Hands On with the Amazon Echo Show 15

Purchase Price: $249.99

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We’ve been fans of the Amazon Echo Show since the first generation launched in 2017. By giving users a digital touch screen interface with Alexa integration, it reinvigorated the Echo ecosystem and set it onto a course for greatness. Since then, the Echo Show line of products have grown and evolved into a nearly perfected smart home platform. The newest addition to the lineup is the Echo Show 15 and Amazon is getting dangerously close to Samsung Frame territory with this wall-mounted device. While the price tag is relatively high at $249, making it as expensive as a small television, It nonetheless appears better than any previous Amazon product out there.  

Bigger Than Ever

Out of the box I was taken back by how small of a device this was. For some reason even though the product has the number 15 on it (for display size), I assumed it was going to be bigger. Part of this assumption probably has to do with the fact that it is intended to be mounted onto a wall and things that go onto a wall tend to occupy a decent amount of space. While the Echo Show 15 isn’t small by Echo standards, it is tiny when viewed in the television space. This does double up as a television replacement as it has a Fire TV interface for viewing content from your favorite streaming services. With a 15.6 inch 1080p display in a wide aspect ratio, it’s as good for viewing Netflix as on an Apple Macbook 15 inch laptop.  

Entertainment however is a secondary function for the Echo Show 15 as the display is a smart home controller first and foremost. Handling just about any task a household would need done, the Echo Show 15 can once again do everything previous Echo devices could. This includes recording notes, making to-do lists, viewing your calendar and of course incorporating all of Amazon’s acquisition products like Ring cameras as a viewfinder for them. The versatility and functionality of Alexa on the Echo Show has continued to grow. At this point the Echo Show 15 can accommodate just about any smart home function a user needs.

One unique thing about the Echo Show 15 is that the device was designed to work in both landscape and horizontal mode. That means the device can rotate like a lot of monitors and All-In-One computers. The only annoyance is that the included wall mount is not a swivel one. Users have to manually pull the Echo Show 15 off the mount and insert it into the other orientation onto the wall mount cavity on the back of the Show. So while it is fun to have the Echo Show 15 in vertical mode, it isn’t necessarily beneficial to have it in that orientation if you plan to view media content often.

Smart Home dominance

The Echo Show 15 has three physical buttons and a camera shutter on the frame. The buttons control volume as well as the built-in microphone. Speaking of that combination, like other Echo Shows, Amazon has made video calls a priority. This is a major selling point in 2021 with Covid continuing its devastation across the world. One fun thing to do with multiple Amazon devices is using them as an intercom within your home. With the Show 15 mounted on the wall, this makes it easier than ever to use this functionality.

The Amazon cards are essentially the same as on all the previous Echo Shows. Amazon curated news and ads rotate through a carousel of information that pertains to the user’s daily life. That includes Prime package deliveries, sports scores and grocery lists. A new addition for the added display real estate is the ability to add widgets onto the other half of the screen. Swiping through the interface and operating the widgets has illustrated a vast improvement in processing power to me. It’s much smoother than the 2019 Echo Show 8 which is the most current Echo product we’ve had in the studio. It’s a welcome improvement with the added viewing capabilities making this a valid video player. It’s an exciting time for technology in the home space and the Echo Show 15 is a step further in the evolution of Amazon’s dominance integrating their products onto our daily lives.   

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