Amazon Glow

On October 5, 2022, Amazon announced it would discontinue the Amazon Glowdiscontinue the Amazon Glow due to low sales. Amazon public relations told PCMag, "Amazon is encouraging everyone to recycle the Amazon Glow device and accessories through the Amazon Recycling ProgramAmazon Recycling Program. Note, Amazon covers costs associated with shipping and recycling devices and accessories."

Not to be confused with the $29.99 Echo Glow lamp, the $299.99 Amazon Glow is a tabletop entertainment system that projects games and activities onto a touch-friendly mat. Between the Glow’s video calling screen and its large, interactive mat, kids can read books, draw pictures, or play games with friends and relatives no matter where they are. Although it's fun to use and we like the variety of activities available, the Glow requires a decent amount of free space, as well as a subscription in order to use it. That said, it was a big hit with my nearly four-year-old son, who would usually rather be watching PAW Patrol, but had a blast with the Glow.

What's in the Box?

Before we get started, we should note that although it's designed for children three and up, Amazon places a warning on the box for the Glow, stating that it isn't a toy. As much fun as the Glow is for kids—and it shouldn't require a lot of supervision, in theory—it's still a big electronic device. Plus, the setup process, while no worse than for any other smart device that needs access to your Wi-Fi network, is not child-friendly.

Included in the box are only three items: a power cord, a rolled-up rubbery white mat with an embossed Amazon smile logo in the upper right for orientation, and the somewhat monolithic-looking Glow device. The mat measures 18.2 by 12.1 by 0.04 inches (HWD), with a notch centered at the top where you set the Glow, which itself measures 5.6 by 5.4 by 14.2 inches and weighs just over 3.5 pounds.

The projection from the Glow is 19.2 inches, leaving about a one-inch "bezel" around the outside of the mat. Amazon doesn't list a resolution for the projection, probably because it's not going to measure up to modern screens by any means. That said, it's no worse than a lot of older tablets. But even with the white mat, the brightness can be an issue on a sunny day or in a brightly lit room.

The Glow unit not only projects the interface onto the mat, it has a 10W speaker in the base and an array of four microphones at the top (the mics don't work with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant). Its front-facing and downward-facing cameras are both 720p; the front camera has a physical privacy shutter that also deactivates the mics.

The front display is an 8-inch 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution touch screen in portrait layout, emphasizing its use for video chat. You tap it to activate calls and touch it again to access buttons to hang up. If you're not on a call, it can be used to view details about the device and the network it's on.

Setting Up the Glow

To get going, scan the QR code in the device's quick start guide to download the Amazon Glow app for either Android or iOS (a phone or tablet is required). You can also buy the Glow bundled with an Amazon Fire HD 10 for an additional $80.

Once you sign in to your Amazon account via the Glow app, it asks if you want to "Set up my Amazon Glow device" or "Connect with someone who has a device." For the former, the Glow connects to your tablet via Bluetooth, after which you enter your Wi-Fi password and wait a few minutes for it to download and install software updates. Once those updates are installed, the Glow shows a startup animation on the screen, and with a push of the power button, begins projecting on the mat. Since my son was already listed as part of my Amazon Household on Prime, his name came right up as the primary user.

After this process, I received the following message: "An active Kids+ subscription is required to view games and activities." I wasn't able to activate the one-year trial that Amazon bundles with the Glow via the tablet app. Instead, I had to go through my computer to Amazon.com and activate the free trial there. Once the trial expires, Kids+ costs $2.99 per month. If you don't get Kids+, you can still buy a few Glow-compatible ebooks, but you really won't be taking advantage of what the product offers.

This activation process took well over two hours to figure out, but I'll chalk it up to the fact that I tested an early version of the Glow experience. Still, I recommend you set up the Glow without the kid(s) at home, especially if they get antsy waiting to be entertained.

Make sure the Glow has a tabletop surface with enough space—the mat plus the Glow requires an area of at least 17 inches around, and the projection is 19.2 inches. The power adapter cord is 6.6 feet, which is long enough for kids, pets, and adults to trip over and yank the Glow right to the ground. Amazon must have considered this distinct possibility, as it offers a two-year free replacement guarantee. Because I had to move Glow back and forth from the kitchen table a lot, I wish it had a built-in handle on top.

Another potential thorn you may encounter with the setup process is getting long-distance relatives to participate in the fun. You can invite anyone via the Glow app to download the app on their tablet, but they won't be able to use it without signing into an Amazon account. That's fine for tech-savvy loved ones, but trying to walk anyone else through the hoops of an Amazon sign-in that includes CAPTCHAs can be maddeningly frustrating.

Projector Play

My testing buddy, Paxton, took one look at the Amazon Glow set up in his usual dining spot and said, "Let's go play with it!"

