Amazon Echo Show 8 (2025 release) with Amazon Adjustable Stand | Graphite

Why it's worth it

The Echo Show 8 lands on the size most people actually want: big enough to follow a recipe from a few feet back, small enough to sit beside the toaster. You get a Full-HD-class touchscreen, a built-in smart home hub, spatial audio and Amazon's faster AZ3 Pro chip.

An 8.7-inch screen is the sweet spot for a counter. You can read a recipe while you stir, check the calendar on your way out the door, and still leave room for the knife block. Bigger displays make you give up counter depth or drill into a wall. Smaller ones make you lean in and squint. If you're only buying one of these, this is the size that gets in your way the least.

Sound is where the recent Echo Shows quietly got better. TechRadar measured roughly a 25% improvement in bass response on the third-generation Echo Show 8 over the model before it, and this redesign adds room-filling spatial audio on top of that. It still won't replace a real speaker. But music in the kitchen stops sounding like a phone lying face-up on a plate, and that's the bar most of us are setting.

From our review of 6 smart displays

What we like

• +An 8.7-inch screen is the sweet spot for a counter
• +Sound is where the recent Echo Shows quietly got better
• +The built-in smart home hub matters more than it sounds like it should
• +The adjustable stand in this bundle reads like a throwaway extra, and it isn't

What to know

• –Alexa+ is the headline, and on this device it arrives through an early access opt-in during or after setup
• –The camera is serviceable and no better