I’ve had “Alexa” from day ONE. As an Amazon Prime member, I was offered, and accepted, pre-order of the original Echo. Never looked back! It’s was love at first conversation, request, question … and now, again using my Prime account, I pre-ordered Echo Show. My experiences with it begin in the next paragraph.
Overall: I find no compelling reason to own it. There. That’s said.
It IS Alexa with a screen. OK, so what! I have other devices with screens. I have other devices that are akin to Alexa (Google Home, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, and soon, Samsung Bixby). They all perform the same with varying degrees of success.
What makes “Show” better or worth more than Echo? Nada. (IMHO).
Yes, it can make phone calls. I believe the original Echo can now do that, too. It can make video calls (hello, Skype! GoToMeeting, oovoo, webex, FaceTime … just to name a few). So, what makes Echo Show better. Again, I say: nothing makes it better than the original Echo. THAT is a cool device!
I’m not knocking the platform. I believe Echo has dominated the market. It has “skills” providing myriad capabilities with new ones being introduced daily. I frequently use it as a timer or to play music while I cook. Recently, I learned that it can control my Visio TV. Now THAT’S pretty neat! (Guess you can tell by my vocabulary I’m not a millennial).
So, I’m suggesting that, if you already own an Echo, don’t spend your money on the version with the screen. There’s nothing there that you can’t do with any of your other digital devices that have screens!
I’ll play with it a little longer and post an update. And, I’ll keep an open mind about it. As of today, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone just yet.
More to follow.