Echo Show 10 Features, Specs, Pros & Cons

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

Echo Show 10: Advantages & Disadvantages

PRO:

Very good sound
Alexa perfectly integrated
Display swivels automatically
Display panning and camera are powerful, especially in spacious rooms
Front camera delivers good pictures
Voice control works great
Enables control of smart home devices with ZigBee, WLAN and Bluetooth via Alexa

CON:

High price
Display only offers low resolution
Wide frame reduces the size of the display
Large and too bulky for the desk
Only a few streaming providers usable
Not interesting for Apple and Google users

Echo Show 10 Features

Amazon cleverly announced the new generation of the smart display and thus raised high expectations. In the meantime, the supply bottlenecks of the launch have subsided, and the Echo Show 10 is immediately available on order. But does the device live up to its promise?

In-house chip and fast technology

Amazon has now installed the in-house developed AI chip AZ 1 Neural Edge in the Echo Show 10. Together with the MediaTek 8183 processor, the chip is supposed to process the given voice commands faster. Amazon relies on machine learning here, and the commands are processed locally. This means that your voice commands are no longer forwarded to the cloud for processing. That is an advantage.

Alexa Hunches: Alexa learns your daily routine. This enables Alexa to recognize deviations as well. An example: You are always absent from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. After a while, Alexa will always turn off the light during this time. If you forget to turn off the light in the hallway even in the morning, you will get a message in the Alexa app: Alexa asks if she can turn off the light. Smart door locks and thermostats, as well as all other smart peripherals, are also covered in this feature. However, Alexa Hunches only works with selected devices in the US so far, too, because not all developers have implemented this feature.
Tapping into latent user goals: Alexa learns from your questions and in the future will initiate the next step before you ask. So if you ask for the ideal cooking time for breakfast eggs and then let Alexa set the timer, the next time you ask for the cooking time for breakfast eggs, the voice assistant will immediately offer to set the timer. This is made possible by Deep Learning: all conversations are matched with previous interactions. However, this only works if the conversations are permanently stored.
Alexa can read: So far, Alexa has responded to voice commands – in the future, the voice assistant will be able to be controlled via chat, and Alexa will also respond via text message in chat.
Accessibility through extended input function: The voice assistant only accepts commands within a time window defined for each command. This time window is now longer so that people with speech impairments can also use the voice assistant better. Until now, Alexa interrupted the input relatively quickly.
Alexa Energy Dashboard: The AZ 1 AI chip has an energy-saving mode that requires up to twenty times less power than the chips of the predecessor models. However, the mode is not really usable in everyday life yet, because it cannot be activated for many functions in the smart home area. That applies to a link with Spotify accounts as well as to connections with other devices. What works well, on the other hand: The current consumption of the individual smart home devices is displayed in the Alexa Energy Dashboard, and Alexa Hunches is already implemented here.
Proactive reminders: Once you have given Alexa an appointment, the voice assistant reminds you of it independently. What’s new is that Alexa also does this proactively. For example, if you repeatedly ask for certain concerts in your city, Alexa will always inform you when the next concert in your preferred location is announced. Every event that you have already asked about will be remembered. And this even applies to emails from senders you have already asked about.
Real-time translations: Alexa translates conversations in real time while two people are talking in different languages. The AI thus acts as an interpreter here. The transcript of the conversation is shown simultaneously on the display of the Echo Show 10.

Sound system: 2.1 stereo, 6 mm woofer, 2 25 mm tweeters

Listening to music is really fun with the Echo Show 10. The sound quality is decent; Amazon installs a 2.1 stereo sound system. The 76 mm woofer and the two 25 mm tweeters have quite some power together. The sound quality is not outstanding, but it is sufficient. The speaker always aligns itself with you via the integrated rotation, so it follows you around the room.

From this point of view, it also makes sense that Amazon does not include a 3.5 mm jack in the Echo Show 10. Thus, external speakers are not available for the time being. Unfortunately, this also applies to external players.

Amazon has given the Echo Show 10 a rich bass that still differentiates great even at high volumes. The mids and trebles are brilliant. However, the Echo Show 10 cannot replace a good hi-fi system.

Privacy: Amazon has learned

The numerous scandals and scandals concerning privacy and data protection may have actually moved Amazon a bit. The manufacturer now also emphasizes its own (allegedly high) privacy standards for the Echo Show 10. That is why the Echo Show 10 offers many options to customize the settings:

You can turn off the microphone via button.
The camera lens can be covered with a mechanical slider.
You can view the voice interactions with Alexa via the privacy portal. You can listen to them and even delete them.
Voice commands are still forwarded to the cloud. But everything needed for the motion function is processed locally by the Echo Show 10.
According to Amazon, all images and videos associated with motion are explicitly not forwarded to the cloud.

Another plus point: 30 percent of the plastics and 100 percent of the textiles used in the Echo Show 10 were obtained from recycled waste. That is why the Echo Show 10 carries the Climate Pledge Friendly seal. Amazon had all aluminum parts made from recycled die-cast material. And even the packaging, according to the manufacturer, is made of 99 percent wood fiber materials obtained from recycled sources or sustainably managed forests.

All of this sounds like a company that acts very responsibly and, above all, cares about the common good. You have to decide for yourself to what extent you accept all this from Amazon. Because these statements cannot be verified.

Camera and display

The Echo Show 10 carries the camera on the top right of the display. The resolution of 13 megapixels is very pleasant for video calls. There is also a microphone at the front of the display that delivers a usable voice quality. Buttons and sliders for turning off the microphone and camera are on the upper edge, right next to the volume control. Please note: The screen of the Echo Show 10 rotates. Place the device in such a way that it doesn’t take up your entire desk! When placing the device, use the circular piece of paper that Amazon provides for this purpose.

If you want to manually reduce the range of motion of the display, you do that in calibration mode. You can also set the viewing direction of the display for the time it is idle there. By the way, the Echo Show 10 cannot make full rotations: It stops at 175 degrees in both directions. The display is moved by a brushless motor that turns the speaker base. Strictly speaking, the display does not rotate at all. The movement is completely silent, and you can of course turn the base manually.

The Echo Show 10 has a 10.1-inch display, so the HD screen has a diagonal of about 26 centimeters. Although 1,280 x 800 pixels are not enough for Full HD, the picture quality is clearer and especially has a higher contrast compared with similar devices. Swiping and typing work excellently, and the touchscreen responds well. On the other hand, the display is less pleasant because it is reflective. And because it rotates and follows you around the room, this is bound to become noticeable sooner or later. Clever placement helps a bit, but cannot avoid every light reflection.

Like other Echo Show models, you can use the Echo Show 10 as a digital picture frame. Otherwise, there are generic wallpapers. Alexa can be set to the collections of Amazon Photos or Facebook as well. The color adjustment for the rotating display is handy.

Motion detection does not run completely smoothly

The default setting is for the Echo Show 10 to move and follow you around the room. This happens firstly when the device hears the signal word “Alexa” and secondly during activities. Activities are:

Questions for Alexa
Video calls
Display of recipes
Media playback, for example via Amazon Prime Video or Netflix
and much more

If you don’t want to be followed by Alexa all the time, you can deselect individual activities in the menu. The display will then not move during these activities. It is also possible that this movement is completely disabled or that the display only moves when called. The microphones only react to the signal word. Only then does the device try to locate you via camera and align the display with you.

By the way, the camera also zooms in on you during video calls when you move away from the Echo Show 10 a bit. Important to know: If you are outside the camera’s field of view and use the signal word, the Echo Show 10 has problems locating you cleanly. The base then often turns too far or not far enough. The problem is also detected, Alexa asks if it is turning correctly. It is also problematic when you are close to the device and reach out for the buttons. The display then turns away at a slight angle, the camera also searches the room for you due to the hand movement, and this results in rather wild rotational movements of the display. The only thing that helps here is manual readjustment.

Connectivity: ZigBee hub available!

The ZigBee hub is missing on some of the Echo Show devices, but the Echo Show 10 has it. Therefore, compatible devices from the entire smart home spectrum can be controlled without any problems and without an additional bridge. However, some manufacturers have not yet ensured full compatibility, then only simple basic functions can be controlled via the Echo Show 10. This is usually sufficient, but sometimes different bridges and control hubs can help.

However, the ZigBee wireless protocol is not all. The Echo Show 10 also supports Bluetooth, A2DP and AVRCP (audio and video streaming). The Wi-Fi standard WiFi6 is not yet supported (as of early 2022), but Alexa operates in dual-band with two Wi-Fi antennas in the 802.11a/b/g/n/c standards. In practical use, this means that smart home devices of all kinds can be connected easily and without problems. Operation still works very well even over several floors. From lights, sockets and cameras to vacuuming and mopping robots, there is really nothing left to be desired.

Streaming

Generally, streaming via the Echo Show 10 is no problem. But there are limitations. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix work perfectly; they are controlled via Alexa using voice commands. If you want to use YouTube, however, the situation is different. An app is not available, you have to go via the web browser. Even after setting it up, voice control for YouTube doesn’t really work. This is true for YouTube Music as well as for the video platform.

The Echo Show 10 supports Spotify and Apple Music. If you want to use other services, it gets a bit more complicated again. But at least quiz games and other pastimes can be called up in the Alexa Skills. The device also comes with a home monitoring feature. You can use the Echo Show 10 as a surveillance camera. Then you access the camera at the top of the display via the Alexa app and can monitor your home from your smartphone on the go. However, this is really a pure surveillance function. You should not expect an alarm or anything similar.

In summary: Great ideas, partly even well implemented

The Echo Show 10* is excellent as a smart display, especially for larger rooms. The smart display feels especially at home in the kitchen and dining area due to the apps and various functions. The Echo Show 10 can take full advantage of the swiveling display when calling up recipes and the like. However, this motion feature does not yet run smoothly, which will certainly improve with updates.

The strengths of the Echo Show 10 are media playback, smart home device control, and video calling. The Echo Show 10 offers the largest display of the Echo series so far, and it is the most expensive device. However, the installed technology and the numerous functions justify this price.

Check Price:

AMAZON*

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