Amazon’s Echo Show 5 is a smaller, more affordable Echo Show with a built-in camera shutter

Amazon has been steadily growing its Echo lineup of smart devices in India – even as close rival Google has been taking its own sweet time to launch competing products in the country. While Google is planning to bring its 1-year-old Nest Home Hub to India soon, Amazon already has a next-generation product perfectly aligned to compete directly with it in the days to come. Amazon is calling it the Echo Show 5 – it's essentially a smaller, more affordable Echo Show with a built-in camera shutter. 

Amazon is launching the Echo Show 5 in India alongside global markets – which goes to show how it feels for this market. In India, the Echo Show 5 will sell for Rs 8,999 and it will start shipping from July 18. That puts it below the 10-inch Echo Show (obviously) and even the teensy Echo Spot – clearly, round displays must be (much) harder to make.  

So, what is the Echo Show 5? Well, the Echo Show 5 is simply an Echo smart speaker with a display – like the Echo Show. But while the larger, more expensive Echo Show packs a smart home hub and Dolby sound (among other things), the Echo Show 5 doesn’t have any of that. It’s as basic as basic gets in the world of smart displays. But there’s one area where the Echo Show 5 wins hands down – as ironical as it may seem, the Echo Show 5 should give you some peace of mind when it comes to privacy. The Echo Show 5 has a physical camera shutter that you can manually toggle – and be rest assured you aren’t being watched. As for Alexa ‘always’ listening to you, there’s always the added option to mute the microphone. 

That’s not all. Amazon is also announcing a new “Alexa Privacy Hub” that will allow users to “delete your voice recordings on all Alexa-enabled devices.” 

“Customers will be able to say “Alexa, delete what I just said” or “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and the respective recordings will be deleted,” Amazon says, adding that its new privacy hub will be coming soon, although an exact launch window hasn’t been quoted yet. 

Speaking of core specs, the Echo Show 5 has a 5.5-inch HD display that can show you more information about your Alexa queries, play you videos, let you video chat, or simply use it as a smart photo frame. As for audio, well, it’s likely to be an Echo Dot-like affair with its 1.65-inch speaker – which means audio quality will be more or less in line with what you get out of a standard smartphone.  

The Echo Show 5 has a familiar fabric design (available in black and white) and of course, Alexa at its core.   

The Echo Show 5 is notably the second full-on smart display product in India (not counting the Echo Spot here). Amazon was also the first to bring smart voice speakers to India – with Google following later. 

Also Read:  Amazon Echo Show Smart Display With Dolby-powered Speakers Launched In India