Echo Show 15 review: The biggest Alexa smart display ever is designed for your wall

Speaker 1: Do you like the echo show, but wish it was permanently attached to your wall. Do you? Well, today is your lucky day. This is the echo show 15, and we're reviewing it now Speaker 1: Just when you thought you'd seen every iteration of a screen packed with an Amazon smart speaker, the echo show 15 enters the chat. It's not the 15th smart display from Amazon, but it certainly feels like it. The 15 comes from the 15.6 inch screen. The biggest [00:00:30] yet on an echo device, a $250. This new echo show costs the same as its swiveling older sibling. The echo show 10, but the experience is totally different. Thanks to the flat screen design and this video. We'll take a look at what's new on this echo show. Compare, sound quality and figure out if mounting a smart display on your wall is even a good idea. Ready? Here we go. Speaker 1: Echoes of the past were clunky countertop hogs taking up precious real estate in your kitchen or on [00:01:00] your nightstand, but now you can wall Mount your echo show smart display, just like your favorite flat screen from 2006. And I say 2006, because this thing is thick and heavy, chunky even, but seriously mounting the echo show 15 on the wall feels risky. The included wall Mount does seem really sturdy and it comes with anchors and there are plenty of instructions for how to get this right. We installed it at the CNET smart home using the provided template and it was quick and easy. The echo show 15 can't rotate on the wall though. [00:01:30] So the orientation you choose is the one you're stuck with, unless you drill four more holes. One important note, you should consider the height and eye level of everyone in your home. Speaker 1: Who's going to use the echo show 15. If all of this sounds a bit too scary, and I don't blame you. This countertop stand is sold separately for 30 bucks. However, that means if you're not willing to Mount it on your wall, the echo show 15 becomes a $280 device because without the stand, it's really not practical with your echo show 15. Now mounted on your wall. It's time to enroll in visual ID and voice match. [00:02:00] Now these are two separate, but similar features, voice lets Amazon's assistant recognize your voice and visual IDs Amazon's version of facial recognition. Visual ID on the show. 15 is supported by the new a Z two chip, which allows all the data processing to happen on device without sending anything to the cloud. Visual ID is also an opt-in feature. So if you don't want it just go about your business as usual to set it up, you'll take a series of phone photos and give your profile a name. Speaker 1: It's a quick process, but again, you need to be able to reach eye level with the camera. So maybe [00:02:30] set it up before hanging the show on the wall. I'm short and had to stand on a box to get this to work. Even after compromising with my regular size C smart home team on how high to mouth, the display lesson learned with visual ID enabled each member of your household can view personal calendars reminders to do lists and recommendations. You can also set reminders for other people. For instance, I can ask my echo show to remind Andrew that he still owes me 20 bucks for betting that I couldn't open a pickle jar with just my elbow. The feature I was most excited about on the show, 15 [00:03:00] was the widget gallery. I had high hopes for widgets, but was kind of disappointed. There are technically 14 widgets to choose from, which sounds like a lot, but the options are pretty boring to do lists. Speaker 1: Grocery lists, commuting maps, recipe suggestions, it's all fine and practical stuff. But I think third party widgets would vastly improve this. I'd love to see Spotify, WhatsApp, even browser bookmarks for your favorite websites, widgets live on your home screen. Once you set them up, sort of it's really more of a slide out panel that's permanently stuck [00:03:30] on the home screen. I wish widgets were more seamlessly. Integrated. Resizing is an option, but just barely. You can really only resize three of the 14 widgets and you don't get to pick the size. There's just a regular or a large option aside from visual ID and those widgets, the rest of the echo experience is pretty much the same just way bigger. The surprising thing here is that the echo show 15 is the same price as the echo show 10, but it's not as well equipped. The echo show 15 has just a five megapixel camera. Speaker 1: Compare that to the echo show 10 that can rotate and zoom [00:04:00] to keep you in frame with its 13 megapixel camera and the show 15 starts to feel a little underwhelming speakers on the echo show. 15 are also less powerful. The show tens three inch Wolfer and dual one inch tweeters are great at filling a room with sound. All the echo show 15 can boast is two, 1.6 inch speakers. That's actually smaller than the echo show eights pair of two inch speakers. In fact, sound quality overall was pretty uni impressive. The side, firing speakers on the back of the show. 15, just can't fill a room with quality sound like the show 10 or [00:04:30] even a standard echo. Take a listen for yourself. Speaker 1: [00:05:30] The echo show 15 is a premium feeling smart display and a different approach that will look good in your home and save counter space, given that good looking design and big, higher resolution screen $250 seems reasonable until you take a look at what's missing. Amazon seems to have really skimed on cameras and speakers here. There are a few key features yet to arrive, but promised in future updates, zoom isn't available yet, nor is the ability to detect specific sounds with custom sound detection. [00:06:00] Even if we get those things, tomorrow is the echo show 15, the best smart display you can buy. I've gotta say no, it looks lovely. The screen size and picture frame style are well thought out. I'm just not convinced that permanently a fixing a smart display to my wall is the way I wanna go. I mean, I had to drill four holes to secure this thing. Speaker 1: Renters likely won't want to do that in my own home. There wasn't really a good wall to put it on. Given that the only use case I could come up with was watching shows while I cooked. And my whole kitchen is cabinets [00:06:30] and appliances. I'm not here to yuck your yum. I'm glad we have this option. If you have the perfect spot in your home for an echo show 15, go ahead and buy it. The features I tested, worked really well and you'll have all the latest Amazon smarts powered by the fastest processing chip. The echo show 15 is your best bet. If you plan to use an echo show mainly for viewing recipes or streaming video content, but otherwise there are more capable echo shows out there for the same or even less money. What do you think? Are you interested in smart displays that live on your wall? Should Amazon even keep [00:07:00] reinventing the smart display? Let me know in the comments below and as always like, and subscribe for more from CNET. If you're interested in purchasing the echo show 15, check out the link below. Thanks for watching.