We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use.

Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen, 2021)

Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen, 2021 Release)

Just the right mix of price, size, and features

4.5 Excellent
Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen, 2021 Release) - Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen, 2021) (unknown)
4.5 Excellent

Bottom Line

Amazon's second-generation Echo Show 8 smart display offers just the right balance of price, performance, and size, with an updated camera for an even better video chat and home security experience.
  • Pros

    • Bright, colorful screen
    • Powerful audio for the size
    • Higher-resolution camera than previous model
    • Digital pan and zoom
  • Cons

    • Very few changes aside from camera

Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen, 2021) Specs

Bluetooth
Physical Connections None
Screen Resolution 1,280 by 800 pixels
Screen Size 8
Voice Control Amazon Alexa

Editors' Note: There is a new version of the Echo Show 8 available. See our review of the Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Generation).

The original Echo Show 8 has been one of our favorite smart displays since it came out two years ago, thanks to a nearly perfect balance of strong audio performance for the size, a bright and colorful screen, and loads of useful Alexa voice control and smart home features for a reasonable price. It remains good enough that Amazon has changed very little in the second-generation model, which sells for the same $129.99 as the original. The second-gen Echo Show 8 looks and sounds identical to its predecessor, with only the camera for video chat and home monitoring receiving an upgrade. It isn't quite as impressive as the motorized tracking camera on the $249.99 Echo Show 10, but the Echo Show 8 costs nearly half the price, making it the best value in the smart display market and our Editors' Choice winner.


Nearly Unchanged Inside and Out

The second-generation Echo Show 8 is physically identical to the first one, measuring 5.4 by 7.9 by 3.9 inches (HWD), with a vaguely triangular side profile that tilts the 8-inch screen back slightly like an easel.

The screen has a half-inch frame, completely flush with the LCD, with a camera in the top right corner. The top edge sports pinhole cutouts for the far-field microphones; volume up/down and mic mute buttons; and a mechanical switch for the camera’s privacy shutter. The back of the Echo Show 8's body is covered in fabric, matching the color of the frame on the front (it's available in black or white).

(unknown)

On the inside, the hardware powering the second-gen Echo Show 8 is almost identical to the original, at least when it comes to audio and display performance. It has the same 8.0-inch touch screen with 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution, and the same dual 2.0-inch speaker drivers with a passive bass radiator.

The MediaTek MT8183 processor here is an upgrade in power from the MT8163 on the previous model, but you probably won’t find much of a change in performance or responsiveness in everyday use. The original Echo Show 8 never felt particularly slow to respond, and the extra power here didn't make for a noticeable difference in testing. Basically, if you already own the original Echo Show 8, you shouldn't expect a change in how the new model looks, sounds, or responds.

The big upgrade the new Echo Show 8 gets over its predecessor is its camera. The new device is equipped with a 13MP camera with auto-framing, a jump up from the first Echo Show 8’s 1MP sensor. It appears to be the same camera used in the latest Echo Show 10, but without the motorized tracking capabilities.


Amazon Alexa Voice Control

As an Amazon Alexa smart display, the Echo Show 8 offers an array of voice control functionality using Amazon’s popular voice assistant. You can ask Alexa for general information, check your calendar and email, set reminders, and perform other useful tasks, including controlling smart home devices.

(unknown)

Of course, you can use Alexa to search for and play music and video on the Echo Show 8. For audio, you can access Amazon Music, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Spotify, and audiobooks from Audible. For video, there’s Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Netflix. There are also a few more focused audio and video services available through the Echo Show 8, including Food Network Kitchen for recipes, Headspace for meditation and relaxation, and NPR for news.

Alexa supports a wide range of home automation devices, covering most major brands, with both voice and touch-screen control on the Echo Show 8. You can even bring up live video feeds on the Echo Show from compatible doorbell and home security cameras like the Ring Video Doorbell and the Wyze Cam V3.

In addition to smart home controls, a wide array of third-party Alexa skills can further expand the Show's usefulness, letting you use it for everything from ordering pizza to reading bedtime stories.

As mentioned, the biggest change between the second-gen Echo Show 8 and the previous model is the upgraded camera. You can use it to make video calls to anyone else with an Echo Show; to anyone with the Alexa app on their smartphone using Amazon’s Drop In service; or to professionally teleconference with Chime if your organization uses it (Skype and Zoom are supported as well).

The camera can also be used to monitor your home. You can do this by manually tapping in with the Home Monitoring feature, or by subscribing to Amazon Guard (free for basic membership or $4.99 per month for more advanced features) to set up automatic notifications and Alexa routines like turning on lights when the camera detects motion.

While setting up the Echo Show 8, the device will prompt you to opt into or out of the Amazon Sidewalk system. Sidewalk is Amazon’s long-range, low-data network that creates a mesh net around neighborhoods to improve the service area of IoT devices including Ring cameras and Tile trackers. It's convenient in theory, though we recommend disabling it if you're concerned about privacy and security.

(unknown)

Multimedia Performance: Exactly the Same

Since the audio and video aspects of the new Echo Show 8 are identical to the previous model, you can read our review of that device for a more detailed description of how this model looks and sounds.

In short, the screen is bright, colorful, and sharp, even if you need to manually turn up the brightness (and disable adaptive brightness) for the best performance. The speakers are fairly powerful, enough to fill a room with sound, with a strong emphasis on mids and little reach into extreme lows and highs. It’s a very good audio-visual experience, especially considering the Echo Show 8’s size and price.

You can also consider getting an Amazon Fire tablet and a stand. Fire tablets have a Show Mode option that effectively turn them into a smart display whenever you want, although sound quality isn't nearly as good.


A New Camera

As mentioned, a higher-resolution 13-megapixel camera is the only significant change on the Echo Show 8 compared with the previous 1-megapixel model. It’s certainly sharper for video calls and home monitoring, with a wide angle view that can automatically pan and zoom on faces while you’re talking. Despite the big bump in megapixels, isn’t significantly sharper, however; even with 13 megapixels, the tiny lens and the fact that the Echo Show is likely to be used indoors means noise and softness easily show up.

(unknown)

In testing, I couldn’t make fine details out on a nearby wall hanging, even when pinching to zoom in. That said, the ability to do this and not have the picture become a tiny handful of pixels is a notable upgrade over the previous model. Colors generally look accurate, and the picture appears bright and easy to see in most indoor lighting. And while the Echo Show 8 doesn't physically rotate to face you like the Echo Show 10, it ability to automatically pan and zoom on your face makes video chatting easier and more accessible than on the previous model.


Not Much Has Changed—And That's OK

The second-generation Amazon Echo Show 8 doesn’t make any significant changes over its predecessor aside from the camera. This isn't a bad thing, though; it’s still the best value available among smart displays, offering an attractive screen, strong audio, and good video chat/home security performance for a very reasonable $130. It’s slightly pricier than the Google Assistant-powered Nest Hub ($99.99), but it sounds considerably better. The Echo Show 10 has even more powerful sound and a motorized base that lets the camera and screen physically rotate to follow you, but it costs a lot more at $249.99, while the tiny Echo Show 5 makes for a good bedside clock for $84.99. The Echo Show 8 fits right between these two, with the best balance of size and features for the price, earning our Editors' Choice award.

About Will Greenwald