Echo Show 8, With Spatial Audio, Smart Home Hub, ideal for open living spaces, Designed for Alexa+, Charcoal

The Echo Show 8, I can say, is the perfect middle ground. Not too small, not too big. The best part: The screen is super sharp for recipes and video calls, and even watching YouTube. The sound surprised me; it has powerful bass and fills a medium-sized room well with quality audio. Privacy: I love that it includes a physical cover for the camera. Smart home: Control lights and cameras instantly by touch or voice. Area for improvement: The touchscreen can be a little slow if you open many apps, but with voice commands, it works perfectly. Conclusion: If you're looking for a smart assistant with a screen that sounds great, this is the right model.

I’ve been using the Amazon Echo Show 8 for a while and it’s been really handy around the house. The screen is a great size—not too big but big enough to see easily from across the room—and the picture quality is sharp. Setting it up with Alexa was effortless, and I use it daily for timers, weather, and quick video calls. The sound is noticeably better than my old Echo, with clearer vocals and fuller audio for music and videos. It also works well as a smart home hub to control lights and plugs without any fuss. Overall it feels solid and useful without being overly complicated.

I use my Echo Show every single day. It’s like having a personal assistant, DJ, and inspiration board all in one. The sound quality is amazing for my neo-soul and Prince playlists, and I love how the display rotates album art or calming visuals while I write, journal, or clean. I also use it to set reminders, timers, and to-do lists, which keeps me organized without feeling stressed. I’ll ask Alexa to show recipes, play YouTube tutorials, or give me the weather while I’m getting ready. It feels like a quiet companion that brings a little rhythm and structure to my space. The screen is clear, the design is sleek, and I especially love using it at night with dim light and soft music. It is definitely worth every penny.

I like this, but don’t love it. Cons: The setup isn’t user friendly at all. Can it not just have an app screen? There are ads pushed to you which is annoying but that’s everything now. Also when my kid was setting up his voice, it got sidetracked on the word “weather.” Say everything else but that word and it works. Weird glitch. Pros: For music- the speaker is very good. I enjoy being able to play music in the kitchen without using my hands.also it is really good at recognizing who is facing it. Freakishly good.

Very solid performance. Good sound quality and looks good. It’s very convenient to use.

Okay so I have been using this every day for a little bit now and think I can provide a good review. I debated for a while getting this because I have heard pros and cons about the Echo show 8 but here is an honest review. The display is a great size for my kitchen where I can look at recipes and things like that. It is not too bulky where it takes up a lot of space but provides enough of a screen to be able to see clearly. This item is so easy to use, I set it up before it was even delivered to my house so all I had to do was pull it out of the box and plug it in. It recognizes my voice and knows when it is talking to me which I think is awesome and feels more personable. Alexa is awesome at helping me be hands free and I love the timer function-I know basic but awesome when you cook and have your hands full. I used to use my apple watch to set a timer but now I can just tell alexa to set my timer and the times up tone is nice as well. I also really like the feature of setting your routine. I am able to walk in and say "Alexa i'm home" and she will play 10 minutes of Lil Wayne radio. I do wish I could add in my apple music but the google music library has A LOT of music too so it's not bad. I also REALLY like that I can go in there and tell Alexa to pull up my ring cameras and it will show me all of them at one time or if I ask for a specific one it will pull that one up to full screen. I also bought a dot so I can have one in my bedroom and I love being able to play music hands free when I am in the room cleaning or drop an announcement for my husband in the other room if I need to tell him something and can do it hands free (yes I can do this with Siri and tell her to call or text my husband but when I am cleaning I sometimes dont have my phone on me). Also you can link up the Ford Pass and tell Alexa to start your car and things like that which is always awesome on cold mornings (we haven't tried this yet but will be!). I bought this on a sale but I think it is worth the price either way. The wide range of things this can do alone makes it worth it in my opinion. I still am playing around with it too so I know there will probably be even more awesome features too!

