality and will be cheaper.
The show 15 The last Amazon processor, the AZ2, which is quite competent, but although it is tactile and has a considerable size, it is not a tablet.
It does not have the Fire operating system or access to applications and set beyond the few mentioned widgets and the default support of certain video services.
If it includes, however, a web browser, but the experience of seeing, for example, a video in Tiktok is not just as good at which it could be achieved with native applications.
Its price is 250 euros or 279 if you want with lectern.
It is high when compared to other Products Echo but it is also, from all of them, the best designed and more ambitious.
If Amazon manages to expand the list of widgets and video services, it can become a great alternative to retire the kitchen TV.
