Gadgetory

the Amazon echo show is the online retail giant's newest Alexa gadget at 230 dollars it's basically an Amazon echo with a 7-inch touchscreen that gives Alexa an extra visual layer and it lets her pull up YouTube clips or video chats with your friends and family upon request now as Alexa gadgets go the echo show is nowhere near as sleek or polished looking as the echo and echo dot smart speakers or the echo look selfie camera there aren't any curves or rings of light instead you get this blocky angular design it's sturdy enough but the bulk and the bezel around the screen both make it feel dated our intern quipped that it looks like a mini sized rear projection TV set for your kitchen counter and don't disagree another complaint it can't adjust the angle of the screen or of the camera that's not ideal for a video calling device still those voice activated hands-free video calls or the new marquee feature here and if you're a fan of FaceTime then you might like this product quite a bit here check it out Alexa called David car noise okay hey David good to see you all right how's that echo show review coming you can also ask Alexa to pull up YouTube clips and movies from Amazon Prime video more video services are likely to follow thanks to Amazon's open software development tools the same goes for smart home controls you can view the feed from major smart home cameras from names like nest and ring and August with more likely to jump on board outside of those video skills this is the same old Alexa you can pull up weather forecasts she can stream music she can turn your lights on and off she can tell you bad jokes everything you come to expect I just wish Amazon had done more to put that touch screen to use lyrics are a nice addition when you're playing music and she'll animate the ends of your timers but in too many cases the display feels superfluous it doesn't do enough to make a Lexus better now there's a lot of room for improvement here and Amazon is banking on outside developers to make new touchscreen optimized skills for the echo show but most of those weren't ready in time for us to test them out so for now I'm getting the echo show an incomplete grade it's a great device for grandparents to video chat with their grandkids but as Amazon's new Alexa flagship I'm holding my recommendation until they show me a little more