Amazon Echo Show 15 review

Our Verdict

The Amazon Echo Show 15 blends eye-pleasing aesthetics with Alexa's smart home skills to create a functional and elegant smart home hub. New features and AZ2 Neural Edge processor brand this a strong entry in Amazon's slowly stagnating Show lineup, but it'southward ultimately held back by weak audio, a lackluster movie viewing experience and the inability to resize widgets.

For

Excellent organizational tool
Access to Amazon Music + Prime Video
Widgets add actress usability
Incredibly easy to mount

Against

Weak sound from the speakers
Colors and brightness don't wow
No way to resize widgets right now
Tilt stand sold separately

TechRadar Verdict

The Amazon Echo Show fifteen blends eye-pleasing aesthetics with Alexa's smart home skills to create a functional and elegant smart home hub. New features and AZ2 Neural Edge processor make this a strong entry in Amazon'south slowly stagnating Evidence lineup, merely information technology's ultimately held back by weak audio, a lackluster movie viewing experience and the disability to resize widgets.

Pros

+
Excellent organizational tool
+
Admission to Amazon Music + Prime Video
+
Widgets add extra usability
+
Incredibly piece of cake to mount

Cons

-
Weak sound from the speakers
-
Colors and brightness don't wow
-
No way to resize widgets right at present
-
Tilt stand sold separately

Two-minute review

The Amazon Echo Show lineup has always held a fundamental spot in the house – each model is both the brains of Alexa and the nervous center of the smart home. Depending on how big of a brain y'all needed, in that location were always a few different models to choose from, but none of them accept been as large – or every bit characteristic-rich – every bit the new Amazon Echo Prove 15.

At virtually five inches bigger than the already large Amazon Echo 10 and just a tad more expensive at $249.99 / £239.99 / AU$399, the Echo Show xv is essentially everything you liked almost the slowly stagnating Show lineup boosted by a ton of new organizational features to go along everyone in your home on the same page.

Mostly, this is done through the new widgets that can exist added to the primary screen the same fashion y'all add together widgets to your homescreen on iOS and Android, and they can show you how long your commute will be, for example, or testify a shared to-practise list for the house. There are more than a dozen of these widgets already available to choice from, and more than volition likely exist added in the coming weeks, months and years.

That said, nosotros did find a few issues with the Echo Show xv'due south functioning. For one, those widgets that we just talked about only come in ane size for the most part, and can't be resized. Whatsoever extra widgets you take installed across the bachelor screen real estate, get pushed off to the side and aren't immediately visible. As of correct now, that means you accept to pick which widgets you want carefully.

Audio and video, while both acceptable in this slim grade factor, didn't really wow us. The screen is a 15.six-inch 1920 ten 1080 Full Hard disk drive display, but at that place's no HDR, which makes movies and shows look a bit duller than on a 4K HDR TV that can exist had at almost the aforementioned price. Similarly, the sound can go loud, but never reaches full immersiveness – the highs and mids are fine, but in that location'south no existent soundstage to speak of and bass response is well-nigh non-existent.

In the cease, we found a number of reasons to make the Amazon Repeat Bear witness 15 the stunning center of our Alexa-based smart home as well as a ton of room for Amazon to improve on hereafter models.

Price and release date

The Amazon Echo Show 15 was released in early December 2021 in the United states of america for $249.99 and in the UK for £239.99. Eventually, the smart home hub volition come to Australia for AU$399, only it's non available at that place quite even so.

The hardest pill to swallow about the toll is that it'southward over double the cost of an Amazon Echo Show viii – a perfectly fine smart domicile hub that performs nearly the exact same functions as the the Echo Bear witness 15. The Echo Show viii sounds better thank you to its dedicated passive bass radiator and has a higher mega-pixel camera built-in, too.

Ultimately, you'll get access to a few more features by upgrading to the Echo Prove 15 – widgets and the new AZ2 Neural Edge processor among them – as well as a larger screen with a college resolution but it's still a rather large gap in toll that currently feels a bit likewise wide to exist justifiable.

Amazon Echo Show 15 on a living room table — (Image credit: Hereafter)

Design

Beautiful picture frame-similar appearance
Hands wall-mounted...
...but the string is hard to hide

Because it has an most picture frame-similar advent, Amazon built the Echo Bear witness 15 to exist wall-mounted – which is very easy to do, thankfully. All you need to do is hold the plastic frame flat up to the wall and screw in four screws. We had ours up in a affair of minutes, and the process felt more than painless than other previous wall-mounting attempts as we only hooked it onto some drywall in the kitchen.

Of course, that was the easy way out. You can drill into a more solid material if you have a drill bit for it, and Amazon fifty-fifty includes wall anchors inside the box.

All the same, without advanced DIY skills, y'all won't be able to mount information technology over an outlet equally the power string terminal juts out from the wall. That'southward going to irritate folks who want the cleanest look possible without a cord marring their clean aesthetic.

Amazon does provide another option for folks who don't desire to wall-mount the Amazon Echo Bear witness xv by selling a separate stand – still, ane doesn't come up inside the box and volition cost you an extra $29.99 / £29.99 (Australian pricing yet to exist confirmed) if you want the device to stand up on its own.

So where should you mountain it? Well, we chose the kitchen at around middle-level – though we could see it working in pretty much any room. Choosing the right level can be tricky, all the same. If you identify it high upwards on your wall, information technology'southward difficult to hibernate the cord, merely placing it likewise low could make it difficult for people to encounter you when video chatting. Amazon recommends putting it inside reach of everyone in the house, at or around heart level.

