Echo Show 5 – Compact smart display with Alexa – Charcoal
February 11, 2020 - Comment
Echo Show 5 connects to Alexa to give you vivid visuals on a 5.5” screen with a crisp full sound—all in a compact design that fits in any room, in any home. Product Features Compact 5.5″ smart display with Alexa ready to help Manage calendar, make to-do lists, get weather and traffic updates, cook along
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An affordable update to the Echo Show device series ORIGINAL REVIEW: July 1, 2019: 3.5/5 stars (more on the rationale behind the 3.5/5 rating at the end of the review)For background information, I am a professor and a tech geek. I have used Amazon devices for around eight years now. I currently own three Kindle e-readers (Kindle Touch, Kindle Paperwhite 3rd generation, and Kindle 10). I also own four Amazon Fire tablets (2015 Fire 7 -5th generation, 2019 Fire 7 â 9th generation, 2017 Fire HD 8 – 7th generation and 2018 Fire HD 8 â8th generation) and 3 Echo devices (1st generation Echo, 2nd generation Echo Dot, and 3rd generation Echo Dot). Please note that I have traded-in some of the dated versions of the above-listed products to get upgraded versions (more on this under the âSaving Money on Purchasesâ section).This device – Amazonâs Echo Show 5 (2019 release) is a refresh of the Echo Show line-up at an outstanding price. The Echo Show 5 (henceforth referred to as ES5) is in a new class of its own. The…
This is a poorly conceived and executed product full of home screen ads you canât turn off. Ugh. The constant large ads to âTry, Alexa [insert question or skill here]â that splash across the screen and cannot be turned off are annoying. Super annoying. Like return this annoying. There is no option to turn them off. You can only have *all of them play once then stop, but that means the content that you actually want regular updates of, like your stocks or news, scroll once and then never again. Oh, yeah, the photos of the product on this page? None of them show that âTry, Alexaâ screen or card as they call it. So you have no idea that you will be constantly subjected to those screen filling ads all the time. This is not worth $90. Itâs not worth $45. Itâs an annoying ad machine. Oh and the screen is dark, low resolution so your photos look terrible, and there are only 2 video options (prime and nbc) but the software to select and watch them is terrible. This is a poorly conceived and executed product.
bad balance between promoting amazon services and providing value for the price having to disable cards as the only way to stop the rotating alexa suggestions is not really a sane option.considering the price of the device this should be easier to permanently disable instead of only being able to partially disable it (it will still show when interacting with the device) by disabling useful features.imagine going to the movies and seeing a banner at the bottom with “we are also playing this other movie you might like” and then 10 minutes later “did you know you can buy popcorn?” and then “we have free restrooms”. I think they are going for this kind of experience. no matter how good the movie, the banners undermine it.I will keep it for now in case they release an update removing the advertisements. but I will probably be returning it if there is no permanent fix.EDIT:I have been exploring more and i can review some skills:smart ligths: works decent enough with philiphs hue. you can se a dimmer switch…