Smart speakers are gaining quite the momentum these days. It seems every other company is trying to get one of theirs into the market. We already have Google Home Hub, Huawei’s AI Cube, and a bunch of others. Amazon has been in this line for a long time now, and its Echo Show lineup is the most popular among their lineup. And, Amazon decided to launch another – the Amazon Echo Show 5, with an affordable price tag.
Amazon Echo Show 5 Overview
This Echo Show 5 is a bit smaller and looks cuter than the Echo Show. It’s got a 5.5″ screen, with a 960 x 480 resolution. Of course, smart speakers with displays haven’t been around that long comparatively, but they, too are getting popular. Because you can do quite a bit with a screen on board, after all.
The display resolution and the size make it like a phone on your table-stand, but of course, you’re not going to use it for doing phone things. This is just an assistant to watch Wiki-How videos for doing simple tasks. It doesn’t support YouTube or any other mainstream video streaming sites. You can, however, watch videos from Amazon Prime or its partner outlets like CNN. Also, you can video call someone who has the Amazon Echo Show or the Echo Spot as well. Furthermore, it can show you lyrics if you’re playing music on it. And along with Bluetooth support for audio out, there’s a USB port too.
Now, of course, the Echo Show 5 is an affordable smart speaker, so, there are a lot of cutdowns. There’s only one speaker, the screen size is almost half, and the camera resolution is only 1 MP now. Oh, and yeah, it still retains the physical shutter to cover the camera so that you don’t have to worry about being spied upon.
Furthermore, if you’re worried about privacy, i.e. Amazon recording your data, then, there are a couple of noteworthy features. You can delete all your history of the day just by saying “Alexa, delete everything I said today”. This will, of course, clear your history of the day. In addition, there’s also an “Alexa, Delete what I just said” feature. Of course, we can’t be assured that it won’t back it up…but hey, it’s a peace of mind.
Price and Availability
The Amazon Echo Show 5 is priced at a very affordable $90. This undercuts the more expensive $140 Google Home Hub, too. But of course, that has more features and aesthetically better. You can buy it now on Amazon.
This product will also launch in India for about INR. 9000. It will support local content from Hungama, JioSaavn, Gaana, Hungama Music, TuneIn, etc. along with Amazon Music.