In addition to music and the timer for the recipes, a smart display can show recipes, news, videos of all kinds. Amazon in the catalog has several models, of which at least two are perfect in the kitchen. The Echo Show 8 has a rather small screen, so it is only indicated if you hold it close. The Echo Show 10, although it would be perfectly adequate, actually requires a large free space to rotate the display, otherwise you risk smashing cups and bottles. The Echo Show 15, which arrived in Italy a few weeks ago, is designed specifically to solve this problem: it is permanently mounted on a wall, where it can be positioned horizontally or vertically (but it must be disassembled, the base does not rotate).
To see it it looks like a small picture, complete with a passepartout that increases its overall dimensions: 40 cm long by 25 high, with 3.5 cm projection. Not really indifferent to the weight, over 2 kg.
The power cable is rather short (1.5 meters) and will always be seen, unless you have an electrical system in place, which however implies the desire to permanently keep the smart display in a specific point of the house. Or to mount it on a stand, which is optional and not offered by Amazon
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A truly smart TV
The Echo Show 15’s screen is superior to that of all other Echoes in size (15.6 inches) and resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels), but the quality of the LCD panel isn’t that exciting. Off-axis viewing can be improved, and there is no HDR, which makes movies and shows duller and flatter than a regular TV. But the Echo Show is more than a smart TV: not only because there is Alexa, but also because the screen is touch. So you can interact in an immediate and intuitive way, and also avoid the occasional défaillance of the voice assistant.
Amazon has introduced several new features in the interface, such as new widgets that can be added to the main screen, just like with a smartphone, and show the applications of the various apps (or better skills) in real time. Some widgets are already available, others will be added over time: and there is a need, because we have only counted nine. No YouTube, RaiPlay or Now TV, which for now can only be managed via the integrated browser. Silk works fine, but finding it isn’t easy, and there’s not even a widget to launch it. You have to say every time: “Alexa, open YouTube.com”, and it usually works, but with “Alexa, go to Italian.Tech” we had less luck. Sooner or later you will find yourself forced to interact via touchscreen, even if only to see a video in full screen.
There is the Amazon Prime Video app, of course, Amazon Music with lyrics, for karaoke, but also Netflix and Giallo Zafferano. In our test, however, the biggest surprise came from Sky: “Alexa, open Sky Tg24” starts a series of videos of the news, which change frequently during the day and are a great way to be informed at all times. Like the old news, but with the possibility of always having the latest edition within reach.
The user interface is rather rigid. A maximum of ten widgets can be activated, and only five can be displayed in the foreground: the rest are pushed to the side of the screen. It is not possible to change the size of the widgets, so some are unnecessarily large, such as stickers; others too small, like the shopping list.
To each his own
So everyone sees everything? No, and this is where Amazon’s Visual ID technology comes into play, which recognizes people by appearance and voice, and shows everyone the content that concerns him / her: events, reminders, newsfeeds, recently played music and personal notes. . You can also set limited profiles to show child-friendly content. It is an optional feature, and facial recognition must be explicitly enabled, with a procedure similar to the iPhone’s Face ID. It works pretty well, but of course it requires the camera to be on all the time. The image processing for the Visual ID function takes place on the device itself, the images are not uploaded to the cloud. Amazon’s all-new AZ2 Neural Edge processor allows the Echo Show 15 to process Amazon’s computer vision and speech recognition algorithms locally and in parallel.
The camera can be excluded (as well as the microphone) with the usual ratchet that physically obscures it: and yet, there are several reasons not to: like other Amazon smart displays, in fact, the Echo Show 15 allows you to monitor the environment. in which it is used, turning into a kind of security cam, but also to make calls and video connections. Amazon’s platform is called Drop-in, however you can also use Skype, and soon Zoom. Inexplicably, the bottom camera is only 5MP, versus the 13MP sensors on the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 10, so picture quality is barely enough; there isn’t even the automatic feature that keeps you speaking in the center of the frame.
On the other hand, the generous dimensions of the display allow you to better implement the picture-in-picture, for example to have a feed from a camera and follow a recipe or watch a TV program. You can expand this feed to full screen and vice versa, and you can move the picture-in-picture frame on the display, as long as it doesn’t cover the widget area.
Echo Show 15 is a smart display, not a smart speaker: and it is in fact the second worst sounding product from Amazon, after Echo Flex, which however costs 14.99 euros at the time of writing. Both can be connected to bluetooth speakers to significantly improve the audio performance. It sounds pretty loud, but the bass is non-existent, the mids croaking, the irritating highs (when present): for podcasts, TV series dialogues and news audio it is also good, for music there is much better.
Home automation
Unlike all the higher-end Echo models that preceded it – 4th Gen Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Studio, and 2nd and 3rd Gen Echo Show 10 – Echo Show 15 doesn’t have a Zigbee hub for the smart home. Of course, there aren’t many compatible devices, and the most recent ones adopt different standards or rely directly on wi-fi, but for a device that aims, among other things, to become a control panel for the smart home, this is a lack. serious. Which forces those at home devices working with Zigbee to buy a special hub or another Echo.
We like it
- elegant design
- Display grande
- Widget
We do not like it
- mediocre audio
- Web browsing management
- A Zigbee hub is missing
In fine
Echo Show 15 responds to a felt need, that of having larger smart displays. It introduces interesting innovations, such as widgets and the Visual ID, which in all probability will also be available on the smaller models. But it is a product that is still a bit immature, with some flaws in the software and inexplicable deficiencies in the hardware. Inexplicable, considering that it is also the most expensive model of the Echo series: 249.99 euros. A figure with which it is possible to buy a larger TV and a Fire TV, a much more flexible combination of the Show 15, even if less elegant and without a touchscreen. Or a tablet, perhaps from Amazon, which in the face of a slightly smaller display and an even lower audio quality, however, offers the advantage of greater portability and flexibility. To date, the Echo Show 15 is an interesting device, but not perfect, and if some flaws of the software’s youth can be corrected with an update, for the deficiencies of the hardware it is better to wait for the second generation.
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