I have owned the last two Generation Echo Shows. The Echo Show 1 & Echo Show Gen 2. The Echo Show 10 solves all the issues that the first two devices had, and adds even more features jam packed into one great device.
Now before I get into the meat and potatoes — let me tell you about the truly magical experience I have had with this device. It arrived in a box almost double the size of the previous model — and this device is BIG! The screen is huge! The speaker is also apparently much more powerful than the last generation — and I can tell, that is most definitely the case.
But the true magic comes when you power on and set up the Echo. The Amazon team really did wonders creating this device. Both the camera and the AI in this thing are crazy good. Assuming you have motion enabled, as soon as you say the wake word, i.e., “Alexa” the device honed in on my direction, rotated towards me, and began listening.
If you walk around the room, this device follows you. You can’t understand how cool this is until you try it out. I would upload a video, but I’m sure you can look it up on YouTube, and there will likely be hundreds of reviews showcasing it here.
There’s something about the tracking technology that Amazon has gotten just right. I called up my Grandma who has my old first gen echo show, and she didn’t even realize we were conversing as I was walking around my room. She thought I was just stationary the whole time. When I pointed it out and showed to her, her jaw dropped.
The way the camera zooms in on you, and the range of video it can show is phenomenal. I can jump onto my bed (my echo is on my nightstand) and the echo will zoom in and focus on me. When I go off the side of my bed, it follows zooming out, and can follow my body all the way as I walk back across the room towards the device.
It all feels so natural. The only thing that is missing would be if the Echo device itself moved! You can now have a conversation with someone when moving around your environment, without having to remain stationary.
In a kitchen, a home gym, or anywhere you’d want to talk with someone actively, this device would be really extraordinary to play with, especially during covid times.
I use my device in my room as an Alarm clock — so previously, my camera would be staring across the room as to not let me look at the screen if needed (for time/alarms, etc). Now, with the camera cover, I feel much more comfortable covering the camera and rotating the device to look towards me at night.
Now, take these into consideration as you decide if you want to purchase:
First, if you want to get the latest and greatest Echo device, the purchase is a no brainer. I am an Amazon loyalist, and can say that even from first impressions, this device blows all other Amazon devices I’ve owned away.
Second, if you’re a user who doesn’t mind the camera being uncovered, then you’ll have no problem with this device. You’ll love it. The motion features will be left on 16/7 for me. I wouldn’t be comfortable allowing having the camera on while I’m sleeping (and staring at me), but for a public area in your home — who cares? I wouldn’t mind, I’d leave it on all day — it following you around is magical.
Third, if you fall into the second issue above, you CAN use the camera cover to disable motion. If you don’t mind sliding the cover open and closed every morning/night, this could work for a nightstand alarm clock, and the hassle/inconvenience would be worth it.
Pros:
- Motion is magical
- Camera is high definition
- Sound is great. Music sounds lively. Lyrics on screen that follow you around the room
- Adaptive screen dimming still works even when camera/motion is blocked/disabled
- You can manually rotate the device when motion is off i.e. I’m going to bed, to point it towards me. I don’t know if that’s safe for the motor — I’ll ask Amazon!
Cons:
- If your room doesn’t have a full range of motion, the Echo might get confused when following you around. Since it is on my nightstand, the echo really only needs to turn about 90° to see in front if itself, and when I go to the left of my room. If I go to exit my room, it might start losing tracking, which could probably fixed in a future OS update (to halt moving at a specific point, which it already does).
Bottom Line: I 100% recommend this as an upgrade to an old device or a new device for any potential Echo owners. If you don’t feel comfortable with the motion controls, turn them off, but you won’t get the full package and what I think is the biggest selling point of this device. Put this in a public room and try it out — you won’t regret it.
EDIT: After seeing more reviews a few points to mention:
1. White power cord. Who cares? You dock a star for this? Don’t listen to normies giving poor reviews who think the color of a power cord which is draped out of sight will have any effect on how the device improves over it’s predecessor
2. Complaints over resolution: if you’re not buying this thing to watch full-fledged movies on, it’s fine. You won’t notice.
3. Complaints over tracking: it won’t track you with the camera in the dark. A future models can probably have an infrared light added (similar to FaceID) to fix that problem.
4. I saw someone complaining about Airplay and multiroom audio. Echo devices support multiroom audio through Amazon’s Ecosystem — not bluetooth. It has never supported that. Why would you expect this to change without notice?
Don’t listen to the haters. People reviewing are acting as if this device isn’t 5x better than the last generation of the Show. Motion is a stellar addition that would bring moving smart devices into the mainstream. No one here knows what a
the Facebook Portal is, because there was never a solid backing behind the product line. Echos are in homes across America, and I’m sure that this will lead to better smart devices from Amazon in the future.
For reference, I have owned an: Echo Show 1, Echo Show 2, Echo Dot, and have coded ~5 Alexa Skills. I know these devices. This gen is great. Give it 1 month and these will be 5/5. These reviews all read so fake. Who purchases a device and returns it same-day due to a different colored power cord? Who returns a device that doesn’t do something they expected when it was never said the device did it?
Low-information consumers and people with too high expectations... there’s a reason why it’s called PRE-ORDERING, because you KNOW you are going to like it and/or take what you get. No one forced you to buy a day 1 device.
TL;DR: Don’t listen to bad reviews. Buy this if you’re in the market.
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