Amazon’s new Echo Show is the wall-mountable smart home dashboard you need
During today’s device and services event, Amazon unwrapped an all-new version of the Echo Show. But instead of releasing another smart display that sits on a table, desk, or countertop, this new Echo Show is designed to be mounted on the wall.
It features a 15-inch 1080p display, and doubles as a picture frame, along with providing you with the same great Amazon Echo Show experience that you’ve enjoyed for years. It looks somewhat similar to Samsung’s ‘The Frame‘ but sports a 5MP camera in the top left corner which provides “Visual ID”. According to Amazon, Visual ID uses facial recognition to analyze a subject, and then provides content and apps tailored to that person.
The interface of the Echo Show 15 can be customized, thanks to the redesigned Home Screen layout. With this customization available, you can orientate the Echo Show 15 in either portrait or landscape mode, while adding a series of widgets to make the most out of the wall-mounted display.
Although it’s display is a bit large, the Echo Show 15 can also be used with a dock and placed on your countertops or a table, provided that it’s large enough. Thanks to this larger display, new widgets are accessible right from the main Home Screen. These include things like viewing your incoming deliveries, weather, to-do lists, calendar events, and more. Amazon has confirmed these widgets will arrive on the smaller Echo Show devices, but you will have to swipe in order to view them.
Amazon has equipped the Echo Show 15 with side-firing speakers, which will be just fine for most instances. But you can also connect another Echo or Bluetooth speaker if you want to turn on Netflix or Spotify while you’re cooking dinner. And with picture-in-picture available, you can see who’s at the door without having to actually stop what you’re doing.
In terms of privacy, Amazon has included everything that you would expect. There’s a physical camera privacy shutter if you don’t want the camera always on, along with hardware switches for the microphones and speakers. And if you want to use the new Visual ID features, you’ll have to manually opt into it, and then enroll your face. But Amazon also makes it easy to delete the profile on the Echo Show directly, or via the Alexa app on your phone.
The Amazon Echo Show 15 is priced at $250, and will be available sometime later this year.