TLDR: I work as a developer and love smart home products. I could not believe how difficult this thing is to set up. Will probably return it because I'm pretty certain that an ipad glued to a bluetooth speaker would be leagues better than this. Full complaint: So I purchased the echo show 8 for the primary purpose of being the visual component to the security system which consists of 2 blink doorbells, and 3 blink cameras. I wanted to put it in my kitchen so I could also listen to music, watch tv, or ask questions while I cook. Here are some of my major frustrations: ~~~~~~~~Echo Show 8: 1. Generally, the UI is just plain terrible. It is really hard to find things I am looking for and many aspects I can only change on my phone. Like why are there settings that can only be changed on a smaller screen? ==>Amazon responded to this by saying that "Echo Show devices are more voice-command centric with an added visual/touch component" But literally every time you want the Echo Show to learn something new, you have to add it in the Alexa app on your phone... however, all Amazon needs to do is put the Alexa app on the tablet and all of these headaches would be solved! 2. The home screen is not customizable at all. Sure there is a settings page with like 3000 toggles for things that can flash across my screen in a individual, full screen, marquis fashion, but I don't know how that could possibly be helpful. I'm just supposed to stand there and stare until the weather or whatever happens to swipe by? Why can't I just have a screen with my most common apps on it? For example, I would love to have a home screen with a button for each of my common cameras, fire tv, and netflix. This is why I made the comment about a tablet glued to a bluetooth speaker would be better. I could have all the apps I want, where I want them. Siri will open the alexa/blink/spotify app for me. 3. Advertisements. This concern is also with my Fire Stick but why are there ads? This is not a subscription service, I PAID for this device. I remember Amazon played this game with the Kindle so that you could by a cheaper Kindle that would have ads on the lock screen, but now they just put ads everywhere no matter what. Why can I not turn off ads? ==> Amazon responded to confirm that you cannot turn ads off any of their devices! ==> This is number 3 on this list but is also number 1 on my list of reasons I will no longer buy any amazon tech products in the future. 5. Alexa will show me my cameras, but keeps telling me that it can't connect to either of my doorbells, even though I can view the doorbells in my Blink and Alexa apps on my phone. ==> Amazon tells me to disconnect them in the app and try again, but, as I've already said, if you put the app on the tablet, this issue would would not exist or be easier to solve. While this review is about the Echo Show, my primary reason for purchasing was to use with Blink systems, so I'm going to add my reviews on them here too: ~~~~~~Blink App/cameras 1. Can't add multiple accounts to system. There are 4 people that live in my home, why can't I add members to the household instead of having to give them my email/password? ==> It would also be great if I could give them different permissions or assign only certain doorbells/cameras as viewable to specific users. This is standard in almost all of the other smarthome gadgets I have that involve security (such as smart locks, etc) 2. If open my app to view the doorbell or cameras, it shows a live view for about 20 secs and then turns off. Why can't I just live stream? I'm still on the free trial, but it says I won't even be able to live stream at all if I don't pay a monthly fee, so, If I'm paying for a service, why can't I have the service?? 3. It takes way too long for any and all devices to load the camera view. This is especially critical when someone rings the doorbell and they have to wait for my app to open, then connect, and then for the audio to transmit 4. Speaking of audio, when I turn on my microphone, the person on the other side can barely hear me.

I love the Echo Show 8. It just feels like a premium device. It feels well built, heavy and durable. I just upgraded two 2nd gen Echo Show 8's to 3rd gen, and I'm noticing quite a few improvements, including audio, video, camera, more control over smart devices, and a smarter Alexa, overall. Alexa gives me answers for things far quicker than I could get them if I was doing my own Google search. There's just so much that Alexa does for me that I feel like Echo devices are undervalued. If you are reading this review and you have a 2nd gen Echo Show 8, and you're here wondering if you should upgrade, I say yes. This is definitely a worthy upgrade, in my opinion. I have Alexa controlling everything from my sprinkler system to my lights, and it all works seamlessly. Also, I recommend signing up for Alexa+ Early Access, as Alexa is far more advanced in this mode, making for an already excellent experience.