If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to buy a smart display for your home, now is the time. The Echo Show 8 is $99.99, the same price it was during Prime Day and $50 off its regular retail of $149.99, and still one of the best-value smart home purchases you can make this instant. At less than $100 for Charcoal or Glacier White, that’s an unprecedented price for the most tuning-neutral screen Amazon makes.
But more than that, the Echo Show 8 exists at a sweet spot: an 8-inch HD display that’s big enough for videos and recipes as well as smart home dashboards but won’t take over your countertop.
It combines the voice control of Alexa with a responsive touchscreen, an auto-framing 13MP camera for video calls, and room-filling sound that beats smaller displays.
Why This Echo Show 8 Deal Is So Good Right Now
Price cuts this big on the Echo Show 8 usually come around retail holidays, and they aren’t always seen. The 33% discount undercuts the regular sale price of a smaller Echo Show 5 but offers much better audio, a much sharper camera and, from what we’ve seen so far, a screen that’s actually comfortable for streaming as well as smart home control.
Smart displays are more relevant than ever. According to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial, more than one-third of Americans now own a smart speaker, and as homes accumulate connected lights, cameras and plugs, the value of a central screen goes up. With Alexa recently gaining Matter support — the cross-brand standard that is being stewarded by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance) — the Show 8 can also command a broader mix of devices without any one vendor lock-in.
What the Echo Show 8 Can Do in Your Smart Home
Use it as a hub to frame, view and control compatible devices at once: dim living room lights, adjust the temperature on your thermostat or see a live feed from your Ring video doorbell. It pairs nicely with popular systems like Ring, Philips Hue and smart plugs and sensors that are compatible with Alexa or Matter over Wi‑Fi.
For communicating, the auto-framing of the 13MP camera is designed to help frame you and your family while in a video call, and it features built-in noise reduction so conversations sound clearer. There’s a physical shutter for the camera and a mic-off button that will, on the fly, let you lock down privacy without digging into settings.
Entertainment is a cinch: Ask Alexa to queue up Netflix or Prime Video, play Spotify playlists, even work through step-by-step recipes hands-free. In the kitchen, the larger screen turns timers, conversions and guided cooking — things we didn’t want to use our smartphones for all the time — into functional features; in the entryway it becomes a command center for quick routines or activity updates.
When not in use, the screen serves as a photo frame via Amazon Photos, displaying family photos and shared albums. The interface can change depending on how far away you are from it, so you can surface at-a-glance information such as the weather and calendar when standing across a room, but fuller content up close.
How It Compares to the Competition and Alternatives
Compared to the Google Nest Hub, the Nest Hub doesn’t have a camera at all, but the Echo Show 8 does. It also has a larger screen (the Nest Hub’s display comes in at around a 7-inch diagonal) and more powerful speakers. Overall, the Nest Hub’s deep hooks into Google services are alluring too, but if your home’s ecosystem already skews toward Alexa (see also: Echo speakers), the Show 8 is the smoother pick for controlling devices and using skills.
The upgrade over the Echo Show 5 is significant: Not only is the 8-inch panel less harsh on the eyes, but also its camera is far superior, while voices and music sound fuller. The Echo Show 10 has a motorized rotating display and more powerful bass, but it’s a lot more expensive and takes up more space; for most homes, the middle-of-the-road 8-inch model is the practical choice.
Buying Advice and Who Should Upgrade to Echo Show 8
Whether you’re building your first smart home or consolidating a mix of bulbs, plugs and cameras, at this price the Echo Show 8 is an excellent place to start. It solidifies habits — such as turning off lights or locking doors at bedtime — and streamlines control for family members who’d rather tap things than talk to them.
Owners of the Echo Show 5 will especially appreciate the larger screen, improved sound and call quality. For those who already have the Echo Show 10 and don’t mind the rotating display or anemic bass, there’s no need to upgrade. For privacy-minded buyers, there are hardware toggles, granular settings and the ability to turn off voice recordings or restrict what is displayed while you’re nearby.
Bottom line: for $99.99, the Echo Show 8 offers an unusual combination of utility, performance and price. It’s the easiest way to add a capable control screen, a better speaker and a competent video-calling system to your home — while also keeping that extra $50 in your pocket for the very next bulb or sensor on your list.
