Please don't buy an Echo Show

Our Echo Show 15 has been a helpful addition to our kitchen for years. It's been great for photos and weather at a glance, keeping track of our family calendar, and setting up quick timers while cooking. While it wasn't perfect, it added value to our routine.

But recently, Amazon released an update that completely ruined our experience. The Show seems less like a helpful tool and more like a billboard in our kitchen. Ads are everywhere. Every time we glance at the screen, we see random products from Amazon. We paid for this thing. We paid to hang an advertisement on our kitchen wall.

What's worse, the UI got an overhaul to prepare for the upcoming Show 21, and against all odds, it got worse. The font size has been reduced, making it harder to see from a distance, and the widget requirement has gone from 1/3 of the screen to 2/3. This might not make a ton of sense if you've never used one so I'll try to explain.

The screen, which we have displayed vertically, is essentially broken into thirds. You could previously have a large, single widget in the bottom third and then a gallery of rotating cards like weather, sports scores, etc, in the top 2/3. Now, you have to use the bottom 2/3 of the screen for widgets or not use them at all.

Since we were only using the calendar widget on the bottom 1/3 of the screen, this means we now have a giant empty space below that unless we fill it with a grocery list widget that connects to an app we don't use, a weather widget that shows the temperature we already see on the top of the screen, or one of the brutal third-party widgets which includes a "fart button" for example.

Since we opted to close the widget section entirely, the previously mentioned ads, which are part of the rotating cards I mentioned earlier, take up the entire screen when shown.

If you're considering buying an Echo Show, my advice is simple: don't. Consider putting together your own, checking out a Google Nest Hub, or waiting to see what Apple has planned for next year. Investing in a smart display should make your life easier—not serve as a constant reminder of how little your time and attention seem to matter to the company that made it.