Amazon Echo Show 15 on a kitchen wall — A smattering of the devices y'all tin utilize with the Amazon Echo Evidence 15 (all of them, including the tilt stand, are sold separately). (Image credit: Future)

Features

Widgets are a game-changer for arrangement
The 5MP camera is nice but could be better
The AZ2 Neural Border processor is a big upgrade

The other advantage of having it at that point is for the born 5MP photographic camera to discover yous when you're interacting with the device, as that'due south how you get personalized content.

For united states of america, right out of the box, that content included weather, cooking recipes and jokes, though that can theoretically exist different for anybody. If y'all want to add some spice to your homescreen, however, yous can add those widgets we mentioned earlier.

As of right now, there are more than than a dozen to cull from and in the cease we ended upward installing pretty much all of them at one point or another. The bad news? There'south no way to resize them at this point, which means you'll only run across around four or five of them on the main screen with the residue hidden.

In terms of the widget selection, though, we were pleasantly surprised. While nosotros didn't need the notes section for ourselves living lone, it's easy to run into how that could be helpful to a family of iv all on dissimilar schedules. Speaking of schedules, having a built-in calendar always in eye'southward view made seeing the next meeting easy, and the grocery list reminded the states what we needed to pick upwardly on the adjacent run to the grocery store.

Equally for that 5MP photographic camera, y'all can use it for video calling too, or to drib in on another Amazon Repeat Show device. Unfortunately the 5MP camera can't really compete with the 13-Megapixel photographic camera we got on the Amazon Repeat Show eight, merely it's still nice to have.

Another comeback equally we've mentioned is the new AZ2 Neural Border processor that Amazon'due south installed inside the Repeat Show 15. It processes requests faster – frequently in under a second or two – and doesn't selection up nigh as many false activations (when Alexa starts listening without you lot saying the wake word) equally before.

Finally, as the center of a smart habitation, the Echo Prove 15 handles its task with aplomb. Nosotros were able to get all of our smart dwelling house devices hooked upward in under an hr, and had a fully functioning smart home by the end of the mean solar day. Having the option to see the almost-used devices on the homescreen was immensely helpful, and we really had no problem with the whatever of the devices over our multiple weeks of testing.

Audio and visual performance

Both sound and visual performance could be better
Audio lacks bass response
Video loses color saturation when viewed off-axis

While the new UI feels like a large improvement over the rest of the Echo Show lineup, performance has taken a existent dip with the Echo Show xv.

For starters, all sound from the device is fired out of the side of the display by two 1.6" full-range drivers. That'due south a significant step downward from the two one.0" tweeters and 3.0" woofer found on the Amazon Echo Prove 10, and it's directly the cause of the Show 15'southward inability to force out any existent bass response.

That's not to say that the Repeat Show fifteen is all bad when it comes to audio reproduction or that it tin't get loud – neither of which are truthful. The Repeat Bear witness xv instead has a clear focus on the midrange and nicely enhances dialogue for listening to podcasts and your daily news briefings. It filled our kitchen with sound while testing, but the sound from the brandish never felt as robust as the sound that comes from our nearby portable Bluetooth speaker.

It'southward a like story for the Repeat Testify 15's fifteen.vi-inch display. It doesn't demand a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080 at this size, only information technology'due south missing a number of key features that would make movies and TV shows actually popular. Amidst them is HDR support that would heave contrast and color saturation. Without that, and without whatever console technology to widen the field of view, color apace loses its saturation when you sentry the screen at an angle.

Should I purchase the Amazon Echo Bear witness 15?

Buy it if...

You want to replace postal service-it notes, to-do lists and calendars on your fridge

There's nothing incorrect with using simple tools to communicate with your roommates and family unit members, but the Amazon Repeat Show 15 allows yous to supplant pretty much everything on your fridge – including your photos – with a single elegant solution that sits correct upwards on the wall.

You want a better brain at the center of your smart dwelling house

Thank you to the AZ2 Neural Edge processor the Amazon Echo Bear witness 15 has fewer imitation positives when it thinks it hears its proper noun beingness called. Information technology processes requests faster – often in under a second or two – and has a favorite devices widget that allows you to encounter your virtually frequently used gadgets at a glance.

The picture frame aesthetic is eye-pleasing and works for your budget

It's non cheap, merely nosotros exercise accept to say that the artful of the Echo Show fifteen is truly outstanding, and looks significantly better than the traditional Echo Show devices. There'due south a trade-off in functioning versus the Amazon Echo Evidence eight and Repeat Show x, but the Repeat Evidence 15 is a definite show-stopper in terms of design.

Don't buy it if...

Yous want robust sound and picture performance

The Amazon Repeat Bear witness 15 actually isn't the best bang for your buck in terms of audiovisual performance. The dual 1.half-dozen" total-range drivers really don't do a good task of putting out immersive audio, specially in the sub-bass range, and without HDR, shows and movies don't look their all-time.

Y'all desire the perfect-looking installation

Installing the Amazon Echo Prove 15 is easy. But if you desire it installed in such a style that the cord doesn't show, well, you're going to need a contractor.

You'd rather accept Google Assistant or Siri equally your smart banana

Nada against Alexa, only Amazon's smart banana isn't for everyone. If you've tried Alexa before and weren't impressed by how smart Amazon's smart assistant was, you'll probably want to become for a Nest Hub Max or a HomePod Mini instead.

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Nick Pino is the Senior Editor of Dwelling house Entertainment at TechRadar and covers TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's written for TechRadar, GamesRadar, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants information technology.