We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. Amazon has really been impressing us with its smart display lineup. The £229.99 second-generation Echo Show packs surprisingly powerful sound in a reasonably sized package with a 10-inch screen, while the smaller £89.99 Echo Show 5 is perfect for nightstands. The new Echo Show 8 sits between these models in terms of price, power, and size, and for many people, it'll be just right. The Show 8 features an 8-inch screen and stereo speakers that easily eclipse the Show 5 and come close to the full-size Echo Show. For £129.99, that's a heck of a good deal, and enough to earn our Editors' Choice. The Same Style of Show The Echo Show 8 looks like a slightly smaller version of the standard Echo Show, or a slightly bigger version of the Echo Show 5. All three devices share the same general shape, with a prominent black-framed screen angled slightly back and a fabric-wrapped, trapezoidal rear section that covers the speaker drivers. The differences lie in overall size and a few smaller details, like camera placement (the top right corner of the Echo Show 5 and 8, the top center of the Echo Show). Two pinhole microphones sit on the top edge of the Echo Show 8, with Volume Up/Down and Mic Mute buttons around them. A mechanical switch above the camera physically slides a cover over the lens for privacy. The back of the device holds a power connector, a micro USB port for service, and a 3.5mm aux output. The Echo Show 8 features an 8-inch touch LCD with the same 1,280-by-800 resolution as the larger model, and a marked step up from the Echo Show 5's 5-inch, 960-by-480 screen. It's bright and colorful, and paired with two 2.0-inch drivers each powered by up to 10 watts. That makes it much closer in audio power to the 10-inch Echo Show (two 2.2-inch drivers, 10 watts each) than the Echo Show 5 (one 1.7-inch, 4-watt driver). Alexa Features As an Amazon Alexa smart display, the Echo Show 8 has all of the same features and functionality as other Echo devices. You can activate it by saying, "Alexa," then asking a question or saying a command. Alexa can answer general questions, provide weather and traffic reports, tell you your schedule, and make to-do lists. It can also play music from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify; read audiobooks from Audible; and access videos from Amazon Video and Hulu. If Alexa's list of voice-controlled music services don't satisfy you, the Echo Show 8 can pair with your phone over Bluetooth or with the 3.5mm port (a cable is not included) to play any audio you want. And if Alexa doesn't have all the answers you seek, the Show 8's display features your choice of Amazon Silk or Firefox web browser so you can look for yourself. Alexa can also control a wide variety of smart home devices, including all major brands like Philips Hue, Nest, and TP-Link. If you have a compatible home security camera or video doorbell, you can even access their live feeds on the screen, with two-way communication through the speaker and microphone. For other forms of communication, the Echo Show 8 can make calls to most phone numbers in North America, and make voice or video calls to other Echo devices and Alexa app users through Amazon's Drop In service. Audio Performance The Echo Show 8's 2.0-inch stereo speakers are reasonably powerful, though they don't produce quite the same level of thunder as the Echo Show's larger 2.2-inch drivers. In fact, the Show 8's sound signature seems to be an inverse of the 10-inch Echo Show, emphasizing the mids rather than the extreme lows and highs. Our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," sounds fairly booming on the Echo Show 8, though it doesn't reach into wall-shaking sub-bass frequencies. The kick drum hits have some force behind them, and while they flirt with poppiness, they don't distort even at maximum volume. The opening acoustic guitar plucks in Yes' "Roundabout" sound full and clean on the Show 8, getting plenty of resonance and showing strong string texture. When the track fully kicks in, the electric bass is punchy and the vocals can be clearly heard over the mix. The drivers show slight weakness in high-frequency response, letting the guitar strums and hi-hat settle farther back in the mix than ideal, but it's still a balanced, energetic sound that can easily fill a small room. The Crystal Method's "Born Too Slow" sounds exciting on the Echo Show 8, with strong response from the lows to the high-mids. The drums drive the track with plenty of low-mid and low-frequency presence, and the guitar riffs and vocals cut through the mix quite well. The snares sit slightly in the back of the mix, lacking higher-frequency presence, but it's still a frenetic sound faithful to the track. Show Time The Echo Show 8 sits in the Goldilocks zone of smart displays. It's much more powerful than the Echo Show 5, and it costs just over half as much as the 10-inch Echo Show. It offers all of the smart display features you can ask for in an Echo device, with the sharpest screen, and does all of this for a very reasonable £130. The full-size Echo Show is still the most powerful of the three, and the Echo Show 5 remains an ideal nightstand alarm clock, but the Echo Show 8 strikes a nearly perfect balance between the two. It earns our Editors' Choice for smart displays, bringing plenty of power to a wallet- and desk-friendly package. Amazon Echo Show 8 Bottom Line: Amazon's Echo Show 8 smart display offers a nearly perfect balance of price, performance, and size.

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