- Is it a little weird to be so excited
about a bedside clock?
'Cause I'm a little excited about this bedside clock,
the Amazon Echo Show 5.
All right, yeah, it's a little weird.
Not the clock, me.
I'm a little weird for being so excited, I think, anyway.
There are a lot of things out there now, right?
You've got the Lenovo Smart Clock.
We've got the Google Nest Hub.
We've talked about both of those.
We've even got the old Amazon Echo Spot.
I did a video on that a long time ago.
But I tell you what.
I'm gonna totally throw that out of the conversation here
for a couple reason.
One, as cute as it is, it's got a tiny little round screen
that's just bad for video, really bad.
The other thing is, it costs $129 still,
and that's just way more than everything else
we're gonna talk about here today.
So, here we go.
This is the Amazon Echo Show 5.
Let's go do it.
(upbeat music)
All right, this is it, the Echo Show 5.
Now it's $89 when it's not on sale
and as the name implies, it's got a five inch screen.
All right, it's actually 5.5 inches
with a 960 by 480 resolution, nerds.
It's also got a one megapixel camera on the front
with a physical shutter for privacy.
And I've said it before, and I'm gonna say it again.
If you're gonna put a camera on a device like this,
this is the way to do it, with a physical shutter
so you can make sure nobody can see you.
Now you'll set it up with your WiFi password
and your Amazon login.
It's pretty standard stuff.
And after that, it's a standard Echo Show experience.
It's really familiar.
And I'm glad to see that Amazon has taken
care of some of the gripes that I've had over the years.
You can get rid of the tips
and take better control over what's on the screen.
But I tell ya, this much is clear,
whereas say the Lenovo Smart Clock is a clock first
and kind of everything else second,
the Echo Show 5 really doesn't fall too far
on either side of that scale.
It's very much just a smaller Amazon Echo Show.
It's still super easy to do all that clock stuff, of course.
And the home control buttons are front and center.
It's all pretty intuitive and very easy to use.
And Amazon has done a really good job here.
And because it's an Echo,
it's got all the Alexa stuff on board too.
Voice, video, all the skills, all the controls,
smart home stuff, games, Amazon Prime Video.
You can do all the Amazon Alexa calling stuff
including drop-ins which I was never a fan of
and I don't do it now.
It's not something that I'm gonna use,
but it's there if you do want to try it.
Now the one thing it's missing right now is,
of course, YouTube.
It's got Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime Video is great,
but I'm not gonna like sit back and watch Mrs. Maisel
on this little five inch screen.
I'm just not gonna do,
especially if it's right next to my bed.
Doesn't make sense.
YouTube, kinda casual watching, all right,
that makes a little more sense, I guess.
But Google says YouTube is coming back.
The problem is it's just not here yet so, we wait.
So what's to like here on the Echo Show 5?
Well I tell ya, the screen is fine, all right,
at five and a half inches, whatever, it's decent.
But where I've really been impressed has been the speaker.
Now it's only got a single four watt speaker in this thing,
but it has a surprising amount of bass.
I mean, I played music and it's like,
wait a minute, no.
This is not supposed to sound this good.
♪ I got the horses in the back ♪
♪ Horse tack is attached ♪
♪ Hat is matte black ♪
♪ Got the boots that's black to match ♪
So how's it stack up?
Absolutely is better than the Lenovo Smart Clock,
hands down, no contest.
Now I figured it would be a little closer
with the Google Next Hub.
I mean, they're more similar in size.
In fact the Next Hub is bigger.
So it should sound about as good, right?
♪ I got the horses in the back ♪
♪ Horse tack is attached ♪
♪ Hat is matte black ♪
♪ Got the boots that's black to match ♪
Oh, the Echo Show 5 absolutely wins this as well.
I don't want to say it's no contest,
because, you know, they're both small devices
and it's not like having Sonos in your room.
Either one of them will play music just fine,
but the Echo Show 5 absolutely sounds better
than the Google Nest Hub.
I keep mentioning in the price here, and for good reason,
because when the Echo Show 5 was announced,
it was immediately clear Amazon was going
right at everybody, right?
In fact Google has had to lower the price
of the Nest Hub from like $130 all the way down to $79,
and we've even seen it on sale for even less than that.
And that's made things really interesting
so let's break down the prices again.
The Echo Show 5 is $89 when it's not on sale.
The Next Hub has been discounted to $79
which is also a really good price for a really good product.
That's also the same price as the Lenovo Smart Clock,
which I feel like I should mention just
'cause it's kinda in the same product category.
But it's got a smaller screen,
it's just not as good, so just no.
No, it's gonna be between the Nest Hub
and the Amazon Echo Show 5.
And guess what.
It's the same old story.
I've said it before, I'm gonna say it again.
It really comes down to what ecosystem you're in.
If you're all in on Amazon and you're all in on Alexa,
or if you just don't care
or you wanna avoid Google or whatever,
this is gonna be the little smart clock you want to get.
Now if you're all in on Google Assistant,
the Google Nest Hub makes perfect sense.
I love it, I use it everyday.
So pick your poison.
They're both really good
and I've been super impressed with this Amazon Echo Show 5.
Oh and by the way,
it's got a little stand that you can put it on,
so you can change the position of it.
That's kinda neat.
It's got the same rubber foot that's on the bottom
of the Echo Show 5 so it won't go sliding anywhere.
$19, totally optional.
Pick it up if you want.
Cool little accessory.
So that's it for the Amazon Echo Show 5.
On one hand, it's all new.
On the other hand, it's a smaller Echo Show experience
a lot like we've had for a couple years now.
And you really can't beat the price of $89
unless Amazon puts it on sale for even less.
Or there's the Google Nest Hub.
Anyway, you get the idea.
It's not all that expensive for a really good device.
So if you've got anymore question on the Echo Show 5,
fire away down on the comments.
Come find me on the socials.
Drop me an e-mail, Phil@moderndad.com.
That's it, see you next time.
(gentle music)