Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After wavering between a 4 or 5 star rating, I decided on a 4 star, but a "solid" 4 due to the reasons below. It essentially is a smart alarm clock (like the Spot) with a much better speaker. Unboxing the Echo Show 5, it immediately looked and felt less substantial than the Echo Spot. It is light with a plastic screen giving a down-market feel, but at $40 less, I guess it is. Set up was fairly straight forward (on the device, not in the Alexa app) and then on to the tutorial. The screen (while cheap looking/feeling as mentioned) is the size of a now standard smart phone in panoramic mode but with far fewer pixels. This gives it more functionality than the Spot, but it still feels “small” as a smart home device in a world of 5.7 plus inch phones. If you’ve ever had a Nucleus Intercom (which Amazon supported and then copied), you will be very familiar with the plastic feel/look of the Show 5. I took advantage of the buy two offer for the discount and then applied two more discounts after trading in a couple of Spots. Would I do it again? I am unsure. If buying a device new, the new Show 5 is a no brainer over the Spot (which will eventually go away), due to the better screen size, better speaker and significant price difference. If considering a trade in or trade up, definitely look for a discount or wait to see what Prime Day has to offer, as just the “feel” of the device will make you question your decision. At this point, we are up to 14+ Alexa devices in our house/cars, so have gotten quite critical of every little device Amazon decides to roll out. But hey, what do I know? I’m a person who sent back two Gen 2 Echo Show’s and ordered refurbed 1st Gen Shows due to what I thought was a horrible bass sound from the new units. Again, for a first time user or as an add on (not replacement), it can’t be beat at its price.