Amazon has released the Echo Show 15 and yes – it’s the biggest Alexa smart display so far! With its 15.6-inch display, it looks more like a picture frame than a piece of technology. But if you hang it on your kitchen wall or stand it on the kitchen bench – it can become the digital notice-board of your home which is handy in these busy times.
Here at Women Love Tech, we trialed the Echo Show 15. We found it has many of the same features of other Alexa displays but the fact you can stream your favourite shows from Netflix, ABC iView and Prime Video on a larger screen is a major plus factor.
It means you have a TV in your kitchen so you can stay in touch while whipping up all those Christmas dishes. Or you can listen to music and podcasts via Spotify, Apple or Amazon Music while you cook – another major bonus.
Obviously, the Echo Show has other features including a shared calendar, shopping and to-do lists. You can check the weather if you need to or leave notes for household members. You can even call them using Alexa calling.
The Echo Show’s screen is larger and it’s easy to customise. By doing this, we found it’s easy to get even more organised. You can choose the widgets you want and add the information you and your household needs. These Alexa widgets keep refreshing so you always have the latest information and you can rearrange them to suit your preferences.
Just walk past the Echo Show 15, Alexa will recognise you!
Another nifty feature is the fact the Echo Show 15 has the new visual ID feature so once you’ve enrolled your visual ID, you only have to walk in front of the Echo Show and it will recognise you. It will then automatically update to show you your custom greeting, your personal reminders, calendar events, recently played music and any personal notes from other household members. This is a pretty amazing feature and takes a bit of getting used to – but once you’ve got it all up and running it works well.
Plus, with visual ID you can send a note directly to a specific adult household member, which only shows up when they walk past the device and Alexa recognises them.
The Echo Show also has the next-generation Amazon AZ2 Neural Edge processor and this means it can deliver on-device speech. We found it gives the device a smoother, faster experience than some of the previous Alexa displays.
Organise your household
A huge benefit of the Echo Show 15 is how much you can organise everything you’re doing. You can view your household’s shared calendar, add or remove items from your shopping list and check your to-do list. If it’s in your kitchen or your shared living/dining area, it’s easy to decide what to eat because Alexa will give you assistance with recipe inspirations as well.
Stay connected to your home and others
Some other nice features of the Echo Show 15 include a smart home widget which lets you view and control your compatible smart home devices with just a tap. You can also see who’s at the door with compatible smart doorbells. Plus, you can keep track of personal devices such as Echo Buds and Tile trackers. With its 15.6-inch screen and 5-megapixel camera, the Echo Show 15 is also great for video calls via Alexa.
Echo Show 15 can also blend into your décor by displaying full-screen pictures from Amazon Photos or alternating visuals from pre-loaded art, nature or travel galleries.
Powered by the new Next-Gen AZ2 Processor
Echo Show 15 is powered by the next-generation Amazon AZ2 Neural Edge processor, a machine learning (ML) inference engine with a quad-core scalable architecture and 22x more TOPS (trillions of operations per second) than the previous generation. Like AZ1, it’s capable of processing speech recognition on device and can also process computer vision (CV) workloads in parallel.
Privacy and accessibility
The Echo Show 15 has microphone and camera controls plus you can view and delete your voice recordings. As well, it has a built-in shutter to cover the camera if there are times you’d prefer this. Visual ID is optional and requires explicit enrollment. You can delete your visual ID profile whenever you want.
The back of the Echo Show 15 has screws for the included wall mounting plate or stand (as shown above), with a cable tidying compartment to keep things neat.
It can be bought with a stand for a little more if you’d rather not mount the Echo Show on your wall.
Sustainability
The Echo Show 15 is generally repairable and will receive security updates for at least four years after the device is discontinued. It contains 99% recycled aluminium plus 35% recycled plastic. Amazon has also pledged to offset the electricity used by Echo devices with renewable energy. The company offers trade-in and recycling schemes.
Our verdict
We found the Echo Show 15 is a capable smart display which is useful to have in the home. It is the biggest Alexa display on the market and this makes it even more useful for keeping you entertained via the latest streaming shows.
The face recognition works well but it’s good to know this can be turned off at any time and there is a built-in shutter to cover the camera if you feel more comfortable with this.
So if you’re after a big Alexa smart display for your kitchen, the Echo Show 15 will give it to you and if you want to listen to music or podcast – or watch your favourite shows – this Alexa display could be the right one for you.
Pricing and availability
The Echo Show 15 is available on Amazon.com.au and at JB Hi-Fi. Countertop stands and under-cabinet mount accessories are sold separately.
For more information about the Echo Show 15, visit here.
For more information from Women Love Tech on smart homes, visit here.
