Amazon has launched the Echo Show which to is probably best described as Alexa powered Echo’s touch screen bigger brother.
The Echo Show comes with a front facing 7″ touchscreen display with integrated 5MP camera and Dual 2-inch stereo speakers directly placed under the touchscreen display. It has Amazon’s proprietary AI/personal assistant Alexa built-in powering the features included in the device. This means with Alexa on board, the Echo Show, you can ask her to show you the front door or monitor the baby’s room with compatible cameras from Ring and Arlo. You can also turn on lights, control thermostats and more with WeMo, Philips Hue, ecobee, and other compatible smart home devices.
To enable Alexa to hear you, the Echo Show comes with eight microphones along with beam-forming technology and noise cancellation. Amazon are even claiming that Echo Show will be able to hear you from any direction — even while music is playing. Again depending on where the device is placed would be the key to this.
Like the original Echo devices, you will be able to control the Echo Show through the Alexa App which is free to download from Google Play Store
For connectivity – i.e WiFi, Echo Show comes with Dual-band WiFi supporting 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 and 5 GHz) networks. Sadly though, if you have ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks, Echo Show cannot support these types of networks so you may need to look elsewhere for network support connectivity.
Under the Echo Show hood is an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor which is based on Intel’s latest 14nm manufacturing process, this tightly integrated SoC is built for IoT use cases making it a perfect match for the Echo Show.
Echo Show is available for pre-order in the certain countries for about US$299.99 (AUD$407.21 approx.) and with Amazon in the beginning stages of setting up a base here in Australia, it will most likely become available here when they do launch. We’re keeping an eye on what devices Amazon is launching these days, as a full blown Australian launch of Alexa and these Echo products can’t hopefully be too far away.
