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Amazon Echo Show 5 Smart Display with Alexa Review: Is It Worth It?
Alexa with a screen — a kitchen-counter assistant that shows recipes, video-calls grandma, runs the smart home and replaces your nightstand alarm clock.
Illustrative image — see Amazon for the actual product.
Our verdict
If you want one device that anchors your smart home, plays music, runs your alarm, shows your recipes and video-calls family, the Echo Show 5 is the easiest and cheapest way in. Most people who hesitate on smart speakers end up loving the screen.
The short version
The Echo Show 5 is the model most people actually want — bedside-clock sized, perfect for a kitchen counter or office desk, and far cheaper than the bigger Show 8 or Show 10. You get everything Alexa does (timers, weather, music, smart-home control, shopping lists) plus a screen that shows recipes step-by-step, runs video calls with family, displays a rotating photo frame, and replaces a traditional alarm clock with a sunrise-style wake. For most households this is the easiest, most useful single smart-home device you can buy.
Pros & cons
Pros
- Compact 5.5-inch screen fits anywhere
- Built-in alarm clock with sunrise wake
- Video calls with other Echo Show users and the Alexa app
- Doubles as a digital photo frame
- Runs full Alexa — smart home, music, shopping lists
- Adjustable physical camera shutter for privacy
Cons
- Speaker is small — not a replacement for an Echo Studio
- Needs Wi-Fi to do most of what makes it useful
- Some features push Amazon services hard
Why people love it
Set it on a counter or nightstand
Plug it in, connect to your Wi-Fi and sign in with your Amazon account — setup takes a few minutes.
Talk or tap
Ask Alexa anything you'd ask a speaker, but now you also see the answer, the recipe step or the security-cam feed on screen.
It quietly takes over
Set it as your alarm clock, your kitchen recipe screen, your photo frame and your video-call hub — and it earns its counter space.
Who it's for
- Kitchen counters and recipe-followers
- Bedside alarm-clock and sleep routine
- Grandparents who want simple video calls
- Anyone with smart bulbs and plugs to control
Echo Show 5 vs Echo Show 8 vs Google Nest Hub: which to buy
The Echo Show 5 is the bestseller because it's small enough to disappear into any room — bedside table, kitchen counter, desk corner — at a price that doesn't make you think twice. The Show 8 is the more pleasing all-rounder if you want a bigger recipe screen in the kitchen or a real video-call surface, and the speaker is meaningfully louder. The Show 10 is overkill for most homes; its rotating screen is impressive but the price is hard to justify against the Show 8.
Against the Google Nest Hub, the choice comes down to which voice assistant your home runs on. Alexa shoppers, especially those with other Echo devices, smart plugs and Fire TVs, should stay in the Echo Show family for the tightest integration. Google-household shoppers (Pixel phones, Nest cameras, Chromecast) get a smoother experience from the Nest Hub. The Echo Show 5 has the edge on price and on the number of compatible third-party smart-home devices, which is the biggest reason it tops Amazon's smart-display category.
What can you actually do with an Echo Show all day?
The everyday wins are surprisingly mundane and surprisingly sticky. In the kitchen: 'Alexa, set a 12-minute timer' shows a visible countdown next to whatever recipe is on screen, and 'show me a chicken parmesan recipe' walks you through steps you can swipe. In the morning: a flash briefing reads the headlines, the weather and your commute while you eat breakfast. On the nightstand: sunrise alarms, sleep sounds and the gradual-dim clock face.
Beyond that, the photo-frame mode is the single feature people say turned them from neutral to fans — when nothing else is happening, the screen quietly cycles family photos from your Amazon Photos or Prime library. Add smart-home shortcuts (turn off all the lights with one button), Drop In as a low-friction baby monitor or intercom, and the daily Amazon shopping list visible on screen, and the device earns its spot. The mistake is treating it like a tablet — it's a glanceable assistant, not a content-consumption device.
Echo Show privacy: camera, mic and what Amazon collects
The Echo Show has both a microphone array and a small camera, so the privacy questions are real. Amazon's built-in safeguards include a physical slide-over camera shutter that mechanically covers the lens, a mic-off button that electrically disconnects the microphone with a red LED indicator, and a settings panel where you can review and delete all voice recordings. By default the device only streams audio to Amazon after it detects the 'Alexa' wake word — the wake-word detection happens locally on the device.
If you want to lock things down further, you can turn off the use of voice recordings to improve Amazon's services in the Alexa app, set automatic deletion of voice history (3, 18 or 'never store'), disable Drop In entirely so no one can connect to your camera without you answering, and require a PIN for voice purchases. The camera shutter and mic-off button are the two physical controls worth using as a habit in bedrooms or any private space.
See Echo Show 5 on Amazon
Check the latest price, photos and buyer reviews on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon →Sold and shipped by AmazonFrequently asked questions
What's the difference between Echo Show 5, Show 8 and Show 10?
The number is the screen size in inches. The Show 5 (5.5") is bedside or kitchen-counter sized and the cheapest. The Show 8 (8") is the sweet spot for a kitchen or office with a noticeably better speaker. The Show 10 (10") is the largest, and its screen physically rotates to follow you around the room during video calls. For most people the Show 5 is plenty; for cooking or video calls, the Show 8 is the upgrade.
Can I use the Echo Show as a baby or pet monitor?
Yes — you can use the Drop In feature to instantly open a video and audio connection between two Echo Show devices in the same household. Many people put one in a nursery or playroom and Drop In from another room or phone via the Alexa app. The physical camera shutter is useful when you're not actively using it as a monitor.
Does the Echo Show 5 work as an alarm clock?
It's one of the most popular use cases. The clock face is large and dimmable, you can set tap-to-snooze, and there's a sunrise alarm feature that gradually brightens the screen to wake you more gently. With a smart bulb in the bedroom you can chain a full sunrise routine to it.
Is the Echo Show always listening or recording?
It only sends audio to the cloud after it hears the wake word (Alexa by default). There's a physical mic-mute button on top that electrically disconnects the mic, and a slide-over camera shutter. You can review and delete voice recordings in the Alexa app, and tell Alexa 'delete what I just said' or 'delete everything I said today' as voice commands.
Can I make video calls to non-Echo users?
Yes — you can video-call anyone who has the Alexa app installed on their phone or another Echo Show device, and skill-based integrations let you make Zoom, Skype and Amazon Chime calls too. The 'Drop In' feature is for household-to-household within Echo Show only and is the simplest way for grandparents to reach a young grandkid without dialing.
Does the Echo Show 5 work without Wi-Fi?
No — virtually every useful feature, from voice queries to music to smart-home control, relies on a Wi-Fi connection to Amazon's cloud. The basic clock display continues to show the time during a short outage, but the device is built around a constant internet connection.
As an Amazon Associate, TopCrate earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. The image above is illustrative; price, availability and current ratings are shown on Amazon and are subject to change.
