Amazon Echo Show 15

The Show 15 doesn't quite fulfil its potential, but it's a fine addition to a smart home if you accept its limitations

- TIM DANTON

SCORE

PRICE £200 (£240 inc VAT) from amazon.co.uk

What a brilliant idea the Echo Show 15 is. Where the previous Echo Show devices have been tabletop affairs, the Show 15 is at its best hanging on a wall - next to the fridge, perhaps, as Amazon hopes it will become the fulcrum of family life. You can buy the optional stand (£35) and sit it on your desk like a traditional Echo Show, but that feels like a waste of its talents.

So, where to put it? Amazon's advice is to keep the Show 15 at eye level. It comes with a mounting template (a posh word for a piece of paper with the Show's outline on it) and, once you work out your preferred area, you drill holes and mount it. All the wall plugs and screws come provided.

When it comes to software setup, the only variation from the usual Echo routine is that you're asked which images you'd like to display, with choices such as an Amazon photo album, abstract shapes, and art. Aside from entering your Amazon account details and Wi-Fi password, that's it; the Echo Show 15 will download an update (around ten minutes in my case) and then await your instructions.

You've been framed

This gives you time to admire the Echo Show 15's design. It's essentially a picture frame that's been pumped with steroids, with inch-thick white surrounds and a chunky frame. But where there would normally be a print, this frame contains a 15.6in the touch-sensitive panel.

The Show 15 measures 35mm from back to front, with a beveled edge that holds speakers on the left and right side (or top and bottom if you mount it vertically). That means it juts out from the wall a good inch further than any picture frames it may sit near, and unless you have a white painted wall you'll also notice the thin cable that connects to a plug.