The battle for smart home supremacy rages on between Amazon and Google and while Google may have gained a bit of an upper hand with their Google Home Hub it was only a matter of time before Amazon fired back with their own competitive offering.
That new offering is a new and smaller Echo Show unit. The Echo Show 5 comes with a 5.5-inch display, HD camera, and a built-in camera shutter to ease privacy concerns.
Amazon’s pricing for the Echo Show 5 is extremely competitive at $89.99 and should entice Echo customers looking to add a screen equipped assistant to their Alexa smart home ecosystem to make the jump.
The Echo Show 5 will be available in charcoal and sandstone colors to easily integrate into your home’s decor. Amazon will also be offering a magnetic stand for $19.99 that will provide some additional tilt and viewing angles.
If you would like to pre-order the Echo Show 5 you can head here. The Echo Show 5 will begin shipping in July to residents in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia next month and to India in July. Coming soon, it will also be available in Mexico.
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SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 29, 2019– (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Today, Amazon announced the newest addition to the Echo Show family—Echo Show 5. With its compact design, 5.5-inch display, rich sound, HD camera, and built-in camera shutter, Echo Show 5 lets Alexa show you things in every room of your home—all for only $89.99.
“Since we launched the first Echo Show device, customers have told us they love asking Alexa to show them things—whether it’s a recipe for banana bread, their shopping list, or music lyrics. With Echo Show 5, we’ve made it even easier and affordable for customers to add a smart display to every room of their house,” said Tom Taylor, Senior Vice President, Amazon Alexa. “The compact form factor is perfect for a bedside table or desk, plus it has a camera shutter for added peace of mind, and new Alexa privacy features for even more control.”
Compact Design for Rich Entertainment
With rich and full sound, Echo Show 5 is great for watching music videos from Vevo or listening to your favorite songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and more. Simply say, “Alexa, play my dinner playlist” to play music for your dinner party and follow along with on-screen lyrics from Amazon Music.
Echo Show 5 makes it easy to watch your favorite shows from NBC and Prime Video, or short news clips from Reuters, CNN, and more. Coming soon, a new integration with wikiHow allows you to access hundreds of how-to videos by voice—just ask Alexa to show you how to open a tight jar, clean a cast iron skillet, make a paper crane, or solve a Rubik’s Cube.
New Ways to Control Your Smart Home
A new smart home dashboard available on all Echo Show devices gives you even more control over compatible smart home devices and groups. Simply say, “Alexa, turn on the lights” or use the on-screen controls to adjust the light’s brightness or turn it off. You can also view your smart home camera feed and thermostats, access recently used devices, and manage smart devices by group.
With the Arlo baby camera, just say, “Alexa, show me the nursery camera” to check on your baby when your hands are full of laundry or you’re working in your home office. Echo Show 5 also has two-way talk functionality with Ring doorbell cameras. Simply say, “Alexa, answer the front door,” when the doorbell rings or the camera detects motion and you’ll be able to see and talk to whoever is at the front door.
Wake Up and Wind Down with Alexa
Now, there are even more ways to customize your morning and evening routines with Alexa. Set a nighttime routine that turns off your bedroom lamp and starts playing nature or sleep sounds for relaxation. When your alarm goes off in the morning, wake up to an Alexa Sunrise—the screen on Echo Show devices will naturally brighten and display a sunrise animation before your alarm goes off. You can also create a routine that starts the coffee pot 10 minutes after your alarm goes off, or one that gives you the weather forecast, morning news, and an email update when you say, “Alexa, start my day.”
Personalize Your Experience
Choose from all-new clock faces or add a personal photo from your latest vacation to make the home screen unique to you and your family. You can also connect to your Facebook account and play a slideshow of your photos, view a specific album, or set your photos to rotate in the background. Plus, the new ambient lighting mode auto-adjusts the screen brightness based on the lighting in the room—so it’s never too bright or too dark. To get even more from your Alexa experience, swipe left from the far-right side of the screen to access shortcuts and discover all Alexa can do—from smart home controls to recipes, reminders, skills, and more.
Connect with Family and Friends
Stay in touch with your closest friends and family with hands-free video calls to those who have an Echo Spot or Echo Show device, the Alexa App, or Skype. Plus, with Echo Show 5 in multiple rooms of your home, you can easily drop in on another room or make an announcement that dinner is ready.
Skills for the Screen
There are thousands of visual skills from third-party developers available on Echo Show devices. You can watch episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” catch up on the news with CNN, watch a real-world sunrise with EarthCam, and much more. To learn more about skills, simply say, “Alexa, show me skills.”
Privacy by Design
Echo devices are built with multiple layers of privacy protections. As with all Echo Show devices, the new Echo Show 5 includes a microphone/camera off button that electronically disconnects both the microphone and camera and a clear visual indicator that shows when audio or video is streaming to the cloud. Plus, Echo Show 5 has a built-in camera shutter so you can easily cover the camera, while still being able to talk to Alexa.
Amazon is also introducing new, even easier ways to delete your voice recordings on all Alexa-enabled devices—simply say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and the respective recordings will be deleted. Coming soon, customers will also be able to delete their last request by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said.” The new Alexa Privacy Hub also offers a single source of information on how Echo devices are designed and the controls you have over your Alexa experience.
Pricing and Availability
Echo Show 5 is available in Charcoal and Sandstone for $89.99. You can also choose to purchase a magnetic stand that lets you tilt the device to adjust viewing and camera angles for only $19.99. Both are available for pre-order today at www.amazon.com/echoshow5 and will start shipping in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia next month and to India in July. Coming soon, it will also be available in Mexico.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
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