Amazon Echo Show 15 review: the biggest Alexa display, but is it the best?

With a black border and white bezels that more resembles an artistic frame than a piece of cutting-edge tech, the recently-released device will be a head-turner when placed on a wall of your home – and is especially well-suited to the kitchen.

Like the rest of our guide to the best smart speakers, you can ask questions, play music, hear news reports, check recipes, set alarms, make calls and more.

Unlike the others, the Echo Show 15 gives you a selection of customizable widgets and the ability to get that big 15.6-inch 1080p display – the largest you can get in an Amazon smart display as of writing – off the counter and onto your wall.

The display size isn’t the only thing that's bigger. At £239.99, the Echo Show 15 is also one of the most expensive in the series, and if you want to place it horizontally for some reason, the cost rises by £30 as you have to buy an extra stand.

So how does it compare to the other Echo Show devices? What makes it special? And crucially, is it actually worth your money? Here’s our Echo Show 15 review.

Jump to:

• Echo Show 15 review: summary
• What is Amazon Echo Show 15?
• How much is Amazon Echo Show 15?
• Echo Show 15 design
• Echo Show 15 features and software
• Echo Show 15 sound quality
• Echo Show 15 set-up/installation
• Echo Show 15 and Echo Show 10
• Our verdict and rating
• Where to buy the Echo Show 15

Echo Show 15 review: summary

We tested the Echo Show 15 over the course of a week, setting it up inside an office and kitchen while pairing it with devices including a phone via the Alexa app and a Eufy video doorbell, alongside services including Spotify and Prime Video.

Almost immediately after opening the box, we had one main question: Is there more to the Echo Show 15 than meets the eye, or is this simply a fancy new design?

Ultimately, the Show 15 justifies its existence. It not only provides the typically-solid Alexa experience but doubles as an accessible entertainment centre, while the widgets make it visually pleasing and intuitive to navigate with touch controls and finger swipes - even if most are still a little too limited to be fully enjoyed.

The display is big and bright, using a simple layout that’s easy to follow for all types of users and accomplishes its core mission of being a centre-piece for a family to share. Unfortunately, the Echo Show 15 does not have Zigbee compatibility so using it to actually power your smart home is much trickier than it should be.

After setup, which takes approximately 10-20 minutes, it's clear that the Echo Show 15 will be best if you are already in Amazon’s ecosystem of devices.

In terms of extra apps or widgets, there’s little-to-no wiggle room. The same goes for resizing and placing those widgets around the home screen, and we were constantly having to remember this is not a "proper" tablet when it comes to scrolling through apps – although it thankfully does have YouTube and a web browser.

From online shopping to watching video content via Prime to listening to audiobooks, Amazon happily provides all of the add-ons and services you could possibly need. Often at a price or by signing up to a monthly subscription, of course.

If you are already a keen user of Amazon’s services, you will likely have a blast with the Echo Show 15, although anyone used to Google Nest devices may find themselves a little lost at first, especially when it comes to navigating the system.

For most users, the Show 8 has similar functions at a much more pleasing price point. And while the aesthetic is minimalist – there’s no getting around the fact that this is a beefy, heavy, piece of kit and essentially a digital photo frame on steroids.

Subscription cynicism aside, the Echo Show 15 is the logical next step for the smart display series, and one that we hope continues to be refined in its future iterations. While this one doesn’t always hit the mark, it’s still a very promising direction.

Price: £239.99

Key features and specs:

• 15.6-inch Full HD (1080p) smart display
• Alexa-powered -on screen widgets
• Five megapixel (MP) camera
• Portrait or landscape orientation
• Doubles as digital photo frame
• Can play YouTube. Netflix, Prime
• Camera cover switch is built in to frame
• Comes with wall mount in the box

Pros:

• Great design that looks stylish
• New widgets are a welcome addition
• Works well as a smart control centre
• Wall mounting is a nice change

Cons:

• Rigid widget placement options
• Touch navigation can be limited
• Takes up a lot of space when not mounted

What is Amazon Echo Show 15?

The Echo Show 15 is Amazon’s latest smart display that is powered by Alexa voice assistant technology. Unlike the other devices in the range – Echo Show 8 (£119.99), Echo Show 5 (£74.99) and Echo Show 10 3rd gen (£239.99) – the Echo Show 15 is designed to be a wall-mounted smart home and entertainment centre and stands out among the crowd by being based around interchangeable widgets.

How much is Amazon Echo Show 15?

The Amazon Echo Show 15 is priced at £239.99. It was released in the UK on 9th December 2021. The official Tilt Stand is sold separately, costing £29.99.

• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Amazon
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Currys
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at AO
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at John Lewis
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Argos

Echo Show 15 design

Whether it's on the wall or the countertop, the Show 15 essentially looks like a giant digital photo frame. Build quality is really good, with the thick black border and crisp white bezels giving off a premium, artistic, vibe. In our opinion, the model is meant to be wall-mounted and looks best at eye level. The fact it also serves as a literal way to display photos means it can seamlessly blend into your home’s décor.

