Sleek new design and floating display make Echo Show 8 visually appealing.
12MP camera, smart speakers and Visual ID enhance calls and usability.
Alexa+ missing in India, yet device offers fast and reliable performance.
If I had to buy a smart display now, it’d be the Amazon Echo Show 8. Alexa (well, Alexa+) has finally grown up, and in its 4th gen, I can unabashedly recommend the Echo Show 8.
I remember, back in 2017, when Amazon debuted the first-ever Echo devices. There was this excitement in the air. I hurriedly purchased one the moment it went on sale on Amazon. I was like an excited child, and the promise of a smart assistant in the form of a Bluetooth speaker-like device was too good to be true. Little did I know that after testing it out and writing about it, it would just sit there, gathering dust on my desk.
2 March 2026
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Fast forward to 2026. Alexa has now become an integral part of our lives. For people who use smart speakers, Amazon’s Echo devices are overwhelmingly the first choice, and I can finally see why
I say all of this after having used the Echo Show 8 for a couple of weeks. Let’s dive in deeper.
What Is the Echo Show 8
In the second half of 2025, Amazon unveiled its big AI revamp of Alexa and launched a couple of new Echo speakers, the Echo Dot Max, the Echo Studio, and the two Echo Show (Echo Show 11 and Echo Show 8) displays. With the Echo Show devices, there’s a new spheroid design. It’s sleek, and the display appears to be floating in mid-air. The sound system has also gotten a makeover. With a new processor, a new ambient sensor technology and more, can the Echo Show 8 truly stand out in the crowd?
What I Have Liked
Sleek design: The Echo Show 8 is a stunner. I may not have ever used that word for an Echo device before, but I can confidently say it now. It used to be big and bulky, but not anymore. The display is mounted on a spheroid base in a sleek and premium-looking package.
Display: The 8.7-inch display comes with slimmer bezels than ever before. There are volume buttons on the right and a privacy button (to mute the microphone array and deactivate the camera lens).
It has a 1340x800 resolution, which suffices for the screen size, since there is no way you’d want to watch a movie like Oppenheimer on it. The screen, despite the lack of HDR, is bright, vibrant and evenly lit.
Good speakers: To support the display, there are some sharp and loud speakers. Yes, there is a 2.8-inch woofer and dual full-range drivers. I put on Top Gun, and I could hear the jets whizz by. The voices are also clear, and it’s a pleasure to listen to podcasts in the morning.
Performance and features: The Echo Show 8 features the brand-new AZ3 Pro processor (with an AI Accelerator). This custom-built processor is meant to drive Alexa+ and its heavier workloads. Alas, Alexa+ is missing in action for Indian users.
That’s a shame, as my friends from across the globe have generally been reporting good use cases for it. It’s also supposed to help make sure more tasks run locally than in the cloud.
Furthermore, the chip also has “Omnisense”. This is another custom sensor platform designed to enable ambient AI experiences.
Nonetheless, the Echo Show 8 is the fastest smart speaker from Amazon that I’ve used to date. It’s way faster when responding to requests. This is the case even when I’m in a loud environment.
Alexa: I’m sad to have missed out on testing Alexa+, but Alexa is the best smart assistant overall (though, since I’m mostly on my phone, I’m using Gemini the most). Alexa is far better at understanding my voice and can pull data from various sources.
Doubling down on its display: Yes, the Echo Show 8, by default, will show a slideshow of images (you can select from your personal library or Amazon’s), and it can also display additional information, like news stories.
Visual ID: Another feature I thoroughly loved. It’s built into the Echo Show 8. It detects whoever is in front of the speaker, and then displays personal information (calendars and more). It’s easy to set up and works across Echo Show devices.
12MP camera: I used the integrated 12MP camera for video calls, and it perfectly met my needs. No, I’m not going to go out and shoot a video or an Instagram Reel, but it did just fine for a fly-on-the-wall video call.
What I Didn’t Like
Limited for video playback: There’s no built-in Fire TV, so the options are very limited. The Echo Show 8 can only play content through Prime Video (well, of course) and Netflix. JioHotstar, YouTube and others are only available via the integrated browser. The experience via the integrated browser, well, isn’t nice.
Lack of up-to-date local knowledge: Yes, the one area where Alexa falls short compared to Gemini and Siri is local information. Ask for a restaurant or bar recommendation and some of the results from Alexa will be outdated or not necessarily near your place.
Can’t tilt the display: I liked the display, as I wrote above, but there is one glaring downside. The display is locked into place. It would have been far better if it were adjustable. To its credit, Amazon has tilted it at an angle that'll work for most use cases. There is a magnetic stand, sold separately, in case you want it to be adjustable.
Is It Worth It?
I was excited to try the Echo Show 8 because of the promise and allure of Alexa+. Alas, it didn’t launch only in India, and there is no word on when it might. But, with limited options in the smart speaker space in India, the Echo Show 8, at ₹23,999, is the best of the lot by a fair margin.
If you have an older Echo Show device, I’d recommend waiting for Alexa+ to launch before jumping in to buy the 4th-gen Echo Show 8. With that said, this is the best ever Echo device I have used, and that’s saying a lot.
It’s a familiar experience, one that is dependable and easy to understand for the new consumers. Its responsive voice controls are by far my favourite reason to recommend one of these over another smart speaker. The only things I’d be wary of are inconsistent touch responses (though you’re supposed to interact more via voice), UI stutters and having to watch YouTube videos in the browser.
Still, those who are already invested in the Amazon ecosystem will come to love this. And with the promise of Alexa+, this device will only get better with time.
