That’s why we wanted to try the new Amazon Echo Show 5, a cheaper model than the Echo Show (which costs 229.99 euros ) and has a more compact screen. Its price is 89.99 euros and it has Alexa integrated, like the rest of the brand’s speakers.
A 5.5-inch compact smart touch screen that has a resolution of 960×480, ideal for any corner of the house.
How the Echo Show 5 works
The operation is more than simple: you plug in the power, the device turns on and asks you to connect to the wifi. When you are connected, you download the Alexa smartphone application (available for iOS and Android ) and set up the Amazon account from which everything will be controlled.
Once both devices are connected, you can install skills on your speaker through the app, or even through the Amazon website with your computer. The skills are small applications that will be installed on your smart speaker and will allow you to do things like listening to recipes, play, hear the news or practice your English.
There are as many as you can imagine (and their number continues to grow), and you just have to look for them in the app in the menu on the left in the ” skills and games” section. You are looking for the one you want, give the permissions and from that moment, you can use them on the speaker.
Minimalist design that combines with a modern home
My house is white and wooden furniture in warm tones so the design of this speaker, much smaller than its predecessor, combines perfectly with a minimalist atmosphere. It is available with a black and white finish, and in my case, white was the most natural choice because of the type of decoration in my house.
It is true that by having the possibility of changing the design of the clock, you can not get tired and attach it to different areas of the house, such as the kitchen or living room, although its star place for me was the bedroom, the room of the house in which I took more game.
How Amazon Echo Show 5 helped me
When used in different places in the house, the smart speaker served me for different usual tasks. For example, I found it very practical in the living room and bedroom to use it as a normal speaker in which I could play music, both from Amazon Music, the default application from which it is produced, as from Spotify.
It also helped me in my meditation sessions thanks to the Bamboo skill and I was able to play Trivial Pursuit with my nephews. There are countless utilities and skills available, you just have to think about what you need.
The bedroom, the place where I got the most out of Echo Show 5
Not only did it serve me as a decorative alarm clock, something that I dumped in my room years ago and that because of nostalgia I missed, but it has helped me avoid taking my cell phone at bedtime.
For a while now I have been thinking about avoiding taking my smartphone to the bedroom to get to sleep earlier and better and to disconnect a few hours a day from it, but since I used it as an alarm to wake me up, I resisted the idea of abandoning it in another area of the house that was not the bedside table.
The Echo Show 5 has the option of, with a single voice command, set an alarm that will wake you up as if it were a sunrise. The screen, which you can turn off just by saying “Alexa, turn off the screen”, will turn on progressively 15 minutes before the alarm sounds, so you will wake up progressively.
Also, when you wake up you can have a special routine that you will customize. For example, you can set it to tell you the weather first (so you’ll know if your look needs a denim jacket that day), then the news and then remind you of everything you have to do that day. You select the command and the speaker will repeat that routine.
It is clear that my speaker and I still have to get to know each other better, because the other day when, just up, I greeted him with a cheerful “Alexa, good morning!” To start my routine, the first thing he told me was that It was José Coronado’s birthday.
You also have the option of waking up with music instead of the beep of an alarm, and the best thing, you will not have to look like crazy where you left your cell phone after sleeping with him in your hand watching stories, because with just one “Alexa, for ”, your alarm will stop ringing.
What I appreciate most about Show 5 and what I liked least
Even without being exclusive to this model, what I liked least, without a doubt, is that it has to be constantly plugged in. Not because of the expense involved, but because of how unsightly a hanging cable is sometimes or how awkward it is to wait for it to restart when, for example, you take it to the kitchen to give you a recipe.
For the rest, the design would fit in any home and for the price it has, the screen is practical for games with children, for example, karaoke, or to watch a series while doing other things (provided that there is no TV in that room ), that without counting on Skype calls that allow you to have a built-in camera.