On top, you will find the camera cover slider, a button to mute Alexa and the volume controls. Speakers run down each of the sides, and the back is where you will plug in a power adapter and affix the plate for wall placement. Thankfully the front is free from logos or branding – with only the camera visible in the top left corner.

It’s stylish, but not what we would describe as a subtle or nimble device - and that will be a pro or a con depending on your own personal design tastes.

At 148 x 86 x 73 mm (W x H x D) and weighing 2,215 g – the Echo Show 15 is a bit of a chunky beast. On the wall, this won’t matter at all, but it’s something to be aware of as it lacks the portability of some of the other models in the range. Overall, it’s an attractive design that’s sleek, inoffensive and should work well in most homes.

Read more Amazon reviews

• Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) review
• Amazon Echo Show 5 (2nd Gen) review
• Amazon Echo Show 10 review
• Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) review
• Amazon Fire HD 10 review
• Amazon Fire HD 8 review
• Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids review
• Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus review
• Amazon Fire TV Stick (2020) review
• Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite review

Echo Show 15 features and software

Until now, if you had used an Echo Show device you would be familiar with them all. But Amazon has shaken up the formula with the Echo Show 15 by basing the entire main layout around widgets that can be customised, re-ordered and re-sized.

There are 14 in total – and from the Widget Gallery menu, you can add them to the home screen with a quick click. You can display up to six at a time, and pressing down on one will bring up a menu that lets you either remove or reorder them.

Two of the default widgets – “Calendar & Reminders” and “Music & Audio” – have a large version that switches up the home layout completely by taking up much more real estate on the top left, and instantly limiting the widgets on-screen to four. This will also reduce the size of the left side’s gallery/clock. It’s all personal taste.

Here’s the full list of the widgets you get as default:

• Alexa Suggestions
• Calendar and reminders
• Calendar and reminders (large)
• Cookpad recipe of the day
• Favourite photos
• Music and audio
• Music and audio (large)
• Reorder suggestions
• Shopping list
• Smart home favourites
• Sticky notes
• To-do list
• Weather
• What to eat

In our set-up of choice, we decided to remove the large widget version to give that home screen gallery more room to breathe and to better show off the imagery, which you can change by swiping left or right. We chose to have four widgets on the right: music (via Spotify), weather forecast, shopping list and sticky notes.

After a few days of using the device, we think that it works well as a first iteration but we would have liked Amazon to have gone a little bit further with personalisation and customisation. Widgets aren’t resizable and the layout ends up feeling rigid.

You feel like you should be able to swipe the entire widget tray away, but it doesn’t let you. You can't change the position of the home screen clock in real-time, and having just two widgets doesn’t reduce the tray to match, it just leaves a menu open. It's can be frustratingly limited at times, and we would like to see a greater variety.

However, the Echo Show 15 widgets are a welcome addition overall and the customisation irritants can be hopefully be improved in future software updates.

As expected, navigating the Show 15 can be done via touch controls – swiping like a smartphone or tablet – or exclusively by using Alexa. We found that the performance of the device was solid throughout, although slightly less responsive than we would have liked. To be clear, it’s not laggy or sluggish –- but there were some slight loading delays when pressing down on some apps or opening up some of the menus.

You can access the main menu by swiping down from the top of the screen, letting you alter settings, alarms, communication features, music, video, routines, smart home controls and more. Here is the full list of every menu option as default:

• Home
• Settings
• Do not disturb
• Alarms
• Brightness
• Notifications
• widget gallery
• Discover
• Communicate
• Music
• Smart home
• Video
• Routines
• Photo frame

Aside from widgets, one of the next big additions to the Show 15 is Visual ID – which makes you take photos of your face (images are stored on-device) and can then tell who is using it – tailoring reminders, music, reminders etc to that person. It’s a really neat feature, but it is one that’s also rolling out to other Show devices, too.

We paired the Echo Show 15 up with a Eufy smart video doorbell and it was a fairly seamless process by following the steps on the Alexa app, which you will definitely need to download to get the best out of the device. After the set-up, we could use the Show 15 to check the live feed of the doorbell. Although there was a slight delay in the feed loading, audio feedback when the button was pressed was immediate.

We found the Show 15 to be a great digital frame. Not that you would pay more than £230 for that feature alone, but the choice of pre-set images was nice (we opted for the ‘nature’ pre-set) and you can have it display your own family photos, too.

You can access additional features via the Video tab in the menu. It not only provides a portal to watch Amazon Prime Video, but also Netflix, YouTube and a Bing browser.

It's a real shame that the Echo Show 15 does not have built-in Zigbee compatibility, unlike the Echo and the Show 10. Zigbee is a smart protocol that essentially lets devices communicate with each other. The fact it's missing from the Echo Show 15 means the device is instantly at a disadvantage as a true smart home hub.

