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The adoption rate of smart home products is on the rise in India, and Amazon clearly wants to the leader in the space. It already sells a number of smart home devices in the country, including the Echo Dot, Echo Spot, Echo Input and Echo Plus. Now, the Seattle-based company has launched the Echo Show for the first time in India.
The second-generation Echo Show, originally announced at Amazon’s hardware event last year, is essentially a smart display for watching content as well as controlling your home. This is an improved version of the original Echo Show, which never made available in India.
The new Echo Show has a large 10-inch HD touchscreen that makes it suitable for watching videos. In-line with other smart home devices, the Echo show has a modern design, thanks to its fabric design. Plus, there’s a 5MP camera in the top of the screen, which can be used for hands-free Echo-to-Echo video calls.
Also read: Amazon Echo Show first impressions
It also comes with more powerful stereo sound consisting of dual 2-inch drivers, a passive bass radiator, and Dolby processing. The device also has eight microphones with far-field technology and is compatible with Zigbee devices. Like the Echo Plus, the Show can now control some smart home devices directly, rather than having to have a separate hub.
The Echo Show is controlled primarily through Alexa voice assistant that works with other Echo devices as well. The plus point of owning a Echo device is always the ability to control connected lights and other appliances.
Amazon has added support for web browsers, including its own Silk browser and Firefox. There is no YouTube or Netflix support, although you can take advantage of a built-in Firefox web browser to get access to these services. Thankfully, Amazon is adding support for Skype that will allow users to make calls directly on the Echo Show. As always, you can play music from Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, Hungama Music, Gaana or TuneIn.
At Rs 22,999, the second-generation Echo Show isn’t cheap. Remember – it’s the only smart display available in India. Google also has a similar device in the form of Home Hub, but the device is yet to launch in India. But to sweeten the deal, Amazon is bundling a free Philip Hue Hub at no extra cost with every purchase of the Echo Sho (2nd gen). Launch offers include Rs 2,000 cashback on purchase of the new Echo Show via Citibank debit and credit cards. Plus, you can own a Echo Show for as low as Rs 1,917 per month via No-cost EMI across leading banks.
