Welcome to Capsule Considers, where we try out and review the latest products on the market and offer our honest, unbiased opinions, free from any obligation or expectation because if you’re parting with your hard-earned money based on any of our recommendations, we’re gonna make sure it’s damn well worth it. Here’s Kelly Bertrand’s Amazon Echo 15 Show review: Do we need a smart home ‘command centre’ and does it really help the day-to-day organisation battle?
Why does the term ‘smart home’ fill me with so much fear? We should WANT our homes to be smarter – the less we have to worry about on the home (admin) front, the easier our lives will be.
But I’ve found myself in that strange position that perhaps some of you other millennials have – technology seems to be outstripping me at a rate of knots and a lot of the time, I have NO idea what the hell is going on with tech – God, even my Google Drive mystifies me sometimes.
So when I was sent an Amazon Echo Show 15 to review, I honestly had no idea what to do with the damn thing. First of all, what IS it? Second of all, HOW do I use it? And third, is it going to be easy and useful enough so I don’t get frustrated and throw it at a wall? Let’s find out:
What IS an Amazon Echo Show 15?
GREAT question. Officially, it’s an Alexa smart display. I call it a home hub – the place where everything you need to keep your house and family running efficiently lives.
It’s designed to be both an Alexa – you can ask it all the usual things you would of your usual Alexa or Siri – but also a ‘digital noticeboard’ or ‘command centre’ for busy families.
So essentially it’s a chic, not-so-little screen that has a vast array of functions and widgets, from to-do lists, weather reports, notes, photo album display, shopping lists, calendars and more – depending on what you want it to do. It also serves as a kitchen media device, supporting web browsing, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and more, and also acts as a command centre for smart lights and doorbell cameras. You can also use the camera function to video call between Alexas, or via the phone app.
It looks GORGEOUS with a cute black frame and white bezels, it’s giving picture frame rather than device, and looks good in the kitchen. You’re supposed to wall mount it, but seeing as we rent and also we have no wall space in the kitchen, we’ve found it works just as well simply sitting on the bench (you can also buy a stand so you can swivel with ease).
HOW do I use it?
Another great question. When it first arrived, I honestly had no idea how it would be useful. Now, I never want to live without it.
The Alexa has honestly helped our home organisation SO much, it’s insane. Always being in the kitchen has meant it’s super-easy to bark commands at the poor thing – for example, when you’re in the middle of making dinner and you run out of curry powder, all you have to do is yell at the Alexa to add it to the shopping list, rather than making a mental note to include it when your hands aren’t covered in butter chicken (the shopping list automatically updates on your phone too, so you have it on hand at the supermarket).
Speaking of giving you a helping hand, it’s there when you need on-the-fly recipe conversions, to set timers and to ask the usual questions that only the internet has the answers to ‘Alexa, how do you make self-raising flour?’.
You can set up Alexa Routines – shortcuts for Alexa that group a bunch of actions together so you don’t have to do them individually, for example, a Good Night routine that turns off all your lights and turns off any media playing, or my personal favourite, Start my Day, which will turn on the lights, report the weather, play a flash briefing news report from your preferred outlet (mine’s Radio New Zealand), tells me something new, reports the traffic and then plays a ‘happy song’ from Spotify.
We also use the Amazon Echo Show 15 as a speaker a lot – we don’t have a big house so it’s fine for us, but I wouldn’t be relying on it as a solo speaker for a huge party – and it’s also great for displaying recipes and streaming while you’re in the kitchen. (You can get a Fire remote to make life a lot easier for controlling your streaming apps).
But honestly, my old millennial heart also just really loves it for the ever-changing photo frame feature – it’s kind of like a better version of those USB ones your mum had (has?) and I’m absolutely embracing the boomer in me. You can choose different albums, and whether you want them full-screen or just on the home screen like we have.
Also if you have kids or immature friends, I can confirm the Alexa fart function still works an absolute treat.
Is it going to be easy and useful enough so I don’t get frustrated and throw it at a wall?
Short answer, yes. It works perfectly for me 99% of the time, but my partner struggles with it sometimes, it doesn’t seem to recognise his voice as well as mine (although I’m convinced there’s some user error in there too).
It’s a really good place to start if you’re a smart home beginner because the Echo Show 15 is intentionally uncomplicated – although for some tech heads online this is a bad thing (sometimes there’s a lack of personalisation, advanced capabilities etc) but for me, it means less chance of stuffing it up and I’m happy.
The whole idea of an Echo Show is to make your life easier, not to over-complicate it with MORE tech issues and frustrations.
It’s turned me into a smart home convert – I now buy smart bulbs almost exclusively and my whole home organisation system now lives on Alexa – and it has most definitely helped my day-today. I’ve been using it since last year and I even bought my parents one for Christmas.
At around $400, it’s not a cheap purchase, but for something that does SO much, I reckon it’s worth every dollar, and I can see it being a great wedding present from you and a couple of mates, or else the first step on your parent’s journey to understanding what the hell a smart home actually is.
And to answer the last part of the question, no, it hasn’t been thrown at the wall. WIN.
