Amazon Echo Show 5 (newest model), Smart display with 2x the bass and clearer sound, Charcoal

Small But Mighty – The Best Echo Show Yet!
I recently upgraded to the newest Echo Show 5, and I’m genuinely impressed with how much Amazon has packed into this compact smart display.Better Sound, Noticeably More BassThe first thing I noticed was the sound quality. Compared to earlier versions, this model delivers clearer vocals and twice the bass, which really makes music and even Alexa’s responses sound fuller and more enjoyable. For a device this size, it really packs a punch.

Beautiful Baby with Fantastic Accessibility Features!
I swear I already wrote a review with photos and a video, but here we are! I LOVE This little beast. I have Echo Dots in my bedroom, bathroom, and guest room, but I needed access to my Smart Home features from my desk. I am disabled and my mornings are very rough. I wanted a screen to occasionally watch videos or see a better display of the weather. Listed are some accessibility features that I love. I have FND, Functional Neurological Disorder, which involves some speech processing and speaking delay. Only occasionally, but enough that I need accommodations to function better. These features make this little echo an excellent companion to any disabled or elderly human you know. We need any and all strategies to function in a culture that sees disability as a personal failure. I am loving it so far! The screen is clear, vibrant, and responsive. I can dim it quickly (I have severe neurological photophobia) and it responds well to my voice. I have no complaints and have been using it for over 2 months. Waited until it went on sale for about $68.live captionsreduced speaking ratetap screen to interactadaptive listening – life changing!!more time to respond

Awesome Value for the Price
The Echo Show 5 gives you a lot for such a small price tag. It’s perfect for a nightstand or desk, with great sound and a surprisingly sharp screen. Alexa works flawlessly, and it even works as a smart alarm clock. Can’t beat the value for what you’re getting.

Poor functionality
AMAZON you have false advertising! You deprecated features in the newest release that aren’t depicted in your advertising! Your video show this device with a large clock face which isn’t there and has been confirmed it is no longer a feature by your own technical support on 07/10/2025.So I was really excited to receive this Echo Show 5 3rd gen (newest model) as I saw all the cool things it could do on the internet. I decided to “upgrade” my older echo dots with them which I though had good sound quality but I could get all these other cool options with the Show 5.However after receiving the newest 3rd gen Show 5s, and spending a bunch of time looking for all those options, I ended up calling technical support to see why I was having problems finding them. Turns out on the “newest model” (I purchased these on 07/2025) they deprecated a bunch of cool functionality. Not sure why they decided to do this.One example is there is no more CLOCK Mode! Yep they got rid of the large clock setting. So those instructions to go to Home Content and toggle the the clock display option is no longer available. As this is a 5″ screen (your smart phone has a bigger screen than this device) the clock that it has in the upper right hand corner is about 1 centimeter in size (see photos).Next the display is really slow to respond to touch inputs, so slow that you end up tapping menu items two or three times, then it catches up and applies those taps to the following menus. This is super frustrating. Also even after you successfully get to an area in the menu you want, scrolling and screen refresh is super slow too.So why buy this device over an Echo Spot that has a large cool clock? Well it has a photo frame that rotates your photos and a camera for face timing. Unfortunately these features are poorly executed on this device.The photos I’ve uploaded to this review show the types of things it rotates into the picture carousel. I went into the settings even and tried to turn everything off that I could as it was even show various products from Amazon.com that Amazon thought I might want. So many other things like news stories, weather, products, new movies, amazon hints and the like rotate into the picture carousel that I seldom saw my pictures when I looked at the device. Also like a need to buy a device that forces product placement in my home. I hate that it does this!As far as the camera, well sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. When it works it shows a large blue banner across the top (see the photos) which takes up one third of the screen. It does not go away and it stays there as long as the video feed is on. So using the camera to check to see if your teenage kids are misbehaving, using it as a nanny cam or “spying” as they call it, wont work on these devices.Next, when it begins to get dark in the house these devices dim to the point that you can’t see them. There are setting to fix this but its all or none, meaning they stay bright or go dim. They need to have motion sensors or something so when it detects movement they brighten up and when no one is in the room they go dim. However this isn’t an option.Security association for the camera isn’t available either. So in you Alexa settings you can have a Ring camera or other type of camera act as a security device which triggers things when a person or sound is detected, which is a pretty cool function. However the camera on the Show 5 doesn’t allow for this in the Alexa app.The sound for music is good, but it’s not better than my Echo Dot 3rd gen, Echo Dot 4th gen, or Echo Pop. The Show 5 3rd gen has some versatility over those devices, but to me it’s not worth it. I DON’T NEED PRODUCT PLACEMENT ON A DEVICE I PURCHASE! To me it’s versatility is as a clock or a nanny cam both of which it is not. I’ll be returning my Show 5’s and keeping my previous Echo devices.

This home assistant is excellent. You can use it for a variety of applications. It makes a great hub for Alexa approved security products. I however returned it because they had one paired with a Blink camera which was a better value. Regardless I highly recommend it.

It does what it advertises. I’m very happy with the product.!😁

The stand is a no brainer as it allows the screen to be easily seen especially in the dark.