Amazon's Echo Show 10 is a fantastic starter smart home device

 

Everything you need to know about the Echo Show 10

Straight out of the box, the Echo Show 10 was a quick and easy install. Once I decided where it was going to live on my kitchen counter, it only took a few minutes to connect it to my WiFi, give it access to my Amazon account, and install a few updates before it was ready to go. 

With a 10.1-inch HD screen, the Echo Show 10 offered several features that wowed me straight away. Not only is the speaker quality surprisingly good — especially compared to the Amazon Echo Show 15, which I also tested — the motion tracking was incredibly robust. I liked watching the device learn its limitations by testing the range of motion so it wouldn’t bump into any obstacles on the counter, and — once it was completed — I loved how the screen would follow me around the kitchen. 

What I loved about the Echo Show 10

Using the Echo Show 10 was an incredible experience. I found myself starting my day with Alexa — usually with the weather, a piece of good news, and one of my favorite playlists on Spotify, which I kept playing throughout most of the day. The speaker quality was great and way more convenient than my go-to Bluetooth speaker, and it did a great job of knowing when to switch from the Show to my Apple Airpods when I walked out the door for the day.

Compared to the Show 15, there were several key features that really surprised me about the Show 10. One, the camera quality was fantastic. I loved being able to “drop in” and check on my dogs or chat with my husband, and it was super convenient to see the motion tracking follow him around the kitchen so he didn’t have to stop what he was doing to talk to me. Obviously, the built-in speaker was much better (which wasn’t much of a surprise, considering the Show 10’s base actually is a speaker compared to the tiny built-in speaker of the Show 15), and I liked being able to move and tilt the screen as needed.