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5 Things Nobody Tells You About the Echo Show 10

2023 · From the Tech with Asher channel · Watch below or read on

I have owned the Echo Show 10 for over a year, and it is not all what you think it is. The headline features are real, but the settings that make it livable are the ones nobody talks about. Here are five things I learned the long way.

1. I turned off the famous feature in month one

The party trick, the screen that rotates to follow you, lasted about a month at my house. Not because it is useless: in the kitchen with your hands covered in flour, a recipe that follows you is genuinely great. But on a side table it is distracting, and mine occasionally turned into things and knocked them over, sensors or not. The nuance is that this device suits multiple use cases: kitchen placement wants smart motion on, side table placement wants it off. It is one swipe to disable, and even disabled, you can still physically angle the screen by hand, which is a quiet convenience nobody markets.

2. Tame the billboard on day one

Out of the box, the home screen throws so much at you that it can look like an advertisement display. The fix: Settings, then Home Content, and disable everything in the list. Then re-enable only what you actually want to see. Ten minutes, and the device goes from billboard to bulletin board. One quirk I have never solved: in photo frame mode the screen transitions every 24 seconds with a brief black blink, and the only way to stop it is do-not-disturb. Amazon, if you are reading this, give us a setting.

3. The speaker is the hidden headline

Two one-inch tweeters and a three-inch woofer. The display is only 1280 resolution, not full HD, but the sound system makes up for everything the screen lacks. For kitchen music and podcasts, it is the best thing about the device, and the sound test in the video proves it.

4. The widgets are hiding on the right edge

Swipe in from the right and you get calendar, reminders, and smart home controls. They do not stay on screen permanently, which is mildly annoying, but knowing they exist changes how useful the device is. Swipe down from the top for quick access to video apps: Netflix, Hulu, Prime, or just ask out loud.

5. The feature I want from its rival

My Pixel Tablet detaches from its dock and comes with me. If the Show 10's screen ever popped off its rotating base the same way, it would be the best of both worlds, the followable kitchen screen and the take-it-to-the-couch tablet in one. Someone on the design team, please.