Gadgetory

this is the new echo show it's the second generation and it costs two hundred and thirty dollars we just got it in so we're gonna open up the box and see what we think get out of this packaging all right so as you can see it's quite a bit bigger the display is larger I think the first generation had like a seven-inch screen this is a 10-inch screen diagonally so it's quite a bit more screen real estate and that's awesome because it also means there's no ugly speaker on the front the first generation had kind of that boxy speaker grille and the design almost looks like a mini projection TV ad so this is an improvement I like the screen better you can also see on the back it's covered with a fabric so it's still kind of deep it's not really a flat display but the stuff is covered with a fabric that looks pretty good it looks a lot like what we saw in the Google home speakers and an Apple home pod so I like that as far as controls go you've still got your volume and your power buttons on the top there and you've still got ports and power in the back so this one also has an eight array microphone set up just like the first one they're a bit different than they were so you can see they're arranged a little differently and the front camera is still a five megapixel front facing camera so now that we've got it out of the box we're gonna take it into the cenote smart home and test it out right off the bat one of the things I really like about the second geneco show as opposed to the first is the way it handles smart-home commands so on the original echo show if you say something like turn off the bedroom lamp okay you just get an okay and nothing shows up on the screen you don't really get any indication that something has happened but in the second generation I mute this one turn on the bedroom lamp you get a display that shows you the name of the device and then you have this little power button and I can even turn it off and on with the touch screen if I do something like a set of lights that have an adjustable brightness turn on the living room lights you get a toggle bar where you can select a brightness level so that's something we didn't see in the original echo show and so far I really like it there's also a new lights and more icon in the drop-down menu so if I swipe down here I'll see this light bulb and if I touch that I get a list of lamps plugs and switches that are connected to my platform and that's not something we saw in the first generation echo show and so far I think it's a good addition so here we've got the second gin and the first gens side-by-side and you can already tell there are some pretty significant differences the screen for example is a whole lot bigger it's 10.1 inches diagonally versus the 7 inches of the first generation and it's 720p so you're getting a better resolution sound quality also got an upgrade the new echo show features dual 2-inch neodymium side firing drivers and better bass if you listen to the sound comparisons we did you can definitely tell the difference something else that's different about the second-generation echo show is the way you can see youtube videos in the first generation there wasn't really any native integration and there's not this time either but there is a workaround amazon's added the firefox browser and amazon silk browser to the echo show if you say something like open firefox here's firefox you'll get a browser and you can tap to view a mobile version of youtube site if you ask her from video results in general you'll get clips provided by thing and this workaround isn't perfect but it's better than what we had before which was no YouTube integration at all for all the improvements on the new echo show there are still a few things that are disappointing and maps as one of them for instance if I ask where's the closest Starbucks I found a Starbucks it's six point five miles away on Taylorsville Road in Louisville business hours for this location are not available how do I get there at the moment traffic to Starbucks at 1:00 to 6:05 Taylorsville Road looks good the fastest route takes about eleven minutes via KY 1531 and KY 1:55 so there's no map displayed here and there really aren't any directions either and Alexa can't send those directions to your phone so while she tells you how long it'll take to get somewhere you really won't have a got anything else and given that it's a smart display that's something I really wish that it had after spending some time with the second gen Amazon echo show it feels much improved from the first version the screen is bigger the sound is better and Amazon even added some smart home controls when it comes to YouTube Amazon added browsers so you can access the site in a sort of mobile version and for all the ways the Amazon improved the echo show there are still parts of it the feel underwhelming visualizations for things like maps and directions still aren't there and it leaves me feeling like there's still a lot of untapped potential if you'll use your echo show for monitoring cameras answering the doorbell or even cooking in your kitchen it's a capable smart device at the same 230 dollar price tag as the original but if you're looking for a more conversational assistant native YouTube integration and more informative visuals I'd still recommend a google assistant enabled device like the Lenovo Marcus play