Skip to main content

Amazon introduces a redesigned Echo Show with a larger 10-inch display

Amazon introduces a redesigned Echo Show with a larger 10-inch display

Share this story

Amazon has just announced an all-new Echo Show at its Alexa event. The new device features a larger 10-inch display and gets rid of the weird chin from the first-generation device, along with offering a smart home hub inside and a new fabric back cover (bringing the design in line with the other new Echo devices it announced today.)

Also new are revamped speakers, with the updated Show now offering dual, side-firing two-inch neodymium drivers that replace the front-facing ones that were below the screen on the older model.

Amazon is offering some new apps for the Show, too — the company is partnering with Microsoft to bring Skype calling to the Show, and will be adding both its own Silk browser as well as Firefox browsers, too (which means that users will be able to once again access YouTube on the new Show, albeit as a slightly convoluted workaround.) You’ll be able to ask Alexa to “Show me something interesting,” which will bring up random live webcams from around the world, as well as get new, step-by-step cooking instructions, too.

Amazon Echo Show (second generation)

There’s also a new partnership with Hulu, letting subscribers easily access live TV — assuming they’ve got a Hulu subscription.

Better Alexa apps are coming

Along with the new hardware, Amazon is also introducing what it calls “Alexa Presentation Language,” a new developer language and tools so that devs can make richer images and user interfaces on the Echo Show. Amazon says that APL is similar in structure to HTML and Javascript, and can scale from devices as small as the Echo Spot to larger devices like the living-room-ready Fire TV. In other words, Amazon’s visual Alexa skills could be getting a whole lot better going forward.

Amazon also showed off how the Echo Show can integrate with it’s newly announced Fire TV Recast box, which can record over-the-air television and stream it to your other Amazon devices — including the Echo Show.

The new Echo Show will cost $229.99, just like the older model. Preorders will be available starting today, with the new Show set to ship on October 11th.