New Amazon Echo Show 15 Alexa smart Display

New Amazon Echo Show 15 Alexa smart Display

New Amazon Echo Show 15 Alexa smart Display checking out this massive whopper of a smart display the amazon echo short 15 which can either be mounted on the wall like a picture frame otherwise you've also got the option of a handy desk stand like so and this beast will cost you around 230 pounds in the uk 250 dollars in the us though if you want

Lewis Painter

that stand that will cost you about an extra 40 quid the echo show 15 boasts improved performance over previous echo

show smart displays you've got 

so the first thing to note is that setting up the amazon echo show 15 is an absolute piece of piddle pretty much anyone could do it i reckon even my cats could do it given half a chance that you just got to sign into your wifi network and then sign into your amazon account select which profiles you want to use with it basically job done this is definitely one of the biggest smart displays i've ever clapped eyes on bit of a chunky monkey as well as you can see there lots of smarts to pack inside of that chassis if you want to you can actually mount the echo sure 15 onto any wall you do get all the bits that you need bundled in the box there so the screws and the what these things called again the things that you slot into the walls my diy skills are atrocious so i'm not even gonna attempt that but basically all you need to provide is your own screwdriver otherwise alternatively bug a bit of extra cash at amazon and you can get the stand for it instead and this is flexible as well you can prop the echo show 15 up in portrait mode or swap it to landscape mode and flip.

 Between the two all it takes is 

just unscrewing a couple of screws around the back top tip thought just remember not to mount the echo sure 15 upside down whoopsies i've got to say i quite like it in portrait mode i think it suits it really well although of course if you're going to be watching a lot of you know your netflix's or your youtubes you're probably going to want to put it in landscape mode instead as you get that full view experience if you are planning on mounting this thing on your wall make sure you do a bloody good job of it because it weighs 2.2 kilos so if this thing isn't secure then obviously it's gonna leave a big old nasty dent in your floorboards and also the echo show 15 will probably smash to bits and also bear in mind that the echo show 15 isn't battery powered there is a power cable involved and not the longest power cable in the world either it's only about two meters long in total so i've had to get a bit of extender cable action on the go here you do get some physical buttons located on the echo shore 15 and these are all housed here on the right hand side when it's in

portrait mode very simple and 

straightforward you've got volume up and down you've also got a mic mute button

and you've also got a slider for the 

built-in camera which is just stuck away in the corner of the display there so when this is down the camera is visible i can see everything that's going on when you slide it up it basically acts like a privacy shield blocking the camera so the echo show 15 can't clock

onto whatever you're up to not that 

you'd be getting up to anything dodgy in your own home of course so yeah you've

got limited controls on there and of 

course you do have a touch screen panel right here so you can directly interact

with the echo short 15 like so but of 

course the best thing about devices is the fact that you can just use your voice to do everything that you need i find the best uses of a or for things like controlling your smartphone and you can turn off studio lights so definitely the best way of interacting with the echo sure 15 is just by shouting at the bugger you've got six built-in far field mics in there anaphon that even if there's music blasting in the room you're in your kid is screaming at your wife whatever is going on those mics can still pick up on your commands cleanly and understand exactly what you mean even if you've got a bit of an accent now the display itself is a 15.6 inches and definitely one of the biggest smart displays you'll find out there which is great if you want to kick back with a bit of the netflix's or youtubes or what have you it's a full hd resolution display it's a

1920x1080 so images are pretty crisp 

despite the fact it is a spacious screen the viewing angles are good you can see

what's going on even from a sharp angle 

like this one right now which is quite handy for shooting this video and the

brightness can automatically adjust as 

well to suit the environment so when it's night the room is dark it will dim

all the way down it will actually go 

into dark mode uh just help preserve power and when you're in a brightly lit room like this it'll boost all the way up so you can still see clearly what is going on colors on particularly poppy saw more vivid vibrant affair like anime for instance doesn't exactly shine on this screen but it's absolutely fine if you just want to watch something quick and easy for 20 minutes while you're

busy based on your spuds so let's have a 

bit of a tour of the ui here on the echo show 15 which has changed up from previous models so up top you've got the usual scroll and slideshow of your own photos or whatever photos you want amazon to display for you i've chosen travel because i basically just want to tease myself with places that i probably won't be able to visit for quite some time you can actually flip through this as well with your finger if you so

