Amazon Echo Show 10
The latest Echo Show 10 is Amazon’s most advanced smart display yet.
The latest Amazon Echo Show 10 smart display has finally arrived, some four months after it was first announced at the Amazon 2020 event. Unlike any other Amazon smart display it can follow you around the room when you move so that the screen and camera are always within your gaze, whether you’re following a recipe, making a video call or watching Netflix.
The Echo Show 10’s 13MP camera pans with the screen, and also zooms automatically when you’re on a video call, making sure you’re front and center of the picture at all times. The camera can also be used for home security, with its live feed available through the Alexa app any time you want to check in on your abode.
The Amazon Echo Show 10 has been available to pre-order since January in the US and the UK, although in Australia it’s still listed as coming soon.
Design
The latest Amazon Echo Show 10 is a complete departure from previous models when it comes to looks. Measuring 9.9 x 9 x 6.7 inches (25.1 x 23 x 17.2cm), the newest Echo Show fuses the cylindrical shape of the Amazon Studio, although it’s not as tall, with a 10-inch display that’s attached to the front. The rounder design is also in keeping with the aesthetic of the the most recent Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot, and it’s got the same mesh fabric that comes in either charcoal or white.
The round base of the Echo Show 10 holds dual, front-firing tweeters and powerful woofer encased in a wraparound grille, along with a motor that allows the smart display to rotate so it’s 10-inch screen is always facing you. We found this to be handy,
The Echo Show 10’s 13MP camera pans with the screen, and also zooms automatically when you’re on a video call, making sure you’re front and center of the picture at all times.
particularly in the kitchen as we could always keep an eye on the recipe we were preparing. On the bottom of the cylindrical speaker is a power socket, as just like other Echo smart speakers and displays, it needs to be plugged in at all times.
The 10.1-inch HD display has a 1280 x 800 resolution (the same as that of the smaller Amazon Echo Show 8), and can be tilted up or down so it’s at the best angle to be seen no matter where it’s positioned. It’s not quite as crisp and clear as the screen found on many 10-inch tablets when viewed close up, but from a distance it will suffice. The Adaptive Brightness feature automatically brightens or darkens the screen based on the ambient light in the room, although you can manually
override this using the brightness controls by swiping the top of the screen. If you’re using the Echo Show 10 as an alarm clock, the Sunrise effect option will display dawn-type lighting 15 minutes before an alarm goes off.
The Amazon Echo Show 10 also features a 13MP wide-angle camera in the top right-hand corner, which can be used for video calls to other Echo Show devices or Skype calls, and also doubles as a home security camera, allowing you view a live feed from the Alexa app on your smartphone.
Performance
The big draw of the new Amazon Echo 10 is that it can follow you around the room so that the screen is always in view, and you’re always on camera when you’re on a video call. The Echo Show 10’s camera identifies when a person is in its field of view, and sets data points representing shapes, edges and colors, which are used to rotate the screen into the correct position when the person moves. If there’s more than one person in the room, the Echo Show 10 positions itself so it’s at an angle that’s comfortable for the majority of people in the
A wide range of music services can be played through the Echo Show 10’s dual 1-inch front-firing tweeters and powerful 3-inch woofer.
room. For those worried about privacy, Amazon stresses that the processing of these images is carried out on the device, rather than online, and none of the images captured by the camera are stored.
We’ve been testing the Echo Show 10 for a few days now and we’re extremely impressed with the rotating screen. Not only does the screen rotate very smoothly, with no jerking or juddering, but it takes just a second after uttering “Alexa” for the screen to reposition itself within our gaze. Similarly, when watching Prime Video on the smart display, as soon as we moved and were no longer facing the screen, it automatically moved so the display was back within our gaze. During testing, we deliberately moved around the kitchen, where the Amazon
Echo Show 10 is located, often and sometimes in quick succession, but the smart display didn’t struggle to keep up at all, following as smoothly and as quickly as when we were only moving occasionally.
The Echo Show 10’s camera can also double as a home security camera if you don’t already have one. Amazon says you can view the live feed from the camera on another Echo Show, or via the Alexa app on your phone, and ask Alexa to rotate the Echo Show 10 so you can see around the room. This feature isn’t currently active, however – Amazon says it will be made available soon.
A wide range of music services can be played through the Echo Show 10’s dual 1-inch frontfiring tweeters and powerful 3-inch woofer. Apple Music and Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify and TuneIn are all supported alongside Amazon Music, and the voice integration of all of these services is smoothly executed.
With a new rounded look and a rotating 10.1-inch screen, the latest Echo Show 10 is the most intuitive smart display Amazon has made. Video calls are smooth and crisp, and now the camera automatically pans and zoom so you’re always in the center of the frame – and it’ll even double as a home security camera. On the downside there’s still no YouTube app, Alexa can’t alter settings for you, and smart home routines still require the Alexa app.
Carrie Skinner