Top positive review
The Future Is Upon Us
By Eddie Palmon T on Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2018
I received the 2nd generation Show along with two 3rd generation Dots (which I paired for stereo) and immediately set up the Show. It was easy, and in a matter of minutes I was up and running. I began familiarizing myself with its nuances. It wasn't much of a learning curve, as I own the Spot, so... I must say I was impressed with the screen resolution and size. Bright, easily readable from across the room. I love the color details when viewing Youtube videos, as it was faithfully reproduced. Music was loud, and some good bass was present. It was easily navigable via the touch screen, or voice commands. And the browsers, Firefox and Silk, launch on command. Cool. Say, 'launch Youtube', and you're there. Sign in to you YT account, and play all videos in your History; or simply tap the address bar, and when the keyboard appears, type in what you want to see. It isn't a seamless way to go about it, but at least it works. All-in-all, the Show really delivers on Amazon's stated features and capabilities. I am happy with the Show, and if you aren't very picky, you may be too. Let's begin... Should you consider purchasing the 2nd gen. Echo Show? If you like your music sounding great; if you like watching videos on an immersive 10" screen; if you want to browse the internet as you would on a large tablet; watch Vevo or Youtube--yes, you should consider the Echo Show over its competitors. The 2nd generation Echo Show is vastly improved over the 1st generation Echo Show, which looked boxy, and had only seven inches of real screen real estate. Sound on that one was, at best, acceptable. Nothing to dance about, though. But on the newer incarnation the sound quality is quite good--no, damn good! You'll get powerful stereo sound. Bass punches solidly, so that you can actually feel it. Highs and mids takes care of rounding out the music quite well, and in stereo. Amazon improved the speaker system so, that you'll wonder how it could sound so good from a smallish footprint. But it does! And this thing can get quite loud. It filled our rather large bedroom without distortion, even nearly way up. Put it in a large living and your next party will be complete with D.J. Alexa on hand. Getting around on the internet with either the Silk browser or Firefox was as easy as saying, "Alexa, open...", and you're taken to the browser where you key-in what site you wish to visit. Sure, the on-screen keyboard is a bit clunky, but you get used to it. I've not tested the video-calling feature, or the drop-in feature, but from the rave reviews on Amazon about this, it's a winner. Skype will soon be coming to the Show. I was impressed by the screen quality and accurate color reproduction, even from across the room. Most aren't going to want to sit through an entire two-hour movie, though, but you could if you wanted to. A greater majority relegate the Show to kitchen duty, where it shines. Still, any room (not the bathroom!) is a good place for the Show. So, in my opinion, yes you should consider bringing home the Show instead of the competition's products, as Amazon got it right the second time around. And at $230, I'd say it is priced just right to go. Well, I'll play with this gadget a few days more. In the meantime, The Echo Show must go on!
Top critical review
2,737 people found this helpful
Odd Device
By JD on Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2018
I work from home and bought the Echo Show specifically for two reasons: background movies and music to keep me company all day. For music, yes, this is an excellent device. The sound is loud, clear and surprisingly well-rounded. Alexa recognizes voice commands very well in this respect. Movies, on the other hand, are a struggle. First, Alexa does not recognize most movie names by voice command, even ones I know are on Prime Video. Next, if you have Alexa take you directly to Prime Video, it offers only a "lite" version of the service. You cannot search movies well and the few categories they have stop at 60 results. Being that I can easily stream 4-6 movies a day while working, I've already exhausted most of the good choices. Then, for whatever reason, the audio volume on videos is 50-70% lower than music. So in order to watch a video at arm's length away, I have to turn the volume to 1/2 at minimum, but usually 3/4. I don't understand the massive disparity between music and movie volume. Worse yet, if Alexa responds to a command while I'm watching a movie at that volume, her voice is two or three times louder than the movie, which is to say, obnoxiously loud. Now, maybe I bought this for the wrong purpose. I am never going to video call or have it control my lights, nor am I going to ask it to set an alarm or give me a recipe. However, with the marketing claiming there are tens of thousands of commands, I was under the impression that doing something as simple as using Amazon's own video streaming service would be incredibly smooth. Unfortunately it is not. And like others have said, this is a touch screen after all, but there are very few things you can actually use it for. I think I am used to the app screen on my phone I guess. I keep expecting to be able to go to a home screen and pick what I want to do. With no clear index of abilities, I really have no idea what I can do until I try things. Then, after Alexa tells me she doesn't understand five or ten times, I just give up. Last, I've gotten some errors while streaming video that claim the device's storage is full and it can no longer stream. Well, there is no apparent way to clear the storage; streaming data should be temporarily stored and automatically replaced with new data anyway. Because of this, I've had to restart the unit to clear the memory, which can only be done by unplugging it. Yes, really, even with a touch screen and pull-down menu at the top, there's no restart button, you actually have to unplug it. Decisions like these make me question who they had working on R&D. Some of these things just don't make sense. I do think this has the potential to be a 5-star device with the hardware as-is -- the screen is very nice and the speakers sound excellent except for the volume issue. I know not to expect the functionality of a pad or phone with a mobile OS, but I also feel very limited by the intuitiveness and functionality of the system as it is today. Unfortunately I doubt the fixes will come before my refund eligibility expires...
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