So, as you might already know, this is the new 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show.
It has been redesigned from the old looking 1st Gen Amazon Echo Show, which was almost like an excellent old T.V. that our great grandfathers used.
In this post, let's find out what is new inside the redesigned 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show.
Design
So, to start things off, let's start with the design.
The design on the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show looks a lot nicer than the last year's model, which had an old-looking T.V. look on it. But, this looks way better refined and matches the 2020 design standards.
It comes with a pretty cool looking cloth back, which looks almost the same that we typically see in the Google Home series products, which gives me a hint that Amazon could have copied Google's design fabric to match the current standards design material wise.
And at the top, there are three buttons, one to mute the mic and volume controllers as always to turn the volume up and down as in any way you would prefer to use your Echo Show.
And as usual, it comes with a front-facing camera in the front of the device on the top right above the display.
Unfortunately, there is no physical way to block that camera out if you are too worried about your privacy as most of the people in this world consider to be so much private and be much more confidential.
So, especially if you are a person who feels a bit unsecured when there's an extra camera in your house, well you might want a duct tape it since it doesn't come with any x-ray vision to make sure that you don't run out to some awkward, uncomfortable moments like, when someone can just merely video call you at any given moment and with only one word from saying to pick up the call, the whole scenario will start to recording and then display in front of the other person's device's screen.
Screen
And talking about the screen its better than the last year's model, its 10.1 inches and comes with a resolution of 1280 x 800, which is just a bit over the standard H.D. quality.
And the entire screen is pretty good, but I wish it was brighter and had some glare reduction features embedded on the glass to reduce glare. However, it seems pretty fair to most of the people out there, which gives a reason for Amazon to excuse why the current brightness and the glass quality is good enough for what you are paying for.
But it would be nice to see some improvements related to that, at least in the next Gen model.
Unless you are always a lot far away from the screen most if not all the time, the net gets a bit pixelated when you get near it at about 1 foot or closer even though it has a pretty good display resolution, which again is sufficient for most people cause everyone's not a savvy looking for the highest-end products in the market especially at this price point for a Smart Device like this.
And with that note, that doesn't mean it's a deal-breaker by any means.
Sound
Of course, you can connect it to your phone via Bluetooth and play some music or ask Alexa to play some songs for you, and it will do fine.
And a pretty cool feature is where if you have multiple Echo devices, you can group all of them and play the music at once, which is pretty handy, especially if you live in a large mansion.
And not going to lie, the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show alone gets pretty loud, which in most cases, if not all the time, you'll be pretty much satisfied by the more audible audio that you get out of its speakers built-in, especially the volume cranked up to max.
And the sound volume alone that you get out of it will make you start loving our 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show right away just because the sound quality is also way better than last year's model.
So technically, the difference between this model over the last year's is that the speakers on this one are situated on the back of the device which hare facing outwards from both sides. They create something called a stereo spread where you can hear things clearly from both the left and right side of the device and gives you a wider spread of the audio it produces and doesn't make it feel like it's coming from one spot make you feel too much immersive to the things that you are listening to from its speakers which are cold and music lovers will love it the most.
And like many speakers out there, as long as you don't go above 75 – 80 percent in volume, it will sound fantastic, but going above that will create a little distortion which, most of the time, isn't a bummer if you are used to other regular speakers.
But don't even think to compare it to other professional speakers cause it will make you feel a bit bad about the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show in comparison. So, please don't do it. But at the same time, don't worry cause its not the end of the world.
But for the price you pay for, especially when thinking about at this price range, it packs a lot of power and sounds good, and is excellent!
Features
Now, there's a lot of things that you can do with the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show.
You can control things like your smart home devices that you own currently, and as always, it's super simple even to set them up.
One main pretty cool feature is that it can also work as a hub for your Smart Home Devices in which, if you have some Philips Hue bulbs, for example, you can also control them just via the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show hassle-free.
So, while you can you the touch screen to toggle things ON and OFF by swiping on the screen, you can also use your voice to ask Alexa to do anything you would do with your hands thoroughly.
As a quick tip, one of the best devices you can pair with the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show, mainly just because it has a built-in display, is some smart cameras. You can also hold on the "hold to speak" button to only speak through it without the need to pull out your phone to talk to someone outside your house who's already waiting for you to come.
Along with other smart features, you can also set up routines that enable you to perform multiple actions at once, like, say you want to go to sleep and say Good Night to Alexa. She will turn off all the lights for you, which only cost your voice with a few words in a sentence without the need to go to all the light once at a time and manually to switch them OFF.
Since the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show can also work as a hub, it would be cool if you can start building your Smart Home, which will make Mr. Bezos proud of you for using his devices made by Amazon ;]
Software
Well, the software has immensely improved from the last year's.
Now, you can setup multiple times on your 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show.
You can even look at recipes, and it will show you step by step for you and the ingredients and even let you watch a video for it, which will come in, especially if you are in the cookery industry or love to cook food overall.
So basically, to move on to the next step, if you are using that feature, you can use the screen to tap next, or you can use your voice by saying "Alexa, next step" if you don't want your 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show to get greased up with your excellent cookery hands.
But unfortunately, every good thing also comes with some disadvantages.
As a downside of the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show, you cannot cast it as other competitive similar products can.
Unfortunately, it doesn't support YouTube as a built-in App. You'll manually have to go through your browser to access the YouTube platform, but you will still get the mobile version of the YouTube platform, which means you'll have to sacrifice a bit of video quality. But if you don't mind video quality, then you should be fine.
It also has a hard time displaying complex information as directions, for example. It will just simply tell you the time to get to that specific place even though you ask it multiple times specifically ask to know about the directions to your way there. It will just keep repeating the time it takes to go there every time you ask her about it.
Maybe Alexa's annoyed and done with you ;]
You can also configure your shopping cart, add items, or reorder the things that you have ordered recently on Amazon by also looking at the products which are in your order through the screen at the same time. Overall it just lets you shop online on Amazon, which comes in handy to give you a hands-free shopping experience on the Amazon website itself just because, of course, it is an Amazon device.
Oh Boy, Mr. Bezos is a genius at marketing. Good Job, Mr. Jeff Bezos! ;]
One important thing to keep in mind is that with Amazon Echo devices, you can choose from tons of integrations to make sure you can connect all your smart devices and have an Excellent Fulfilling Smart Home at the end of the day.
One significant advantage of Amazon Alexa Devices is that you can receive the same service experience whether you Apple products and services or Google products and services.
So, remember, you won't receive any better options just because you have an iPhone or an Android-powered mobile device with you.
So, should you buy the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show?
Well, overall, the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show is a fantastic and beneficial product.
The quality and the redesign are excellent, and more significantly, the speakers sound way better now. Some of the software improvements they have done when compared to its old brother, the 1st Gen Amazon Echo Show, is pretty innovative and outstanding.
And most probably, the 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Show is not a deal-breaker, especially when thinking about the price you pay for this device.
If you have a picture of your Modern Looking Elegant Smart Home in your mind currently, this would be the best jumpstart for now.
 10.1” Review - Alexa's Louder Bigger & Brighter Looks!){kind=link}
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