The Best Smart Displays

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.

The built-in smart home hub matters more than it sounds like it should. It means a new bulb, plug or sensor can pair straight to the display instead of to yet another bridge crowding the shelf by your router. PCMag counts more than 140,000 smart home products that work with Alexa. Whatever you end up buying later, the odds are good it'll simply show up on this screen without a project attached.

The adjustable stand in this bundle reads like a throwaway extra, and it isn't. Forty degrees of tilt and a full 360-degree swivel let you angle the screen down toward the cutting board while you chop, then spin it toward the table when a call comes in. On a shelf above eye level, that tilt is the difference between a screen you can read and a mirror.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Alexa+ is the headline, and on this device it arrives through an early access opt-in during or after setup. If you're buying because of the ads, know that you're signing up for software that's still settling in rather than a finished product. The classic Alexa underneath works the way it always has, so you're not stuck if the new one disappoints you.

The camera is serviceable and no better. It's fine for a call with a parent, and owner feedback across the Echo Show line consistently points at dim rooms as the weak spot. The home screen also keeps suggesting content and products you never asked about. You can prune what appears there, but you can't switch the suggestions off completely.

Eleven inches doesn't sound like a big jump from eight. In practice it changes what the display is for. Recipe type gets large enough to read from the sink. A show is genuinely watchable while you do the dishes. A video call fills the frame instead of parking a small head in the middle of a small screen. This is the one to get if the display is going to be the thing you look at, not just glance at.

The included stand is what makes a screen this size livable. You get the same 40-degree tilt and 360-degree swivel as our top pick, so the screen can face the stove while you cook and the kitchen table a few seconds later. Fixed displays this big make you choose one seat in the room and live with that choice forever. Being able to spin it costs you nothing and saves you constantly.

Everything else lines up with the Echo Show 8. Same Full-HD touchscreen, same built-in smart home hub, same room-filling spatial audio, same Alexa+ pitch. The real difference is that a larger cabinet gives the drivers more air to move, so music and dialogue sound fuller. If you already know you want a bigger screen, you're not giving up any features to get one.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's a new model, so there's much less owner feedback out there than for Amazon's long-running sizes. Long-term reliability is harder to judge on a display that hasn't been in kitchens for years. Nothing in the specs raises a flag, but a first-run device is a first-run device.

It also takes real counter depth, and that's the whole trade. If your counters are already crowded or you're putting this on a nightstand, the smaller Echo Show 8 is the safer buy. The camera and the promotional home screen are the same as on our top pick, so the bigger screen doesn't fix either complaint.

This is the one you buy when the family calendar keeps falling apart. The widget layout puts everyone's schedule, the shopping list and the weather on one screen at eye level, so nobody has to open an app to find out who has practice. Hung by the back door or above the counter, it does the job a paper wall calendar used to do, and it actually stays current.

Fire TV is built in, and it changes how much you use the thing. Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube and Apple TV run right on the panel, and Amazon includes a remote in the box, so you're not shouting at it to pause. RTINGS measured peak brightness on the Echo Show 15 at around 400 nits, which is plenty for a kitchen with the lights on and the blinds up.

The camera is a step up from the smaller displays too. It centers and auto-frames you, with a wide field of view, 3.3x zoom and noise reduction on the audio. CNET reported that auto-framing on Amazon's rotating display cut the need to manually reposition yourself during calls by roughly 60%, and the idea here is the same one without the motor. You can walk to the fridge mid-call and stay in the picture.

It's also a proper smart home dashboard rather than an afterthought. Tapping through lights, plugs and live camera feeds on a 15-inch panel is far less fiddly than doing it on a phone in the dark. If you've already got Ring or Blink cameras, checking the driveway becomes a glance instead of an unlock, an app launch and a wait.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's nearly five pounds and just over 16 inches wide, so mounting it is a real project. You need a stud, a mount and an outlet somewhere you don't mind seeing a cord, and none of that is included. Plenty of owners end up putting it on a stand instead, which mostly defeats the point.

As a TV it's adequate and no more. The panel is 1080p and the sound is kitchen sound, so movie night stays in the living room. And this is the most expensive display we recommend, which is hard to justify unless the family-hub part is the reason you're buying.

Once you pass twenty or so smart devices, the phone app stops being convenient. You're scrolling and searching to turn off a lamp. The Echo Hub fixes that by putting your favorites on a fixed panel by the door, so leaving the house is one tap instead of a hunt. The Verge notes it can show and control up to 50 favorited devices on a single dashboard.

Its radio support is the reason it outlasts your current gear. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, Thread and Sidewalk devices all pair to the built-in hub, and Amazon counts more than 140,000 compatible products. Matter matters here: The Verge counts over 550 device types now supporting the standard, up from roughly 190 at launch. Whatever brand of lock or sensor you buy next, this panel is likely to speak its language.

It doubles as a security keypad, which is the part people don't expect. You can arm and disarm a Ring system from the wall like an old alarm panel, and pull up compatible cameras, locks and sensors to check on things before bed. If you've been meaning to put a control panel by the front door, this is the closest thing to a plug-in version.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There's no camera, so you can't take a video call on it. That's deliberate, and it's a point in its favor if a lens on the wall bothers you, but it means the Echo Hub can't be your only display if calls matter.

Installation is the real cost. It wall mounts anywhere you have an outlet or power over ethernet, but Amazon recommends in-wall cable pass-throughs or a PoE adapter, and both are sold separately. Done properly it's an afternoon with a drywall saw. This bundle includes a tabletop stand, which gets you running the same day and looks a lot less tidy.