Which smart display is best for you?

What’s better than a smart speaker? A smart speaker with a screen, of course. Smart displays offer the best of both worlds, allowing you to interact with your voice just like you do with a smart speaker, or listen to your favorite music. However, with a smart display, you can also watch movies, make video calls, or just display your family photos on a loop.

Smart displays also make excellent smart home hubs, allowing you to control smart home devices, but also add useful features, such as the ability to see a live feed from your smart video doorbell when someone rings the bell. Amazon was the company that brought the smart speaker into the mainstream, so it’s no surprise that the company has an excellent range of smart displays, too.

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There are four different size options to choose from; the Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15. As you can probably guess, the numbers refer to the approximate sizes of the screens, in inches. With so many options to choose from, which Echo Show is the right choice for your needs? We took a closer look at each of the models to find the ultimate winner of the title of Best Echo Show.

Best Echo Show devices: Our top choices

Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen, 2023)

1. Best Echo Show overall

Fresh design and the latest connectivity

The latest Echo Show 8 boosts connectivity to make it even better as a smart home hub, while the new design makes it more attractive and it even offers improved audio quality.

Pros

Great design
Boosted audio performance
Fully connected

Cons

Same overall experience as other devices

The latest generation of the Echo Show 8 shifts up the design with a mesh-covered rear that’s nicely sculpted, with spatial audio and adaptive sound that will adjust based on the room it’s placed in. The sound quality is a definite improvement, with the device offering robust performance.

Read our review

Amazon Echo Show 8: Fresh new looks, same Alexa experience

Hitting that sweet spot between size and functionality, the Echo Show 8 is a tempting choice for those with an Alexa smart home.

There’s also an adaptive display feature that will detect how far away the user is and adjust the information density on the display to make it easier to read from across the room. For smart homes, Amazon has added Zigbee support, allowing you to control Zigbee devices from the Echo Show 8 without the need for any additional dongles.

There’s also support for Matter, Sidewalk, and Bluetooth, so the Echo Show 8 makes a good smart home hub, allowing you to control the vast majority of your smart home gadgets using Alexa. In terms of overall sizing, price, and performance, the latest Echo Show 8 is the model we’d recommend for most people.

Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen)

2. Best Echo Show for big rooms

The sound quality is robust

The Echo Show 10 offers great sound quality, while the motion-controlled display makes for a great video-calling experience. It’s accomplished, but it’s expensive, and a little odd looking.

Pros

Best sound quality
Motion-controlled display

Cons

Display resolution
Expensive

The Echo Show 10 is slightly quirky, with a rounded base upon which a display is mounted. The screen can rotate, so it’s ideal for placing it in the center of a room, like your kitchen. The advantage here is that when used for video calling, it can track you around the room, so you’re not limited to staying in one place.

Read our review

Amazon Echo Show 10: Spin doctor

This Echo Show features a rotating base feature so it can follow you during calls. But it’s far pricier than other Show devices, so is it worth it?

As you walk around, the screen, and the camera, will follow you, so you’re always in shot. We’ve found this excellent for video calling, meaning you can make that call while doing something else without being limited to staying in one spot. The Echo Show 10 also has the best speaker performance of all the Echo Show models. This will make music and video sound better, but also brings the price up.

The large base and screen also take up a fair amount of worktop space, and you’ll need to leave a bit of headroom for the screen to rotate. The Echo Show 10 (3rd generation) also comes with Zigbee built in, so it’s another great smart home hub option.

Amazon Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen)

3. Best Echo Show for bedrooms

This compact Show is great for smaller spaces

Fully updated, the new Echo Show 5 offers a refined design and boosted sound over the 2021 model, but it’s still compact and affordable.

Pros

Compact display
Great for the bedside

The Echo Show 5 is the smallest of the Echo Show models, and this means it’s also the most affordable. Now in its third generation, with the most recent model featuring a refined design and improved audio quality, so it’s a little better looking and sounding than it was before. The display is small, so you don’t get the advantages you do from larger Echo Show models.

Read our review

Amazon Echo Show 5 (2021): Alexa for your bedside

Amazon’s smallest smart display gets an update, but who should buy the Echo Show 5?

It’s not a device that you’re likely to want to watch an entire movie on, with a screen that’s smaller than some phones. It’s just about big enough for video calling, although the experience isn’t as good as on the larger models. As an Echo device for a desk or small room, the Echo Show 5 is a decent choice.

It’s also a good option for your nightstand, although it doesn’t offer a huge number of useful features for nighttime use. Still, it’s an affordable route into Echo Show ownership and, despite the lack of Zigbee support, can still be an effective hub for controlling many smart home devices.

Amazon Echo Show 15

4. Best Echo Show for wall-mounting

Slimline for minimal intrusion

The biggest Echo Show is designed for wall mounting and offers Fire TV functions — but it’s expensive, and the sound quality isn’t very good.

Pros

Flat for wall mounting
Fire TV functions

Cons

Poor sound quality
Expensive

The Echo Show 15 is unique in Amazon’s lineup. It has the largest display of all Echo Show models at 15.6 inches and was designed to be wall-mounted, freeing your surfaces. There’s also a camera that will track you, as well as recognize family members to customize the display experience based on who is looking at the screen.

Read our review

Amazon Echo Show 15: Untapped potential

Amazon’s biggest Echo Show boosts the screen size and begs to be wall-mounted. But is it actually any good?

Fire TV is built-in, so it makes a decent small TV for somewhere like a kitchen. However, the sound quality is not great, especially compared to the Echo Show 8 and Show 10. The flat design is also a little less user-friendly than the other models.

It’s fine for mounting onto walls, but it’s not that great for interacting with. And while you might expect it to make an excellent control panel for your smart home, it’s surprisingly limited in this role. If you’re looking for a wall-mounted hub for your smart home, you’re probably better off waiting for the upcoming Echo Hub. For the price, the Echo Show 15 doesn’t make the most of its promise.

Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen)

5. Best Echo Show for less

Older model means lower prices

The Echo Show 8 offers a great compromise between size and price. You get a decent display and good sound quality, but it’s not too large. This model has now been replaced.

Pros

Pan and zoom camera
Good sound quality

Cons

Some Alexa Skills could be better
It’s been replaced by a newer model

If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to dip your toes in the waters of the Echo Show, then you might want to consider looking at one of the older models. The second-generation Echo Show 8 is still available to buy, and since it’s been superseded by the third-generation Echo Show 8, it can be found at significantly lower prices.

Read our review

Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen): Follow you, follow me

The second-generation Echo Show 8 is the best bang for your buck Alexa device with a display. It’s got a much improved camera this time too.

The Echo Show 8 sits in the middle of the Echo Show family, offering a decent-sized display and good sound quality, so it makes a solid choice if the newest Echo Show models feel a little too expensive. There are some significant differences between the second- and third-generation Echo Show 8 models.

You can read an in-depth comparison of the Echo Show 8 (3rd gen) vs Echo Show 8 (2nd gen) but the big takeaways are that the third-gen model has better sound, built-in Zigbee support, and a faster processor. However, the 2nd gen model is still a good smart display for the price.

The bottom line: Which is the best Echo Show?

The third-generation Echo Show 8 is our pick for the best option for most people. It hits the sweet spot in terms of price and features, makes a great smart home hub thanks to Zigbee support, and has decent sound and performance. What’s more, it combines everything in a package that’s not so large that it will dominate a room or eat up worktop space, but can still fill a room with music.