Gabe: Hey folks, this is Gabe with Security Baron and maybe you're looking at getting
into the smart display game, but you don't want something to take up all the space on
your counter.
Well, we may have the solution for you today, looking at a small but capable display in
the Amazon Echo Show 5.
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Gabe: In today's review of the Amazon Echo Show 5, we're going to be going over the pros
and cons, the design, its feature set, the installation experience, the user experience,
before answering a few common questions and giving you a recap in who we think this device
is for.
If you want to get the full performance details on the Amazon Echo Show 5, check out my comprehensive
written review at securitybaron.com.
There you'll find tips and guides on how to set up your smart home ecosystem and see how
the Amazon Echo Show 5 can fit in.
Once again, that can all be found at securitybaron.com.
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Gabe: Let's kick off today's review of the Amazon Echo Show 5, going over some pros and
cons, beginning with the pros.
It is powered by Amazon smart assistant, which has over 100,000 skills, which is a ton.
That means there's a lot of things you can do just with the smart assistant.
On top of that, it's hands-free capable, so I can use my voice to pull up my favorite
television show or a podcast, or add things to my calendar, that's actually quite useful.
Finally, it does have a physical shutter, so I can actually close the camera that comes
built into the Amazon Echo Show 5, and that's an additional piece of mind element that I
like.
Looking at the cons for the Amazon Echo Show 5, I do wish I had a native YouTube app.
It's not their fault that they don't have it, but I do think that we consume a lot of
media, frankly through YouTube and it'd be nice to be able to have that come up pretty
easily.
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Gabe: Hold on, I hope you're enjoying today's review of the Amazon Echo Show 5.
You'll be kept up to date on the newest and smart home displays, smart home security,
cybersecurity, and more.
Subscribe to our channel, Security Baron.
We're dropping new content weekly.
All right, let's get back to the video.
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Gabe: Now that we've checked out the pros and cons on the Amazon Echo Show 5, let's
look at its design.
It has a 5.5-inch screen, and it weighs about 14.5 ounces, so not even a pound.
It's entirely covered by this mesh fabric, which covers the speakers on the device.
The back ports are your power port, your micro USB, and an auxiliary out.
On the top of the device, you'll see a number of options.
You have the option to actually turn the lens completely off, in terms of a physical shutter,
you have a volume up and volume down, microphones, and a mute mic button.
On the bottom, you have a nice rubberized sole so that you can be sure that it doesn't
clunk down on your furniture, scratch anything up.
A miniaturized version of the Amazon Echo Show, and the Amazon Echo Show 8.
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Gabe: Now that we've gone over the pros and cons and the design on the Amazon Echo Show
5, let's talk about its feature set beginning with the smart platform functionality.
The Amazon Echo Show 5, of course, works with the Amazon virtual assistant, which gives
you a ton of skills at your disposal.
What I like about the Amazon Echo Show 5 is you have two ways basically of interfacing
with the device.
You have your voice, which is my favorite way to go about using it.
You also can use the touch screen so I can go back and forth.
I can look at different things.
What's great is you get all of these entertainment and productivity options at a glance.
If I use my voice to say, "Pull up my calendar, pull up my shopping list, pull up my to-do
lists," I can do so and see those directly on the screen, which is something I like about
having the Amazon smart platform actually guiding this device.
The Amazon Echo Show 5, fortunately, does come equipped with the ability to stream from
most streaming services.
I'm talking about Hulu, Netflix, HBO, Prime Video.
Those all can be downloaded directly to the device.
Then you can use your voice to play whatever TV show or movie you're trying to watch.
On top of that, you can also have it interfaced with all of the different streaming music
services, Pandora, Amazon Music, of course, Spotify, Apple Music are all accessible using
your Amazon Echo Show 5.
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Gabe: Let's talk about the camera, video calling, and privacy with the Amazon Echo Show 5.
One element I like about Amazon Echo devices, you can call other Amazon Echo devices by
just using your voice.
An element of this device is, the fact that you could have that video call, and actually
see someone with another Echo device or using a different app, means you also may want some
privacy at times.
Fortunately, you can do so by turning off the physical shutter.
There's an actual physical shutter on the Amazon Echo Show 5, which is not something
we've seen with all the devices out on the market.
On top of that, you have the mute mic button.
The mute mic button ensures that it won't be listening to anything because the Amazon
Echo Show is passively listening to you at all times.
It only starts to register and record what you're saying, however, when you use the wake
word, whichever wake word you have chosen for your Amazon Echo device.
One point to make is that, after you've made a number of questions, or had things registered
and recorded them to Amazon Echo Show, you can actually go into the mobile application
and delete your recordings.
You can actually get that element of privacy.
Like, "Oh, I just asked some really embarrassing thing.
Well, I can go into the mobile app and delete that from my history."
The final feature I want to talk about today is related to controlling your smart home.
The element of having Amazon powering everything in terms of its smart assistant program is
the ability to actually control things.
It does work in a sense as a hub where you can see it what's going on in your home.
If you have a thermostat connected, or you have smart lights connected to your device,
you'll be able to see them directly using your Amazon Echo Show 5, which I think is
a really useful element.
That's a look at the feature set for the Amazon Echo Show 5.
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Gabe: Now that we've gone over the features set, let's talk about the installation process
with the Amazon Echo Show 5, and frankly, there's not much of a process.
It's pretty straight forward.
You simply take the Amazon Echo Show 5, make sure you already have an Amazon account, and
then you just plug it in.
Then you'll attach it to your home's WiFi.
Once you have your home's WiFi, you're going to put in your account details for Amazon,
and that's it.
From there, you just add any apps or things like that you'd like to have on top of it,
in terms of the streaming services and things like that.
The overall process for installing and setting up the system is so simple.
