Eco Show 10 | fantastic show!

Karim Benessaieh
Journalism

Love

For the third-generation Echo Show, this smart speaker that we’ve tipped off with a 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet, Amazon decided to hit hard. The screen silently rotates 360 degrees so you can always place it in front of you, wherever you are in the room. Depending on the settings chosen, he can follow you at all times, only when called or not connected at all

We get the impression that there is a cousin to R2-D2 permanently in the room. Scary ? Yes a little. But the visual information that you allow to follow you stays on the device and isn’t sent to an external server, Amazon says. And if you’re skeptical, a plastic cover pops open in front of the camera with a small button on the top.

So what does a moving screen look like? It’s not hugely useful, but it’s well thought out. You always have the time and outside temperature in front of you, and all the information scrolling through on an Echo Show. Includes weather forecast for the next few days, tips on how to use the voice assistant. AlexaUpcoming calendar events, album covers you listen to on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, plus our favorite, “That Day,” which shows you your photos taken on the same day in previous years.

To store images, we have free access to 5GB on Amazon servers. Prime subscribers have unlimited space. As for personal videos, they cannot be played on the Echo Show.

A very positive note: Alexa Compatible with three types of calendars: Google, Microsoft and Apple. Google, since its inception, has insisted on accepting only its internal agenda.

No response fromAlexa To query in writing on the screen. Ask what is the capital of Mongolia and you will see a picture, its people and its local currency.

If you have a Ring doorbell, you can see what happens in your driveway at any time, or when someone rings.

It can also be used to watch movies or series on Netflix and videos on YouTube. It’s easy to call someone by entering their name or surname (“mom,” for example), or even giving their full number. Contacts come from your phone, via the app Alexa.

If the experience tells you, you can also put it in the kitchen and ask him to show you a recipe. From Serving Marmiton, he will guide you step-by-step, from ingredients to cooking, with supporting photos.

You can also video call or use another Echo Show owner Skype. Funny feature: The 13MP camera will automatically zoom in / out to fill the screen. Other video conferencing tools, incl Zoom in And the Difference, Can not be accessed.

It can also be used as a surveillance camera. From the application Alexa On his phone, we’ll see everything that is in the Echo Show visual field and can move it to cover a larger area.

The other aspect that has been greatly improved is the sound quality of this cylindrical speaker, which spreads out in all directions with a very deep sound. The competitor’s “cacanne” voice here has nothing to do with Google – which has other qualities, let’s be fair.

We love less

Let’s stick to the example of Google, which in 2019 also released the same type of product, Nest Hub, but without a camera. The choice is easy to understand: Smart speakers really raise concerns for the worst when it comes to privacy without the addition of an electronic eye. The Echo Show has a camera, through thick and thin. You can block it mechanically of course, but you don’t buy such a gadget to deactivate it. There are rooms in the house that you wouldn’t want to have.

Movement tracking is far from fully developed. First he needs a strong light. Then, for some mysterious reason, the screen sometimes stops following us. We must challenge him loudly so that he turns to us. Loudly, we found that our Echo Show 10 is often tough on the paper and seems to be having a hard time hearing us.

We buy?

In three weeks of testing, this funny little robot with very useful souvenir images, sound quality and screen became our favorite desktop helper. It’s not perfect and we understand it can be disconcerting, but it is a well-designed device, with a voice assistant adapted to Quebec.

Hell tool.