Amazon has officially announced the Echo Show 15, the latest version of its smart display for the home. Unlike past Echo Show devices, this new one is mountable on the wall, making it look a framed picture. Because of this, it can easily fade into the background of your home decor, while also interacting with your commands as effortlessly as ever.
It’s powered by Amazon’s new AZ2 chip, officially called the AZ2 Neural Edge Processor. This custom designed architecture allows all computer vision and speech processing to be handled on the device locally. So that means none of the questions or data are sent to the cloud like past devices. The AZ2 chip also offers reduced latency on the device. So your commands, questions and anything else should all be processed faster than ever before.
The Amazon Echo Show 15 shows you personalized content with Visual ID
One of the new features of the Echo Show 15 is the Visual ID feature. Users can set this up so that the display will recognize them when they step in front of it. It then serves up personalized content and information based on that recognition.
This can include reminders, calendar details, recently played music and even personal notes you’ve created.
Understandably, you may not want your kids having access to that information. Don’t worry though, because Amazon seems to have thought of a solution for that. For parents, it’s possible to set up a Visual ID for Kids. This way the Echo Show 15 will recognize when they step in front of the display as well. It will then switch the content that comes up on-screen to kid-appropriate content.
Enjoy video content on its large 15.6-inch display
The new Echo Show 15 features a larger 15.6-inch display with 1080p resolution. So it can easily work as a kitchen TV for viewing video content. Should that be something that you’re looking for.
It also features a new widgets gallery. With continually refreshing Amazon Widgets that stay updated and let you add a touch of customization to the information you feel is most useful. Amazon will sell its new smart display for $249.99. However it hasn’t yet announced a release date.