During its invite-only and not live-streamed Devices and Services event today out of New York City, Amazon announced its upcoming Ring and Blink devices, new Fire TVs and streaming sticks, Kindle Scribes and, finally, a whole new Echo device lineup — including new Echo Show smart displays. The latest smart-home screens were built to showcase Alexa+, the new and AI-improved smart assistant.
There’s a new Echo Show 8, an Echo Show 11. Amazon called them the most powerful Echo devices ever created. They have custom silicon, advanced sensors and improved microphones for better noise cancellation. They’re also redesigned and meant to fade into the background.
Both of the new displays have negative liquid crystal screens that are designed to maximize viewing angles, so you can see them better from anywhere in a room. They each have 13MP cameras as well, which is the best camera ever included on an Echo Show. The base on which the screen sits also houses the speaker, which projects sound out and around the display so it better fills the room.
The Echo Show 8 and Show 11 were redesigned with Alexa+ in mind, the service that Amazon revealed at an event earlier this year. The AI-enhanced upgrade to Amazon’s virtual assistant is supposed to be more conversational, retaining memories of your chats for more contextualized responses. Our experience with an early version of the assistant was… complicated. It was better at many things like multi-step tasks and using information from previous interactions, but it, like all AI-experiences, highlighted the limitations of computers trying to be people. Alexa+ is currently free with Prime, or costs $20 per month for non-Prime members.
Prior to the announcement of the new display, the Echo Show lineup consisted of four models: The Echo Show 5, 8, 15 and 21 (the Echo Show 10 hasn’t been consistently available these past few months). Each model number refers to the size of the screen (measured on the diagonal) and the smallest, the Echo Show 5, is designed for office desks or small kitchens. The slightly larger Show 8 is more suited to acting as a smart home hub and, like the Echo Show 5, is designed to sit on a table or countertop. Both were last updated in 2023. The Show 15 and 21 are wall-mountable and can act as calendars and family planners in addition to subbing in as small TVs when needed. The two larger Show displays were last updated in 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/amazon-just-announced-a-totally-redesigned-echo-show-8-and-echo-show-11-145937172.html?src=rss
