Image Credits: www.techadvisor.co.uk

Highlights

• Big responsive touch screen
• Powerful Audio
• Friendly and Attractive design
• Compact Size
• Entry-Level Price

Introduction

Amazon launched its 2nd Generation of echo show which feels like a more sleeker, louder, and features loads of new touch-screen features, all for the same price of its 1st generation echo show. Moreover, it also addresses nearly all of the issues with its original model, with the promise of even more useful features in the future. Let’s find more about this Amazon’s latest echo product.

Price

The 2nd generation of Echo show is priced at same $229 tag or ₹ 22,999 in India. This also makes it the most expensive echo product by Amazon. Though the best time to buy this will be the frequent Amazon’s sale events where you can easily get a nice discount for the echo show.

Design

In terms of design, the 1st generation echo show was nothing flashy. It was all sharp edges surrounded by black plastic which was easily prone to fingerprints smudges and generally boasted an uninspired look. Though the 2nd generation of Echo Show has an all-screen front with thick black bezels and speakers have been shifted to the back. This has made the Echo Show 17mm thicker than its predecessor, this way it gets more real estate for the display and speakers. Overall it looks like a futuristic mini television, that rests on your desk with that hump on its back.

Display

Since Amazon has moved the placement of its speaker, the new echo show with 1280 x 800 resolution looks much more like a miniature flat-screen TV. Moreover, the colours are now more bright and vivid which also makes the overall viewing experience nice. Furthermore, I think we can expect a sharper display in the future since technology is rapidly getting better.

Sound

Amazon Echo Show features upgraded side-firing speakers which can fill a room with sound quite easily. The music is louder and clearer than any Amazon speaker so far. The echo show also displays the song lyrics while playing the music which is a pretty handy feature. Moreover, since Amazon has partnered with Dolby, therefore you can be sure that the sound will be quite good with its 10.1 inch HD screen.

Features

Aside from the new display and audio, the Intel Atom-based Echo Show has a few other new specs and software enhancements of note. You can also access those smart home devices directly with a swipe on the display. Furthermore, there also and 5 MP camera for HD video calling. You can also use Skype aside from directly using Amazon’s built-in video calling interface for echo devices. Apart from that there total eight microphones on the Echo Show which makes it more responsive to your voice commands. The 2nd generation echo show also comes with the browser so browsing google and YouTube is now possible. Besides this, the Amazon prime video content is also available at your fingertips which is quite useful. Overall the new Echo Show now comes with beefier sound and a larger display than the original. Though I think there is still a room for improvement in terms of its sound quality and its software part too. But nonetheless, the new Echo Show is well-poised to be the essential kitchen device if you’re an Amazon and Alexa devotee.

Key Specifications –

• Screen
 – 10 inch, 1280 x 800 resolution
• Processor
 – Intel Atom x5-Z8350
• Memory
 – 64/128 GB, 6 GB RAM
• Camera – 5 MP
• Microphone
 – 8 Microphones in-total
• Sound
 – Dual 2” neodymium drivers & passive bass radiator

Image Source: news.samsung.com

Highlights

• 8K Videos Support
• Massive 85-inch display
• Incredible brightness and colour
• Wide Viewing Angle
• Great local dimming and dark room performance

The Samsung Q900R is a high-end TV. It is the first 8k TV to enter the market and is currently just above Samsung’s 4k flagship, the Samsung Q90R. Though in the era where people are just starting to get the grip of 4K, we already have the world’s first 8K TV. In the US, it’s available in an 85-inch variant and soon will also be available in a new 98-inch variant.

Price

Samsung’s new range of QLED 8K TVs will be priced at ₹ 10,99,900 and ₹ 16,99,900 for 75-inch (189 cm), and 82-inch (207 cm) variants respectively. Moreover, according to Samsung, it will also be soon available in 2 more sizes (65 and 98 inches) as well. This new 8K TV will also have approximately 4x the current resolution of 4K TV and 16 times the resolution of Full HD TV.

Design

As far as its design, for all its astonishing, cutting-edge features, this TV isn’t much to look at in design terms, It’s just a thin dark frame wrapped around an 85-inch screen with a pair of king-sized feet tucked under each bottom corner. Furthermore, I am impressed as of how Samsung kept its design minimalistic by putting all its connection in a ‘One Connect’ Box that jacks into the TV via a single, surprisingly slender cable.

Display

With more than 33 million pixels, Samsung QLED 8K Q950R gives you amazing pixel-less viewing experience. This also makes the picture performance so much sharper and looks much more detailed with sub-8K content. A big part of this achievement goes to its upscaling being even better than that of the Q900Rs. The upgraded 4K chip in the upscaling chain delivers a marked boost in sharpness and detail with all sub-8K sources. In other words, its upscaling abilities allows SD, FHD and 4K videos, bring closer to its near 8K resolution but also improve contrast and image quality at the same time. This all was made possible due to Samsung’s machine learning approach with an intelligent algorithm to learn the difference between edges and lines as well as handle movement and remove potential blur.

Sound Quality

The sound quality of the Samsung Q900 is decent. It can get fairly loud, which is good for most use cases and will deliver well-balanced dialogues. However, the TV lacks bass, so it won’t be able to produce any thump or punch. Though it delivers a wide soundstage, at least, and positions effects quite accurately within that soundstage. Notwithstanding the way, those effects always sound like they’re slightly behind the on-screen action. Therefore additional sound-bars will be highly recommended.

Overall at this point, this is the future of Television industry and perhaps at this point, there is still a long way to go for the people to afford this expensive technological product. However being optimistic, TVs do get cheaper over time so therefore we can see more competitors entering this market niche soon, which will be a win-win situation for all.

Image Credits (Apple.com)

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