if you're wondering whether or not it's time to jump in in by an Amazon Echo
Show 5 well we have our full review here coming up
hello Automators thanks for tuning in again now it's time to take the
frustration out of automation by ensuring you're purchasing the right
product and is the Echo Show 5 the right product for you well let's talk about
what it is the Amazon Echo Show 5 is an Alexa-enabled smart display with a 5-inch
display as it has Amazon's very capable voice assistant Alexa on board it's able to
handle a ton in your home and instantly makes a lot about your home very smart
it's priced at $90 USD and it is definitely intended to be your bedside
clock or alarm clock and it's also intended to sit in your kitchen on your
kitchen counter what does this little device do well it's a smart display and
as such it is only limited really by the voice assistant Alexa that's on board and even
those limitations are stretched by the fact that it is a smart display and
that's where the display comes in and helps you do additional things now just
a short list here to get you started you'll be able to play music play videos
and not just on this device but you could also use it to send videos or
start videos on Fire TV sticks and Fire Cube's those types of devices from
Amazon you'll also be able to get most answers for most of your common
questions that you just have throughout your day and of course you'll be able to
control your smart home any smart home connected devices you'll also be able to
use the massive Amazon skill library manager calendar from a number of
different services you'll be able to set alarms timers reminders and really
overall manage your day through such a small device you'll be able to call your
friends send messages or leave voice messages for them receive the same voice
messages and receive the same calls all through Amazon's application you just
set it up there and then it's able to work through here and kind of a newer
feature here is to take photos and have them show up instantly on the display as
part of the rotations the display component of the Echo
Show 5 is great and it's especially great if your prime subscriber and you
have access to Amazon video or Amazon Prime videos now you can see the larger
cousin of the Echo Show 5 sitting right here this is the full-size display
and really they're capable of the same things now I would expect other than
Amazon Prime video YouTube to show up as a native application now there's no word
on that just yet but we would expect that with Google and Amazon kind of
ending the Cold War a little bit here but there's no guarantees on that what
you do have instead is the web browser on again both of these devices are you
actually have two web browsers and that web browser allows you to go to
youtube.com and it's quite a good functioning or a well-functioning
interface to navigate through YouTube with obviously with those two web
browsers you're able to run through lots of the internet and go to most of your
favorite sites I mean I don't know what you're going to look at but everything
I've tried so far on this device has looked great and performed really well I
use something called ActionTiles as well that controls my smart home through
Samsung SmartThings and that control interface works great on here and so
this becomes a very powerful smart home controller the screen is very good for
its size and it allows you to watch a lot of things in a very nice format and
it looks great all the time obviously it's a bit of a shinier screen and so
you have to keep that in mind with placements I think the speaker is quite
good as well especially for the size and the price of the device here and all of
the functionality when you kind of look at it as a whole package the speaker is
very good it's definitely outperforming my Echo Dot I wasn't sure at first but
as I went forward I think this is a better speaker and it even rivals this
device over here the Amazon Echo second-generation now whether or not
it's better than a Google Nest hub that's something we'll talk a little bit
later about the web browser I think is the biggest benefit and something that
again Google if we're comparing those two
devices kind of hasn't caught on to here at least not in the same way Amazon has
this makes us essentially a tablet type of device
Amazon's voice assistant continues to improve it is still the best in the
industry in terms of controlling your smart home and has the biggest or the
largest skill store here on the planet by far I mean Google's not even close
and apples not even trying and Samsung's just started the new interface for
controlling not just your smart home but a number of other features you can see
you just swipe from the left there and it brings up this new interface and you
could bring it back just like that and that has become one of my most used
features instantaneously as I got the device I started to use that not just to
control my smart home but also the start and stop music and if I wanted video it
also allows you to quickly access all of your routines and that's a big deal for
a lot of people in terms of controlling their smart home very very powerful and
you can also access your alarms very quickly which is obviously important
with someone who's going to use this as a bedside table or even you know setting
alarms or timers and things within a kitchen setting a couple extra things I
mean setup here on this device was entirely on the device all I needed was
an Amazon account and I could set it up entirely here without using a phone or a
tablet or something to connect to the device I can also manage things like
Bluetooth Wi-Fi the display settings the sounds all of that on device without
having to bring out my app the price is also great at $90 I feel like I'm
getting a ton from Amazon now we'll talk about the dislikes here in a minute but
the price overall with the package here really feels great in terms of dislikes
let's be honest the biggest thing to dislike right now is the privacy
concerns around Amazon and their recordings and how they're even saying
well you know what yeah we're keeping your recordings even if you delete them
so you know if you can get past that I think that's the biggest drawback on the
echo show five other drawbacks include the speaker and
you know I talked about the speaker being good but on the flip side when you
kind of get to the higher end of the volume and you get to a higher kind of
fuller songs just busier songs you do start to hear a little bit of I guess
I'll call it distortion and it's it's just not a perfect speaker at that point
no it never hurts to hear these devices of course so let's play a snippet from
each of the devices you see and you'll be able to hear those differences
between the speakers
I might be being a little bit nit picky here but the overall design of this is a
little bulky it feels a little unrefined versus a device like the Google Nest Hub
here it's just not on that same level of look and feel and polish I guess is is
really what it comes down to I do think it's easy to look at smart displays
right now and say well they're doing just about everything we could ever hope
for because they're a new device and it's hard to define what they should and
shouldn't be doing but I really do think that the apps have to eventually end up
on devices like this and I have the same comment about this I have the same
comment about this really in the end I think skills are great and this has the
best skills in the industry on it but I still miss the ability to run
applications and when you see them run the web browser I really miss it at that
point I mean that to me says they're capable of doing a lot more and should
be doing a number of apps for you and I to use and would make this ultimately
one of the most powerful devices in our home now the ultimate in the smart home
industry is whether or not we're going to give it our seal of approval here on
Automate Your Life and the answer to that is if you can get past the privacy
issues well then this might be the best overall Amazon Echo device in the entire
series and I don't say that lightly because they have produced a lot of
great devices that you see here I think the Echo Show, the second generation of
this device right here you know that really moved them forward again
in terms of device design and what they've done by shrinking it down to the
five inch form factor here really keeping a lot of the sound quality
within it and also adding the little things they have to the control
interface the privacy shutter here and just some nuances to the product really
have made it I think one of the best overall echo devices out there
especially when you consider that 90 us price tag now as always the links are
down below and if you purchase through those links you're supporting automate
your life and I appreciate that guys now on screen what you're seeing is a
playlist to all of our content on the Echo Show 5 which shows you how to set
it up and it gives you comparisons to these other products that you're seeing
here on the screen to help you make that right purchasing decision here so until
next time everyone don't hate and automate