Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsAbsolutely missed opportunity
Reviewed in Australia on 15 May 2022
Let me explain how this product is yet another massive Alexa show failure at this stage. I own 60+ Smart home devices too many Alexa’s to count. I’ve been looking for a smart interface to control routines and groups, see my ring cameras all by physical touch with an interactive calendar. I thought this was it. I was let down.
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Bugs
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Let me start by saying this show is BUGGY as hell and nearly as disappointing as my echo show 5’s with more functionality for the price. Apps/ cameras fail to load, screen is jerky and slow. Things pop up on the home display even though we have them turned off. And I’ve only owned it for 24 hours.
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Home Screen
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WHY WHY WHY must you be forced to see 1/3 of the screen as a clock and photos/ or suggestions??!!!! Rolling information is not helpful, I doubt anyone wants to sit and wait for information to scroll at random on the screen surely?
I would like to see an option of utilizing ALL the screen Real-estate for home automation control (cameras, calendar, routines, groups and lists etc). Yet I am I forced due to lack of options - to have a photo wall paper or scrolling Alexa suggestions taking up 1/3 of the screen. If I wanted a photo frame I would buy a photo frame!!! PLEASE make the useless greedy background Home Screen optional!!!!!!
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Music control
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Spotify widget is USELESS, you can only click on 4 recommend songs and then when it decides to load the full Spotify “app”- you have no search functionality. Now you have music playing on the screens terrible 1.6 inch speakers, You have no button to push the audio onto your good quality stereo Alexa music groups. ALEXA KNOWS your music groups but you can’t physically select them from the Spotify screen. WTF!? What’s the point in this app!????? Pick music only that it recommends to you and and be forces to play music on its crap speakers. Why would you want to listen to music on your expensive echos with premium sound/ sub woofer groups etc???
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Severe lack of smart home control widgits
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What’s most infuriating is that, I can’t have a routine or group widget or both. I would love custom light switches widget, ring camera widget , routines widget and light group widget/ fans as separate home control. What I’m asking for is literally an uncomplicated physical link to information your Alexa account already knows - but your not given a Home Screen control for it... your forced to dive into automation sub menus to turn on a routine.
Instead you have one widget choice - “favorites” with space for 4 buttons to pick! (You can’t turn on kitchen “group”, you can’t turn in the “all on routine”) but you can turn on 4 favorite bulbs individually!!!! Wow.
In short, Routines are the absolute bees knees of smart home automation and you can’t put a routine button permanently on the Home Screen. Ie “all on” or “all off” or “dinner time routine” or “bed time” routine. Why would you want to control your home with one button. Why would you buy a 15” screen if you want to do this with voice.
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Calendar
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Every digital calendar I’ve ever used has a dot over the day in a month display to say you have something on that day. The calendar does not have this. You must click on each day to see if your busy or not. Wasted opportunity.
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Summary
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Overall. If your looking to control your smart home with a physical LCD interface. Don’t bother with this product unless they release some practical updates and features. They are relying on voice control to fill the gaps - defeating the purpose of the display. If you want an expensive janky interactive display with non practical ways to interact with your smart home. This would be perfect for you.
I’ll update this review if anything changes. I’m happy for amazon to contact me to improve this user experience for those who utilize Alexa to control their entire smart home with large numbers of devices! At this stage it’s very feature poor and fails to deliver on a SMART DISPLAY for home automation interaction IMHO.
