Product description
For a multi-function device, the Echo Show 5 comes at a very reasonable price that makes it worth buying. The amazon-manufactured smart device has a 5.5-inch smart display for all its various uses and to help you manage your day easily as well as provide entertainment. It also has a touchscreen feature making it more flexible for use. It comes with a powerful speaker system, great computational power, and wireless connectivity.
If you like using Alexa as your smart home assistant, the Echo Show 5 will be a great smart display for you with its various voice-activated features. It connects to Alexa to give you responses to your voice commands, vivid visuals, and full sound. The multi-features also give room for entertainment as you can access music streaming services, movie trailers, Netflix, Prime Video, and catch up on news highlights from various news outlets. The portable size makes it perfect as a nightstand display giving you access to all this from the comfort of your bed, however, it can still be useful in any part of your house as per your preference.
With the Echo Show 5, it instantly becomes easy to control your smart home by being able to adjust thermostats, control lighting in your rooms and switches. You can even connect any other voice control compatible device and manage all of them on one single device on the easy-to-use display. By setting up Guard in the Alexa app you will even be able to get mobile alerts if your device detects the sound of a smoke alarm or a break-in when you are not at home. The Echo Show can help you bump up your security and protect your home using the Drop-In feature which allows you to access your camera remotely.
In as much as we have mobile phones, having one device that can do more is appealing, the Echo Show among its many uses can allow you to make hands-free video calls. You get to connect instantly to other supported devices. Besides making calls you can also use the touch to watch videos. You can call other Alexa devices and check on the feed of connected security cameras. It also works well with a Ring Video Doorbell allowing you to check on visitors as well as talk to them via voice command.
The Echo Show 5 has access to the wikiHow site which shows you how-to videos for a variety of questions making it a useful tool for learning new things. Besides being a suitable smart home assistant, the device has a smart alarm feature that helps to make your mornings way easier and more organized. It has a sunrise animation that starts 15 minutes before the scheduled time, getting brighter gradually to help you ease out of your sleep by making your room a little less dark. This feature turns on automatically with any alarm in the morning hours but there is an option to completely turn it off. If the brightness adaptive is enabled, it switches to nighttime clock time when the lights are turned off.
Besides using Alexa and voice commands, the smart home panel can give you a way to control your gadgets with just a touch. You can make your smart display more fun by using Amazon Photos or photos from Facebook to turn your home screen into a digital frame to showcase your favorite pictures. In addition to the camera allowing video calls, it can also take pictures using Alexa voice commands. For your privacy, the Echo Show 5 includes a physical shutter and a feature to delete stored voice commands. It also has buttons in addition to the touch screen for volume control, muting the mic to disable Alex from hearing, and electrically disabling the camera.
The good points
- The added privacy shield on the camera
- It is a multi-function smart display at a very affordable price
- Integrated how-to videos by the WikiHow feature
The bad points
- No access to other video apps like the YouTube app
- You cannot set your own snooze time or set a sunrise alarm outside a certain range of hours.
Should you buy it?
For a smart home assistant and to manage all compatible smart home devices efficiently on the simple interactive display or by voice commands, the Echo Show 5 does a great job and would be worth investing in. The various extra features such as access to entertainment streaming services and its amazing Sunrise feature for the perfect alarm clock make it all the more worth buying.
What are other buyers saying about it?
Amazon ID: T-Squared (5 stars)
I was unhappy with the Show when l first set it up. I wanted the clock to show but Amazon tips kept minimizing the clock. After giving it one star, Amazon customer service reached out to me. I received an email explaining how to stop the `Things to try` and now I love it. Here is an excerpt from the email and l hope it helps others. You can edit your home page to not show you certain things on the Echo Show 5:
- Go to settings
- Open home and clock
- Home content
there you can turn off things like rotate continuously, discover trending topics, or anything else you don’t want to see.
Amazon ID: Jodeg (5 stars)
We have the large Echo 4, Echo Dots, an Echo Spot, and now an Echo Show 5, I love them all! The Echo Show 5 was easy to get set up and is great to use. I have it by my bed (don’t need an alarm clock, we are retired) and l really like the clock face. It is nice and big, easy to read with my old eyes. I have set it to dim down at night so it won’t cast too much light in our bedroom, but it’s still very readable. There are nice clock faces which are easy to change. I also purchased the magnetic stand so l could angle it down to make it easier for me to read the time. It works great with our ring doorbell and Ring security system, just like the rest of our Echos. I’m very pleased with the Echo Show 5 and would recommend it. The price is right too!
Amazon ID: Michael C. (5 stars)
I primarily use this as an alarm clock and I love it! Most of the negative reviews are from people who need to learn how to use it properly. You CAN eliminate the “try Alexa” and you CAN have a large alarm clock time display. There IS a nighttime display mode. You CAN change the clock display. I like it so much I am ordering a second one for my family room. The only thing I wish it could do was set an alarm to music. Overall a great product.
