Smart displays solve the annoying problem of constantly pulling out your phone to check the weather, see who’s at the door, or follow a recipe while your hands are covered in flour. The Echo Show 8 brings all those conveniences to your kitchen counter or bedside table with an 8-inch HD touchscreen that responds to voice commands and touch.

Amazon just dropped the price from $149 to $99, which makes this the cheapest entry point into having a central hub that manages your smart home, handles video calls, and streams your favorite shows. The built-in smart home hub means you can control compatible lights, locks, and cameras without buying separate equipment. This latest version adds spatial audio that fills the room with sound, and turns your smart display into something you’ll want to use for music.

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A Great Entertainment Hub

This 8-inch HD display provides a resolution of 1280 x 800 which should be clear enough for watching cooking videos, checking security cameras, or having video calls with family members. The display hits a sweet spot in size: big enough that I can see details from across the room, and compact enough to fit on a nightstand or kitchen counter without taking up too much space. Spatial audio technology creates a more expansive soundstage that makes music and videos feel more immersive than typical smart display speakers. The audio processing processes the content and adjusts the sound output to make it feel as though the audio is emanating from other directions, adding depth to movies and music that carries across instead of feeling confined to a single point source.

The 13 MP camera represents a significant upgrade compared to previous models and competing smart displays. Higher megapixel counts translate to sharper video quality during calls with friends and family, so they can actually see your facial expressions clearly instead of looking at a pixelated mess. The camera tracks movement with auto-framing, allowing you to pace during a call without walking out of frame. Noise-reduction technology reduces the background noise from dishwashers, air conditioners, and traffic, and cleans up what the other person will hear instead of your voice competing with ambient noise.

The smart home hub, which is built-in, supports Zigbee, Matter, and Thread protocols and eliminates the need to buy separate hubs for different ecosystems in your smart home. You can pair compatible smart bulbs, door locks, thermostats, and sensors directly to the Echo Show 8, then control everything from the touchscreen or via voice commands. When the device detects movement, motion-activated routines are triggered-for instance, turning on lights when you enter the kitchen at night or adjusting the thermostat upon entering a room.

Video calling becomes effortless with the new Top Connections widget, which lets you initiate calls with a single tap rather than digging into menus. You can also make calls hands-free by simply asking Alexa to call specific contacts, which is fantastic while you are cooking, getting ready for work, or managing kids. The display shows your calendar at a glance from across the room, then shows more detailed information as you walk closer, thanks to on-screen adaptive content technology that automatically adjusts based on your distance from the screen.

At $99, you are getting a smart display for $50 less than regular price while offering features that competitive devices charge significantly more to provide.

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