Amazon Echo Show 10, review: Alexa at your command and in motion on a large screen that rotates
What do the new Echo Show 10 and the Mona Lisa have in common? At first glance, nothing: one is the latest installment of Amazon’s “smart” speakers and the other is one of the most iconic paintings in the history of art. But they have it: while Leonardo Da Vinci’s work seems to chase you with its gaze, in the case of the Echo Show 10 there is no doubt: it follows you. We tested Amazon’s most ambitious display speaker and this was our experience.
Design: a Fire tablet meets an Echo Plus glued together
At first glance it may seem that the Echo Show 10 looks quite similar to its predecessor, the original Echo Show. And it is true, at least with the most striking element of its structure: its 10.1-inch LCD touch panel with HD resolution (1280 x 800 pixels). However, while the camera of the original model was located right in the center of the upper frame, in this new model it is shifted to the left. Keep an eye on it because it is going to give us something to talk about.
Another great novelty comes from the rear: while the “old” Show had a rear identical to the rest of the family, that is, with a “butt” with a wide base that is tapering, in the new Echo Show what we find is a speaker, as if it had an Echo Plus attached with a hinge that rotates.
On the top edge we locate four buttons:
- A sliding button to cover the camera physically.
- Two volume up and volume down buttons
- A button to mute the microphone
A sliding button to cover the camera physically.
Two volume up and volume down buttons
One microphone mute button
This Echo Show 10 (2020) maintains the aesthetic line with the rest of the speakers of the house, that is, with a sober and functional design that looks robust but not especially premium. Moreover, both in terms of materials and lines, the screen frames are quite reminiscent of those of Amazon’s Fire tablets. For the base, mesh fabric and more plastic.
Overall, it does not clash aesthetically in different spaces, having a place in the most varied places such as the bedroom, in the kitchen or in the living room, as we have placed it, next to the router and the phone.
Sound is an ace in the hole
This Echo Show 10 (2020) stands as the most complete display in Amazon’s catalog, but it’s no slouch when it comes to sound: this speaker is a good candidate for anyone looking for sound quality.
This speaker is quite similar to the new Echo in terms of acoustic configuration, although it goes up a notch in terms of dimensions. Thus, if the Echo has a 3" neodymium woofer and two 0.8" tweeter, this new Show model keeps the 3" woofer for the mids and bass and goes up to one inch for its two tweeter. It does not reach the configuration of the Echo Studio, but of course the bet on sound is clear.
Dolby takes care of the adjustment and equalization and also supports Dolby Atmos sound, although it has an extra to achieve directional sound: its rotary design makes it possible for the sound projection to be truly stereo and directional.
The results accompany: in common scenarios such as playing YouTube videos or streaming music, this speaker delivers moderately detailed sound, with fairly decent dynamics and rather low distortion, as long as we keep the volume at bay. That’s another one: this speaker has plenty of muscle to set the mood in a room like my living room (about 15 square meters) and beyond, although leaving the room logically we lose that enveloping feeling.
In terms of detail level, this Echo Show 10 excels in midrange and treble, but the compactness of the enclosure where it houses the acoustics takes its toll on the bass, which is adequately resolved but lacks the punch of more voluminous loudspeakers.
The usual Alexa with the exponential of its screen.
No news in the connectivity section: this Echo Show 10 is compatible with Wi-Fi Zigbee, two of the most common standards in home automation that will allow us to manage compatible devices without the need for an additional hub (a prerequisite for families as popular as Philips Hue “smart” bulbs). From here, we will be able to manage them either by voice or from the screen. Although giving a voice command a priori is comfortable and agile, I have been surprised resorting to the intuitive of the visual to manage my connected devices. And if, as in my case, you have a few devices and some routines, even more so.
Alexa is the same no matter which Echo you choose, for better or worse. Let me explain: the potential is still huge and in the years I’ve been using this voice assistant (and others) I have been noticing the evolution when it comes to understanding natural language, but there are tasks that are still choking, especially if they involve third-party tasks. And in my experience, Alexa is “the smart girl” in the class of voice assistants when it comes to understanding and contextualizing.
A fairly common example is that it gives me problems with my Spotify playlists. And be careful when you formulate long sentences and the structure of these, because sometimes it understands them and other times, well, not so much. In those cases I have to rephrase and repeat the order. I am aware that we still need to learn to talk to machines, but the day will come when it will be the other way around, when they will be the ones who are intelligent enough to understand us.
It has been effective giving me the time, weather, news, setting alarms and reminders, solving specific doubts, consulting the billboard, playing music and podcasts, telling me jokes, playing videos and Prime Video series, among others.
Alexa and connectivity aside, I want to return to its screen and camera because they are the bastion of this Echo, triggering its usefulness. We have already seen that for home automation it is useful. For Alexa responses, it also helps to have graphical support. And it seems silly, but being cooking and being able to move with the certainty that you will have the screen in sight, either with the recipe, the series of the day or a video call is an extra that comes in handy. To do this, just ask Alexa for commands like “Alexa, what’s the recipe for rice pudding rice” or “Alexa, put on the first episode of Fleabag”.
The jump from 5MP to 13MP on this model is welcome given that, for its price, one would expect a higher level of detail beyond meeting the brief (to give you an idea, the popular Logitech C920 HD webcam has 15MP) but if there’s one extra I’ve taken advantage of it’s the camera + motion combination: its security camera mode.
Just go into the Alexa app and tap on the device to access the image, sound and even talk. Mind you, it has its limitations in that while the Echo Show 10 can rotate, it can’t automatically tilt its head, which would help me immensely to check how my dog Lola treacherously climbs on the couch when I’m not at home.
The Echo Show 10 doesn’t go unnoticed wherever you put it so why not take advantage of its large screen to use it as a digital picture frame? You just need to use Amazon Photos to take advantage of this feature. And if not, you can configure it to play images according to the detected environment. For example, the photo that illustrates the header of this review.
Echo Show 10, the opinion of ToastyBits
We end this review with two reflections, one general and one specific to the Echo Show 10. The general one has to do with Amazon and its position in the market, something that directly and indirectly influences when buying a device like this.
Amazon has three very powerful weapons for those who want to make the leap to the connected home: the largest catalog of smart speakers, a wide range of compatible devices from different manufacturers and Alexa’s advances in understanding human language and contextualizing it.
This last asset is the one with the greatest room for improvement, but it remains ahead of the competition. And there is still a long way to go for assistants to be able to help us without a great effort of adaptation for us and integration with other services. After all, the future will probably be connected, but it will also be mixed in terms of solutions, and these have to be understood.
And now we turn our gaze to the Echo Show 10, an evolution of the Echo Show that is still going strong in audio but reinforces its commitment to the image by multiplying its usefulness with two features: a camera that is more protagonist and a screen capable of following us precisely thanks to the action of the first and an engine.
Thus, it maintains functions that we could already do as it is to control the home automation visually, get audiovisual responses from Alexa and viewing videos, but adds the extra of surveillance and the point of comfort that gives to be with the screen always in front of us. The idea is that, unlike with a tablet or a computer, we can be doing other things while the Echo Show 10 does its service.
These are not extras that everyone will take advantage of and its price places it in the noble area of the market, but whoever needs an intelligent device with full connectivity for home automation and will take advantage of the surveillance mode or the possibility of watching streaming content has found the right choice.