Took me less than five minutes.
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Gabe: Now I'm going to show you the day-to-day experience with the Amazon Echo Show 5.
During this user experience as a disclaimer, I do want to point out that we will be using
one of the Amazon wake words, so you may want to mute your Amazon devices.
Here I am checking out the user experience with my Amazon Echo Show 5.
It's petite, but it's bringing a lot to the table.
You can see the four-day forecast, you have the moments weather along with, actually the
time.
Let's go ahead and check out some other things I can do if I swipe from the top.
Well, there I see my home, my brightness, it's already turned up.
I can put it on do not disturb, and go into my settings.
Now let's go back to home, which is that first page.
Then if I go ahead and swipe from the right, you see a number of options; communicate,
smart home, music, video, routines, alarms.
Let's go ahead and see how I'll be interacting with it typically, which is probably just
using my voice.
For example, if I want to play some music, I can say, "Computer, play 'Cozy' by Cool
Guy."
Computer: Cozy by Cool Guy from Apple Music.
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Gabe: Oh, computer, pause music.
Maybe I want to take a break, and I want to watch something else, so I can then just say,
"Computer, play 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco' on Prime Video."
Computer: Here's The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Gabe: "Computer, pause film."
Now I've realized, you know what, I still need a few other elements.
I want to go ahead and make some snacks for dinner.
Maybe I can just go ask the Amazon Echo Show 5 to show me a few different recipes.
I can say, "Computer, show me how to make Chicago Style Popcorn."
Computer: OK, for Chicago Style Popcorn, here's a few recipes.
Gabe: Now, I've gone from San Francisco to Chicago.
Let's check out one of these options.
Let's go with Chicago Style Popcorn, the very first one.
You see here, they have various options for me.
This one's from Kitchen, because there are a number of recipe providers within the Amazon
Echo Show 5, from Kitchen to All Recipes to Side Chef.
Now, let's go ahead and start this recipe.
I can go ahead and look and see what's available to me.
I realized you know what?
I don't have any vanilla, so I can from this point decide, you know what, I need to shop
for some of these elements.
I'll go back.
Let me just add all these to my shopping list directly.
Now, let's go ahead and look at my shopping list.
I can say, "Computer, show me my shopping list."
Now, I have all my ingredients, and I can ensure that I have the best movie-watching
experience at home, at least, I can have.
Now, you know what?
I made all of this popcorn.
Let me go ahead and tell everyone about it.
Let's go back to our menu.
Hit our communication.
You're going to actually tell everyone in the home through an announcement that we have
popcorn available.
I can say, "Hey, everyone, the popcorn is ready."
Then, I can go ahead and let that happen.
Computer: Hey, everyone.
The popcorn is ready.
Gabe: I've sent that to every single Echo device in my home, so everyone in the house
knows that there's popcorn ready to be eaten inside of the house.
What if I want to go ahead and just give someone a call, catch up with some family members,
where I can do so pretty easily.
Go back to communicate, go to call.
I can call any one of these devices, or I can even put in a phone number.
I can decide I want to call my mom or my grandmother, put in that Nashville 615 area code.
It's nice for a nice little conversation.
If I don't want to deal with any of this in terms of scrolling through my contacts or
using the dialer, I can, of course, just use my voice to call anyone in my contact list.
Finally, we want to go and see what other elements we have in our system so we can go
look at our smart home cameras.
I can look at my bulbs.
I can look even at the different plugs.
Those are all accessible, and you know exactly what they are from the icons that are provided.
Ultimately, you have control of your entire smart home ecosystem right here on your Amazon
Echo Show 5.
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Gabe: Now that we've gone over these experiences, let's talk about some common questions regarding
the Amazon Echo Show 5.
The first question is, does the Amazon Echo show five have a built-in hub?
That's an interesting question because the Amazon Echo Show 5 is completely self-contained.
You do not need any other elements to get everything you'd like out of this device.
That being said, it does integrate with a number of other elements in the Amazon ecosystem.
The second question is, does the Amazon Echo Show 5 have a battery?
The answer is, no, there's no battery for the Amazon Echo Show 5.
It must remain plugged in.
The final question is, does the Amazon Echo Show 5 work with the Ring?
The answer is, yes, the Amazon Echo Show 5 does integrate with the Ring in terms of being
able to, not only look at various components of the system, but actually, port the live
video from your Ring cameras.
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Gabe: Now that we've gone over some common questions, let's talk about who we think this
device is for.
The first person is someone who wants a kitchen companion.
If you're someone who's trying to cook, you want step-by-step guides, want a little bit
of music or some television as ambience, the Amazon Echo Show 5 is not going to take up
a ton of space.
That can go to your cutting board, and it's really useful for step-by-step instructions
in the cooking process.
The Amazon Echo Show 5 is also just an affordable way to break into the smart display game.
It costs less than a hundred dollars.
In fact, if you're looking at getting an Amazon Echo Dot with clock, or an Amazon Echo Dot,
3rd Generation, it's not that much more expensive just to go ahead and get an Amazon Echo Show
5.
Then, you get all this sound quality that you would get from those devices, along with
the ability to actually look at something from time to time.
The display capabilities are fun.
Finally, I think this is a great system for someone who would like to see elements of
their smart home ecosystem in a visual display.
You can look beyond just your iPhone or your Android device, and look at your external
display for looking at your thermostat, for looking at your smart lights, for looking
at your various security cameras.
It's a really useful element that you can do all of that, with the Amazon Echo Show
5.
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Gabe: All right.
That's our look at the Amazon Echo Show 5.
If there are additional points you have or questions you would like to ask us, please
leave us a comment below.
If you've appreciated today's video, give us a like and hit that subscribe button.
As always, this is Gabe with Security Baron.
Be secured.
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