Is Amazon Echo Show Worth It Even After Black Friday?

Forget about Black Friday. Amazon has just slashed a whopping $80 off the Echo Show, so it’s definitely the perfect time to buy the touchscreen device that also works as a smart speaker.

Just this Sunday, Amazon launched a bunch of new deals for the holiday season. The highlight of the list is none other than the all-new Echo Show. The device typically retails for $230, but Amazon has decided to slash $80 off the price. This makes it $30 less than the Echo Show’s price when it was on sale last Black Friday. Check out the deal here.

Amazon’s Echo Show is a smart speaker that like its siblings — the Echo and Echo Dot — can be used to manage a slew of smart home devices using just voice commands. The only difference between the Echo Show and its siblings is the fact that the former comes with a touchscreen display.

The inclusion of a screen makes Echo Show stand out because everything that Alexa says to users is also shown on the screen. And because the display is touchscreen, users will find it easy to scroll through weather forecast and do other things with supported apps.

When CNBC’s Todd Haselton reviewed the Echo Show, he was pleased with the device’s capacity to show the lyrics to songs being played. When it came to the audio quality of the speaker, Haselton pointed out that the Echo Show could actually get nice and loud, and it’s even better than Google Home but not as good as the Sonos Play:1.

CNET’s Ry Crist also got the chance to review the Echo Show, and the Alexa device for him “shows potential for people interested in video chatting with friends and family members, but it needs a little more development.” Crist specifically liked the fact that the Echo Show has video and touchscreen controls and provides a hands-free video calling experience. However, Crist said that the appearance of the device feels “dated” and “uninspired.”

As for Wired’s David Pierce, the Echo Show shines especially in areas that its siblings do not cover. For instance, instead of reading an entire week’s forecast, the device just reads the weather forecast for the day and it displays the forecast for the next five days on its screen. When one asks for a recipe, Alexa doesn’t need to say the steps out loud anymore because the procedure is shown on the screen.

The Echo Show comes with a 7-inch screen and dual 2.0” speakers with room-filling sound thanks to Dolby. Although it doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack, it has bluetooth so users can still enjoy unlimited streaming of their favorite music on Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora and many more via Wi-Fi. Best of all, it is designed to control numerous smart home devices.

“Echo Show brings you everything you love about Alexa, and now she can show you things. Watch video flash briefings, Amazon Video content, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, browse and listen to Audible audiobooks, and more. All hands-free—just ask,” Amazon’s description for the Echo Show reads.

Despite its shortcomings, the Amazon Echo Show is certainly a pretty useful device that can deliver nothing short of impeccable performance when used with multiple smart home devices. So apart from the display and smart speaker capabilities, the $150 price tag makes the Echo Show worth it even after Black Friday.

Amazon’s $80 discount on the Echo Show comes just days after Google completely removed YouTube support for the touchscreen Alexa device and Fire TV. As previously reported, Google had a disagreement with Amazon because the latter’s implementation of YouTube on its devices apparently violates the former’s terms and services and creates a broken user experience.

“We've been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other's products and services. But Amazon doesn't carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn't make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest's latest products. Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and FireTV. We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon,” a Google spokesperson added.