Amazon Echo Show 8

The best overall — the sweet-spot 8-inch Alexa display with notably good stereo sound, a camera (with privacy shutter) for video calls, and the largest smart-home ecosystem, at a reasonable price. Versatile for recipes, calls, media, and smart-home control; ties you to Alexa/Amazon and shows some promos, but the do-everything benchmark.

The Amazon Echo Show 8 hits the sweet spot of screen size, sound, features, and price in the dominant Alexa ecosystem. The 8-inch screen is big enough to genuinely use — following recipes, watching video, seeing a video call or camera feed, glancing at the calendar and weather — without being too large for a counter, nightstand, or desk. It has notably good stereo sound for its size (better than the Show 5 and Nest Hub), a camera with a physical privacy shutter for video calls, and full Alexa for voice, smart-home control, timers, music, and the vast Alexa device ecosystem. It's the well-rounded do-everything display at a reasonable price, with Alexa's widest smart-home support. It ties you to Alexa/Amazon (awkward with YouTube/Google), the screen and processing are good-not-premium, and it shows some promos, but for useful size, good sound, video calling, smart-home breadth, and value, it's the one most people should buy.

▶ Video review

EVERYTHING You Can Do With The Echo Show 8