Hitting the power button on the side brings the dormant Glow projector to life instantly from standby—there's no waiting for it to boot up, or else he'd have been reaching for the remote. The actual boot time after powering down is 35 seconds.

The appeal of Glow is that whatever is projected on the mat is sensitive to touch, much like if the child had a giant tablet on the table in front of them. It's similar to Microsoft's old Surface coffee table that was discontinued in 2017. The white mat is key to visibility unless you have an ultra-white table surface. It's easy to wipe clean.

You interact with the Glow in two main ways. The touch screen on the front is for managing video calls, but kids will mostly use the mat. Some games and activities limit you to using one finger at a time, while others let you go crazy; I was drawing with six fingers at one point. The key is to make sure that the projector can tell what a fingertip is and isn't. Sometimes when Pax reached across the mat and obscured everything with his whole arm, the Glow wouldn't respond. The same thing happened when he rested an elbow on a different part of the screen during a game that could only handle one input. To a large extent, kids have to train themselves to work around these limitations.

On the mat, kids gets shelves full of activities to choose from, with headings such as Featured, Games, Art, and Books. That last category lets remote video callers read an ebook to your child as they follow along, or listen as the kid reads to them. The collection of Kids+ books is part of the "10,000 kid-friendly movies, TV shows & books tailored for children 3 to 12 years old" you get with your subscription. When you read any ebooks on the Kids+ app on a tablet (or even on a smartphone) using the same Amazon account, those books will then appear on the Glow's shelf. Or you can use the magnifying glass and search bar on the Glow projection to search for books. The movies/shows you watch in the Kids+ app do not appear on the Glow—the device isn't meant for passive viewing.

Games include two-player classics like checkers and chess (with tutorials for budding Bobby Fishers), which you can play with people in the room or over the internet, plus jigsaw puzzles, Spaceman (a less morbid version of Hangman), and other titles that kids can play alone. The Art section has a drawing pad (for use alone or with others) and games like Connect the Dots.

Several of the Glow games require a remote connection with a loved one, such as ABC Bubbles, Crazy Eights, Cup Shuffle, Go Fish, Slap Jack, and more. The only option to play those games with someone in the house is for the second participant to grab a tablet and sit far enough away to avoid audio distortion.

The Glow also has activities that feature popular characters and toys. Disney, Mattel (Barbie and Hot Wheels), Nickelodeon (Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants), and Sesame Workshop (Elmo, Cookie Monster, and pals) all get a spot. Most of these games are variations on the activities mentioned above, but with characters embedded—Lightning McQueen from Cars in a jigsaw puzzle, for example. If your kid prefers others ("Where's Chase?" my son, a PAW Patrol die-hard, asked), well, tough, unless you find a Kids+ ebook about them.

All of the above games and apps are part of Amazon Kids+ and many are exclusive to the Glow. The collection isn't huge, which means some kids may get bored, but hopefully, the options will continue to expand. Conversely, if a kid has a favorite option on the board, I'd like the ability to bookmark or save it for easy access.

For an extra $29.99, Amazon bundles geometric playing pieces called Tangram Bits with the Glow. Tangram is a 100-plus-year-old type of dissection puzzle based on seven polygons (one square, five triangles of various sizes, and one parallelogram) that can be used to make various shapes in what seem to be infinite combinations. The Glow puts them to good use in a puzzle game that projects the outline of a shape that the child (and their remote pal) can fill with the Bits; the projector tracks the Bits using the dots in the corners of each piece. You can play the game cooperatively or compete to see who finishes first.

In Paxton's favorite variation of this game, we used the projector to go to a dinosaur island and make dino-shapes out of the Bits. Then, we watched the dinosaurs animate to life after we swept the pieces off the mat.

In addition to making Tangram dinos, Pax and I read an animated Toy Story ebook with his Mimi on the video screen following along, her face occasionally obscured by animations that cleverly jumped to the upper screen; he and Mimi played checkers (Pax's first attempt, but he got kinged three times); and we assembled lots of digital jigsaw puzzles. His favorite thing of all is probably the drawing app, not because of the art-making (which you can take digital snapshots of to save on the Glow, but can't share), but because he loves the noisy, animated vacuums that suck up the art for erasure.

Interactive Entertainment

I initially feared that my TV-addicted kid wouldn't take to the Amazon Glow's interactive experience. While he did tend to peter out after a couple of hours of play, at any lull in his other activities, he asked about "playing vacuum" or "making puzzles" again with the Glow, so we got back to it.

The Glow's $300 price plus the requirement of a subscription (and the need for a phone or tablet) seems a little steep. If the Glow was more affordable—say $150—it would be an absolute must-have, especially if you can put together a roster of remote family and friends who are willing to play. Even so, I hope that Amazon continues to fill out the Glow’s catalog of activities and opens the app to smartphones, which will help make it more versatile and worth the asking price.