New review on Echo Show 2018: a bigger screen and a better sound are not enough

After being confined to an audio-exclusive experience for over two years, Amazon's Alexa Assistant finally received a screen with Echo Show from last year, an awesome combination of a screen the size of a tablet and a smart speaker. The original Echo show was the first of its kind: a smart screen, powered by a smart assistant, that could do more than just play music and set timers, it could also show you the name of the song and its countdown .

For a year and a half, other assistants have had their own demonstration. So now, Amazon has released a new Echo Show, which corrects some of the original's mistakes and improves the idea, without reinventing it completely.

The new Echo Show has a bigger screen, a better speaker system and a more elegant design. It also uses new software that is prettier and easier to use, even though the new software will also be featured at the first Echo Show and Echo Dot when the new model arrives on October 11th. The new model comes with all these features without ordering a higher price: it is available for the same price of $ 229.99 compared to the first show sold at launch.

Despite these improvements, the new Echo Show does not have much more to do than the previous model. It highlights the limits of Alexa. When Alexa is limited to a speaker, it's easier to accept that she really only has a handful of things, all based on sound: weather reports, music, alarms, timers, and so on. But when a big bright screen added to the mix, expectations increase. A screen should allow me to watch the video of the source of my choice and to display information that concerns me, regardless of their origin. Unfortunately, the biggest, best screen of the new Echo Show still does not meet those expectations.

This makes the new Echo Show a little frustrating: better to watch, better listen and use is more enjoyable, but it still can not do everything I reasonably expected from a large screen connected to the Internet on my computer. kitchen counter to be able to.

The most obvious upgrade with the new Echo Show is its new screen. Amazon has extended the screen from a narrow seven-inch screen to a 10.1-inch panel. Rather than sit at the top of a speaker grid, the new screen of the Show takes the entire front of the device, which is much more fun to watch.

The screen is bright and vibrant, with rich colors and good viewing angles. It is covered with glossy glass, which means it can catch a bad glare under a bad angle, otherwise there is nothing wrong. For what the show does and how it is intended to be used, the new screen works well and is easier to use than the previous model display.

The other obvious hardware upgrade is the new design of the Show's speakers. It still has two 2-inch speakers, but they have been moved from the front of the camera to side firing positions and have been upgraded with neodymium drivers for better sound quality . The new Echo Show also features a passive bass radiator for a much better response in the low frequencies.

The result of these design changes and speaker upgrades is a device that sounds a lot better than before. The side position of the speakers allows the show to fill a room with its much better than before. The most powerful speakers produce more volume and the passive radiator gives the Show bass that you can hear and sometimes feel, which was lacking in the old model.

Is it as good as a Sonos One or another high quality speaker? No, not quite, and at full volume, the sound begins to collapse and warp. But that's enough for normal listening volumes that when I replaced the Sonos One in my kitchen with the new Show, I did not miss the Sonos. It also sounds better than the Lenovo Smart Display that runs the Google Assistant.

I also like a lot more the appearance of the new living room on my kitchen counter than the old model or design of Lenovo. The first Show had an industrial vibe "chiseled in a plastic block", while the fabric cover on the sides and repositioned speakers give this new show a softer look, which looks like a gadget that can live to the House. It also takes up less space on my counter than the Lenovo, while allowing me to keep a display of the same size.

Even with a higher volume and better sound quality, the Show has always been able to hear my voice commands without any problem, even across the room.

It remains that the material design of the Show will disturb some. If you are not comfortable with an internet connected camera that keeps an eye on you all the time (there is a 5 megapixel camera in the frame just above the screen) you can turn it off in the slideshow settings, but no hardware triggers block it, as you can on the Lenovo Smart Display. (However, some double-sided tape and a wide-eyed tape work well.) It's also important to sit on the counter all the time, and if you have a small kitchen with limited counter space, you may be having a hard time. . make room for the show. Unlike an iPad, you can not easily place the show in a drawer when you're not using it.

The new software that debuts with Echo Show is more important than the new hardware. Amazon said it spent last year learning how its customers used the show at home and designed the new software in response to that. There's more customization, more ways to interact with touch, control smart gadgets for the home and Alexa routines, and more to do with Show's display. There is even a web browser now.

Even with these additions, the interface remains very familiar and if you are using an echo show for a year, you will feel like home. Most interactions are still driven by voice commands, but some operations can now be done to the touch, such as lighting smart lights or running an Alexa routine. The web browser (you can choose between the browser Silk Amazon or Firefox) is fully operated with touch control, although fun, the only way to launch it is to ask Alexa to open [Firefox or Silk]".

The home screen offers more customization options and features items such as sports scores in a more pleasant way than before. Basically, it's more beautiful to watch, which is important for a device that sits all the time on your counter, your shelf or your bedside table, displaying headlines and other information.

Dragging down at the top of the screen displays two new options: Lights and More and Routines, which allow you to control smart or individual lighting groups and run Alexa routines that you have set up in the mobile app. without having to use your voice. It's clever enough to put the latest intelligent light controls at the top of the list. So, if you always use it to turn your kitchen lights on and off, you do not have to scroll through the entire list each time.

There is still no application icon grid, so many of the features in the living room can be hidden or hard to find. Amazon says that there are now more than 1,000 "skills" (the equivalent of the company in the Alexa world) that take advantage of the show's display. If you ask Alexa to "show you my skills," you can browse a variety of categories, including those specifically designed to use the screen. Most of the suggested skills are to post new facts or quotes every day, which is a little disappointing. Overall, I find this process tedious and tedious, and most of my uses with Alexa are its built-in features, such as smart home control, shopping lists, timer and music, and not by third-party skills.

