Final Review: Amazon Echo Show 10
This smart speaker's touchscreen swivels as you move around your kitchen
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We all spend perhaps a bit too much time staring at our screens. But what about a screen that stares back?
The Amazon Echo Show 10, which works with the company’s Alexa voice-controlled assistant, uses a quiet electric motor and motion-sensing technology to track your movements. So the 10-inch touchscreen continues to face you even as you move around a room.
Smart speakers, especially those with screens, are commonly used in kitchens. In my home, I found the Echo Show 10 to be useful while cooking, allowing me to read a recipe or watch a quick how-to video. Those are tasks you might otherwise use a phone or tablet for, but the Show 10’s voice commands mean you can sometimes avoid touching the screen with messy hands.
Amazon's Other Smart Screens
The older, since-discontinued Echo Show has essentially the same screen and functions just as well for a hands-free consultation of recipes. Because it doesn’t rotate, it doesn’t require as much room on the counter.
Amazon’s newest Echo smart screen, the Echo Show 15, addresses this concern in a different way. It features a wall-mountable 15-inch screen that can be seen throughout the room and doesn’t take up precious counter space.
The model scores less well in our evaluation. Its touchscreen was somewhat balky, especially when controlling smart home devices like bulbs and smart switches. The Show 15 also has unimpressive sound quality, according to our testers, about on the level of the much cheaper audio-only Echo Dot.
The Echo Show 8 is much less expensive than the Show 10 and takes up less counter space, and its screen stays stationary.
In an evaluation in my own kitchen while I baked madeleines, the Show 8 didn’t knock things over like the Show 10, but difficulties with getting Alexa to find the right recipe were a source of frustration compared with the laptop, tablet, and smartphone we included in the comparison. And of course, if space is tight, a tablet, phone, or laptop can be easily moved out of the way when you’re done.
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