desire this brings up various news 

headlines the local weather all kinds of stuff and that's fully customizable within the settings and then down beneath that you've got your alexa widgets which again is fully customizable so as you can see here this is just like widgets on your smartphone

so you can have a calendar showing you 

exactly what your upcoming events are you've got a recipe suggestions if you

get a bit bored of just having pot 

noodle every night one of my favorites is the little sticky notes down here where you can basically write whatever you want and i've also got some fast controls for some of my smart home goodies so for instance i can turn the studio strip lights on or off and all of this is fully customizable all you've got to do is swipe up from the bottom and then go to widget gallery and you've

got a selection here that you can choose 

from it's not the biggest selection in the world admittedly there's literally 12 of them but hopefully that will expand quite rapidly over the coming months as amazon adds some more you've got like some to-do lists shopping lists all that kind of stuff and you can also rearrange these widgets however you want you can also resize them all you've got to do is long press on them nice and easy and one of the best features of those widgets is the fact that every single family member in your household can have their own personalized customized setup they can have whichever individual widgets they want set up the way that they want them and that's all thanks to the echo sure 15's built-in 5-megapixel camera as i said just housed it in the corner there when you uh approach the echo sure 15 it will recognize your mug usually works from a distance of a few feet away even in quite low light and then you'll see your profile just pops up in the corner here

just give that a little tap and you'll 

see there i am in all my gun and glory so basically all you've got to do is set up a different profile for each of your household members in alexa you can do that within the app on your smartphone

if you want or you can do it direct 

through the echo show 15 as well and then when it recognizes you it'll pop up your own individual layout so everyone's a happy chappie and it's also worth pointing out that official data isn't stored uh on the cloud amazon's got no access to that it is just stored locally on the device itself so you will have to set it up individually on different echo shore devices or of course if you and your family aren't bothered at all about having separate profiles or anything you can just cover up that camera and just not use it at all to access the rest of the echo shore 15 settings all you need to do is drag down from the top and this will give you full access to whatever

you need you can put the frame in do not 

disturb mode if you don't want any alexa announcements for instance of upcoming calendar events that you might have completely forgotten about you could also manually adjust the brightness as well as get that auto option on the go you can tinker with your notifications there set an alarm all kinds of stuff and you can also fast access music and video streaming this way as well if you don't want to just use your voice but that is to be honest far easier you can just say

play royalty-free music on deezer it's 

not great but it won't result in a copyright infringement okay stop please and yeah you can also get some video streaming on the go as well unfortunately amazon echo shows still only support a small number of streaming services including of course amazon's own prime video you've got netflix on there you've got youtube bing that's actually just that's just bing and then red bull tv which i've got i've never actually watched before i'm kind of hoping it's just people chugging

red bull and then doing ridiculous 

challenges like driving a bus with a bomb on it trying to keep their heart rate under 150 bpm unfortunately youtube does still play through a browser rather than having its own dedicated app uh on

the echo show as well but it works 

absolutely fine exactly how you would expect you've got a pair of stereo speakers here on the echo sure 15 which are arranged on the left and the right when the display is in landscape mode and they output some pretty powerful audio on that top volume certainly more than loud enough to clearly hear what is

going on when you are cooking up a storm 

in the kitchen you've got kids screaming all that good stuff so i've got to say i really do enjoy uh watching things on the echo show it is perfectly positioned in the kitchen just as an entertainment device also you can you know get to read

you out recipes or display them on that 

massive screen so they're easy to see

and as for the performance no issues 

there whatsoever it's using amazon's az2 processor uh which i know very little

about the actual architecture of that 

chipset but certainly it seems to be absolutely fine you know when you swipe

instant response right there on the 

display the voice commands all work uh super super quick as well i certainly

haven't noticed any tardiness at any 

point so it certainly seems a winner on that front so that right there is amazon's echo short 15 a very nifty smart display certainly if you want a big screen to work with then this is the way forward and one that is mountable on the wall very convenient indeed as long as you can deal with the power cable so are you tempted by the amazon echo show 15 be great to hear your thoughts down in the comments below? Thank You