There are other features that I do not find very useful. This 5-megapixel camera allows you to chat to video with other Echo Show devices or anyone with the Alexa mobile app on their phone, but this feature is not particularly convincing in my use daily. The Drop-In feature that allows you to make a video call to the show without notice is still there and weird enough, but Amazon now allows you to limit it to people in your Amazon home. If you decide to use these features, it may be difficult to find the right position for a video call because of the fixed viewing angle of the show, although the larger display makes viewing the other person easier.

That said, there are some things that I like a lot with the show. My wife and I use Alexa's shopping lists to organize our shopping and sync everything with our phones. The living room display is ideal to see what is already on the list and check if necessary. I can even add a whole series of items to the list with one order (ie "Alexa, add milk, eggs, bread, cereals and Oreos to my list") and Alexa is now smart enough to analyze each of them into individual elements. . I'm not exaggerating that this is the new feature I liked the most.

Thanks to Show, it's very easy to manage several timers when cooking, that you can label and watch individually as they go down without having to ask Alexa to update them.

Echo Show also allows you to control smart gadgets such as lights and jacks. The new model now supports Zigbee (just like the Echo Plus speaker). So you can use it as a central hub for the smart home and connect lights and other devices if you wish.

But all of this also works very well with a standard Echo or Alexa speaker, and none of them really justifies the presence of the Salon screen. For this we need to see what the Show can do as a video player.

The biggest drama with the original Echo show was the ongoing disagreements between Amazon and Google about whether the device should have YouTube or not. Amazon initially included a YouTube experiment specifically designed for the show that Google blocked, and then Amazon tried another approach that Google blocked again.

So, Amazon came back to the drawing board and found a way to get YouTube on his Echo and Fire TV devices without the risk that Google blocks it: she installed a web browser. Using the built-in Amazon Silk or Firefox browsers, you can navigate to YouTube.com using the on-screen keyboard or shortcut button, then search and watch videos that way.

This experience poses many problems. For starters, the show's browsers can only display the mobile version of the YouTube website, which is ridiculous when the show is shown. The video quality of the stream is poor and low resolution, and there is no way to play YouTube videos with a voice command: you have to type all your searches with the onscreen keyboard. You can not stream YouTube videos to the TV screen from your smartphone, as you can with the Lenovo Smart Display.

Nevertheless, if you really want to watch YouTube videos on Echo Show, you can now do it. I just do not think I ever want to get through the hassle.

You can link your Hulu account or watch NBC (with a cable subscription) on the show now, giving it two additional video options. The living room can also work with the Ring video bells to show who stands at your door and allow you to have a two-way conversation with them. He will even announce when the bell will have rung. Unfortunately, the Hulu, NBC and Ring integrations were not available for me to test in time for this evaluation, but Amazon says they will be available when the show is delivered to customers.

The new integration with Vevo also allows you to request music videos to watch during the show. But it can be difficult to ask for clarification (the Show refused to play the video clip of "Shallow (a star is born)" of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, whatever the wording of my request), and it is n & # There is really no way to do it. to browse randomly popular music videos. Amazon said that "Alexa's ability to understand Vevo music video requests is currently being optimized," and hopes this will improve over time.

In addition, many other video sources, such as Netflix, HBO, Vudu and television services such as DirecTV Now and PS Vue, are also lacking. Aside from the forthcoming Hulu and NBC integrations, the main source of video content for the show remains Amazon's Prime Video service, which, while vast and full of quality content and exclusive exclusives, is still a video source, and probably not the most watched in your home.

In addition to all this, most of the time, the living room feels frustratedly isolated from my phone. It's much easier to search for videos and recipes on my phone, which I would like to see on the big screen of the show. But the only thing I can broadcast from my phone to the Show is Amazon Music or Spotify music (via Spotify Connect).

Amazon has established Alexa as one of the leading virtual assistants. Even if you do not use most features of Alexa, you can still find this wizard very useful for the few tasks you plan to do. The Echo Show is a similar proposal: you probably will not use all of its features, but you may find that the few things it does that work well in your life. For me, it's manage a grocery list, control smart gadgets, get weather reports and listen to music.

But I would like to use Echo Show for other things, like watching the last season of Big mouth on Netflix while I do the dishes. Or use it as a digital photo frame for my Google Photos account. Of course, The Show supports Amazon Prime Photos, but none of my photos are stored there. It would be great if I could launch Doug DeMuro's recent dip on an exotic car on YouTube from my phone to the living room, so I can have it while I prepare my lunch.

In addition to Netflix, which Amazon might eventually add in the future, I probably will not be able to use Echo Show for all the applications for which I want to use it, because in the end, it will not work. Mainly acts as an access point for Alexa and not a full-fledged IT platform. Without a contract with all video content providers, such as Netflix and HBO, and personal data stores, such as Google and Apple, Alexa may feel a little lonely. Although I do not expect the Echo show to do exactly the same thing as my phone – the idea of ​​a messaging app and Twitter on the show hurts me at the # I would like to be able to use the show in conjunction with my phone, either to share information between them or remotely control one or the other.

Amazon's isolated simplistic approach certainly has advantages: my colleague Dieter Bohn appreciated the simplicity of the Show over a tablet or PC when he reviewed the first model more than a year ago. And the show is not alone: ​​Google's smart screens have similar barriers to the services they support and the features they have (and they do not support Netflix either). The advantage of Google, however, is that it's already a gigantic warehouse of my personal data, which Amazon is not.

At the end of the day, if I want to have a screen permanently connected and connected to the Internet, sitting all the time on my counter, I wish it does more than the show Echo.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge

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