Echo Show 15 sound quality

We moved to the Amazon Echo Show 15 after a few months of using the smaller and more affordable Echo Dot. To our ear, the overall audio profile coming from the two speakers was similar, and more than loud and clear enough for most users.

We tested the speakers using a broad range of music genres – Foo Fighters, Laura Marling, The Villagers and Radiohead – alongside some Prime shows and movies – Bosch, Reacher and The Fast and the Furious. Bass was fine without being muddy, and the volume went louder than we would ever need it to be in a kitchen.

There’s not too much customisation via touch controls when a movie is playing, and that includes a lack of volume control on the screen. Still, we didn’t have any major complaints here. While the Echo Show 15 is never going to provide a home cinema experience, it’s more than enough for background music or streaming content.

Echo Show 15 set-up and installation

Setting up the Echo Show 15 takes a little longer than the other devices in the series if you decide to physically mount it onto a wall – but luckily it comes with all the parts needed to do so: including a metal mount plate and the necessary screw fixtures.

While you should use a spirit level (not included but there are phone apps for this) to make sure it’s straight, it comes with a paper template so you can identify the best place for it – and that has a guide for both horizontal or portrait hanging.

From there, you drill through the holes in the template then attach the mount using the four screws. At this stage, pop in the power cord (which isn't long so it will need to be close to a socket) and slide the Show 15 onto the metal mounting plate.

Make sure to have a glance around your kitchen and make sure it’s far away enough from cabinet doors or appliances – and we highly advise keeping it around the rough eye level of your family members. Remember that everyone is different heights and you don’t want one person to be forced to awkwardly stretch to use the device.

Software-side installation is as straightforward as ever – especially if you are in the Amazon ecosystem with other devices and subscription services. Note that you will need an Amazon account to sign in, and you should download the Alexa app.

You connect to your home Wi-Fi, set up personal details such as address, name and where the device is located. From there, the Show 15 lets you choose your photo display preferences and goes through a series of software updates if needed.

Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 10: what's the difference?

Both the Echo Show 15 and the Echo Show 10 are the same price, costing £239.99 in the UK at the time of writing. So which one is the best Echo model for you?

First off is appearance. It’s an obvious point, but the Show 15 is designed to be wall-mounted while the Show 10 will sit on your desk, sideboard or countertop. The Show 15 looks like a fancy photo frame, but the Show 10 has a chunkier round body with a more traditional display that’s similar to the Echo Show 5 and the Echo Show 8.

While the new Show 15 offers the Alexa experience on the biggest possible display, the Show 10 has more interesting technology – thanks to Zigbee and a unique mode that automatically tracks your movement to keep the screen in view at all times. The Show 10 has a 10.1-inch display so it’s definitely smaller, but certainly not tiny.

Complimenting the tracking tech on the Echo Show 10 is a much better camera (13 MP) compared to the Show 15’s serviceable but disappointing 5MP set-up. The Show 10 comes in black or white colours, while the Show 15 only has one style.

Here’s the bottom line: If you have the countertop space and are constantly on video calls, buy the Echo Show 10. It has a better camera and will keep you in the frame with its neat tracking mode. If you want an Alexa smart speaker for the entire family with a big screen that can be kept on your wall, the Echo Show 15 is your choice.

Our verdict: should you buy the Echo Show 15?

The Echo Show 15 makes sense in the context of the wider series of Alexa smart speakers and marks a natural evolution by moving the device from the countertop to the wall of your home. It’s got the biggest screen out of all the models available in 2022 so far and works brilliantly as a family planner, video player and digital frame. The device is stylish and is likely to turn the heads of your visitors, especially those who aren’t used to seeing such technology so prominently displayed.

Some aspects, however, could benefit from a bit more refinement – in particular the widget resizing and customisation, general responsiveness and the ability to add more third-party apps and services. The Show 15 is thicker and heavier than you may expect, and it’s a shame that the tilting stand is not included in the box.

While some may see the lack of motion tracking as a downside, we get why it's not included. After all, Amazon has to differentiate it from the Show 10 – although we still would have liked to see Zigbee and a slightly better camera on the Show 15.

If you don’t need a large screen, the Echo Show 8 is much more affordable and has similar capabilities. But with the Echo Show 15, Amazon has made an Alexa-powered family pinboard. We do like the vision. So if you don’t mind paying for the luxury and are a big user of Amazon services, this is a great companion for your home.

Our rating:

• Design: 4.5/5
• Sound quality: 3.5/5
• Ease of set-up: 4/5
• Value for money: 3.5/5

Overall rating: 3.9/5

Where to buy the Echo Show 15

The Amazon Echo Show 15 is priced at £239.99. It was released in the UK on 9th December 2021. The official Tilt Stand is sold separately, costing £29.99.

• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Amazon
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Currys
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at AO
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at John Lewis
• Buy Amazon Echo Show 15 at Argos

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