Our first look at Amazon’s big new Echo Show 16

Amazon’s latest Echo Show astute display is big, gorgeous, and eye-wateringly expensive. Announced today, the Echo Show 16 expenses $499.99 (wall mount included) and is accessible to preorder now. There’s a Nanomatte display choice for $569.99, affirmative a $100 preorder discount onward of its publish afterward this year.

After spending period alongside the equipment at a small media event in New York City this week, I think the Echo Show 16 could be the versatile family hub Alexa users have been asking for. The sleek hardware brings alongside it a entirely new application experience, including improved astute residence controls, a much-improved calendar interface, and a genuine photo example choice — all completely customizable.

The Echo Show 16’s signature characteristic is its new customizable homescreens. Called Screen Styles, you can choose from a family organizer, a astute residence dashboard, an Alexa widgets screen, or a digital photo frame. Unlike existing Echo Shows, these homescreens can remain on all the period or appear whenever you approach, giving you quick admission to your calendar, a new meal-planning feature, or your most-used astute residence devices.

This benevolent of uncomplicated communication has mostly been missing from astute residence displays, which have traditionally been voice-first devices, alongside the screen providing additional ocular context for the sound aide inside. Over the years, Amazon has slowly added additional functionality to its astute displays, and the Echo Show 16 feels akin the culmination of those efforts.

With its size and slim bezels, the Show 16 looks a lot additional akin a tablet than a astute display, specifically the new Alexa Tablet Pro 12. It equal has the identical anti-glare Nanomatte display as an upgrade choice and sports a MediaTek processor fairly than Amazon’s AZ3 chip. “A lot of the identical activity went into this as the tablet,” Amazon’s caput of devices and services, Panos Panay, confirmed to me.

When mounted on one of two optional stands, the Show 16 starts to resemble a small iMac, giving off several powerful home-computer vibes, although it verges on too big for a galley counter. It’s much thinner than the Echo Show 15 or the 21 (also $499), alongside considerably slimmer bezels.

In my hands-on, the Show 16’s complete HD display felt responsive, and the display was brilliant and apparent alongside profound blacks. The audio is improved than a tablet and on par alongside the Show 11, gratitude to a slim speaker box that runs the dimension of the display and packs in eight tradition woofers and two tweeters. Luke Combs’ “The Way I Am” was apparent and loud, and the audio was smooth, although it lacked a bit of depth. I didn’t get to test the new microphone positioning (four total) to see whether Alexa can comprehend any improved in this form factor.

While the hardware is impressive, the application is anywhere the cognition steps up. The Show 16 is designed as a family hub, a chief location to see the family calendar, inspect the week’s meal plan, perspective family photos, authority astute residence devices, and see who’s at the video doorbell. It additionally runs the complete Fire TV interface and comes alongside a newly redesigned Alexa distant that feels much nicer in the hand.

Along alongside the Screen Styles, you can choose from one of two ambient screensavers that appear whenever you’re distant from the device: a photo example or Alexa Recommendations. You can additionally skip an ambient display entirely and keep your homescreen accessible at all times.

Alexa Recommendations is the identical idea as the customizable rotating display you see on current Shows. This can display the weather, news, photos, and another options, along alongside display ads. Amazon didn’t demo this choice at the event, but according to Aidan Marcuss, the incoming VP of Alexa and Echo, this display “will continue to recommendation the broad assortment of content, fair as it does now.” I asked whether this includes full-screen ads; he confirmed it does, but they’ll appear lone there, not on any another residence screen, and you can rotate off Alexa Recommendations.

Another key interface alter is a new favorites bar you can admission from most screens. It opens a programmable quick bar that lets you toggle between the device’s functions, including third-party Alexa skills and integrations. This small alter makes the equipment easier to navigate by contact than the current Show interface. It opened promptly in my hands-on, and selecting an app took me immediately to the applicable screen.

Of course, this is an Alexa Plus device, and you can motionless navigate by sound and conversation alongside the assistant, which has had a brain boost. Daniel Rausch, the current VP of Alexa and Echo, who is transitioning into a new function at Amazon next month, says the latest type of Alexa Plus can do deeper investigation and is smarter. “It has admission to additional models and now has additional degree of reasoning, is additional capable of multitasking, and improved at breaking downward the two complex tasks and vague tasks,” he said.

Alexa Plus has a new “next finest actions” characteristic that makes proactive suggestions according to your conversations alongside it. The demo showed Alexa offering suggestions specified as anywhere to buy hardware cloth whenever you’ve been talking to it concerning construction a poultry coop, or suggesting hiking trails and YouTube videos whenever you’ve been preparedness a trip to Scotland. These suggestions appear in a new Alexa Plus interface on the Show, built about “Cards.”

These cards, which additionally appear in the new Alexa app and on Alexa.com, act as Alexa’s memory, letting you come back to a conversation and choice up anywhere you remaining off; you can additionally pin cards to the Show in the Alexa Widget face. The cards interface uses the display genuine asset improved than the current way of talking to Alexa on the Show, which fair fills the blue display alongside pale text.

Another characteristic that takes advantage of the big display is an improved map view. This is a ground-up rebuild of the map perspective that launched in 2023, and it gives you admission to all your astute devices in a 3D interface you can zoom in on to authority lights, locks, cameras, and additional in situ.

The map updates in genuine time, so whenever you toggle on a light, the area on the map lights up. It now gives you a bird’s-eye perspective of your residence and neighborhood and can access any exterior Ring cameras you have. If person approaches your house, you’ll see a fig on the map and can tap it to get a live perspective from the camera that spotted them.

The new UI and its features volition eventually arrive to all current Show devices, although Amazon didn’t portion a timeline. However, Marcuss confirmed that during the new customizable homescreens are included for liberated on the Show 16, it volition necessitate a subscription on the older devices. He didn’t verify exact pricing.

As a category, astute displays have frequently felt akin solutions looking for a problem; they commitment to do too many things, but rarely do any extremely well. Based on my abbreviated period alongside the Show 16, Amazon may have solved that issue and delivered a genuinely helpful device. But whether it’s a resolution value spending $500 on remains a big question.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge