Amazon Echo Show 8 review: Regionally limited

The Echo Present 8 is Amazon’s reply to Google’s Nest Hub. It due to this fact fulfills the identical operate: to centrally function the good gadgets in your house. With a display measurement of 8 inches and a housing that’s 10 cm deep, the Echo Present 8 is actually compact sufficient to put it nearly wherever. The display bezel and body of the housing are made from matte plastic, which appears to be like extra qualitative than it feels. A sort of mesh is stretched over the again that neatly envelops the speaker. The machine appears to be like sober and unobtrusive, in a constructive sense. It could be unfair to match the Echo Present 8 to the far more costly Sonos audio system in our setup, however whereas logically it produces little bass, it does sound barely higher than the Google Nest Hub.

Putting in the good speaker may be very straightforward. You want an Amazon account for that. The system clearly guides you thru the standard WiFi and language settings. Please notice: there is no such thing as a Dutch possibility within the Worldwide Model of the Echo Present 8. We additionally didn’t like that the good speaker instantly offered us with an Amazon Music subscription after we wished to play some music as a take a look at and choose a music service. A easy ‘no’ was sufficient to dismiss the intrusive supply. The Worldwide Model due to this fact signifies that it should be managed in English. Formulating easy instructions for Alexa (Amazon’s trusted voice assistant) was hardly ever tough. Switching on Philips Hue lamps or enjoying a track in Spotify: the good speaker does it in a snap.

Lack of native content material

The primary shortcoming of the Echo Present 8 is a scarcity of assist for native content material. “I can not store in your nation but”, Alexa informed us after we wished to order one thing on Amazon. And after we went searching for eating places or cafes within the space, the reply was too usually “I can not lookup data in your area”. Viewing pictures and streaming Netflix does go easily, however in any other case the assist is sadly too restricted. For instance, you must open YouTube and different well-known platforms within the browser and that’s merely not optimum. The identical goes for WhatsApp, Groups and Deezer. The 13 MP wide-angle digicam is first rate, but when you realize that you could solely make video calls by way of the Alexa app (Zoom is simply supported within the US), it’s of little use to you. Conclusion: the Echo Present 8 comes into its personal for working your good dwelling, as a digital picture body, music participant or Bluetooth speaker, however the regional restrictions sadly make it not as helpful because it may very well be.