Honey, Amazon shrunk its Echo Show smart display! The company announced a much smaller 5.5-inch display version of the device–just more than half the size of the original 10-inch screened version of the device.
The new Echo Show 5 takes up much less real estate on the nightstand or countertop than the original Show. It fits more easily into the “alarm clock” motif than its predecessor.
But the new Show 5 has an HD display, and it’s still large enough and bright enough to display the important information and content.
The price of the device his shrunk, too. It’s $89.99, compared to the $229.99 Echo Show (second generation).
Some new privacy features have made their way into the mini Show (and soon to all Echo devices). Most importantly, the Show 5 now gets a physical shutter to cover up the camera lens on the front of the device. (The older Show used a switch to electronically shut off the mic and camera.) There’s a new Alexa Privacy Hub screen where users can control what sounds and images the Show remembers or forgets. Another new feature lets users instruct the Show to “forget everything I said today.” Soon, Amazon will release another feature that lets users tell Alexa “forget what I just said.”
These things should make it somewhat easier to manage what Alexa knows and remembers about me, but they still leave most of the burden on me, the user. I still have to continually tell Alexa to forget my voice commands–day after day, week after week. As far as I know, there’s no voice command saying “Alexa don’t remember anything you see or hear in this house–ever.” And even with the new physical shutter, chances are that after about three weeks, the Show’s camera will watch unimpeded by default.
A radically smaller Show seems like a good idea because it does many of the same things the older Show does without sacrificing too much. And the smaller footprint will free up valuable space for other things, especially on the nightstand. The Show 5 doesn’t sound nearly as good, but I mainly use my Show’s speaker to play white noise, and I’m pretty sure the Show 5’s speaker is still good enough for that.
Oddly, it’s the price of the Show 5 that gives me pause—$89.99 is a major drop from the older Show’s $229.99. “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,” says Alexa VP Tom Taylor in the press release. Call me paranoid, but coming from a big tech company like Amazon (which has a burgeoning ad business of its own), what I hear is “we’re willing to take a hit on profit margin in order to get more of these boxes with mics and cameras in your home.” In the Facebook era, I’ve been trained to think that if it’s not about the money, it may be about my personal data.
On the other hand, if you’re relatively unconcerned about data privacy–a defensible point of view–then the Show’s price might simply be a good deal. The Echo Show 5, which comes in charcoal or sandstone colors, goes on sale at the end of June.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
