Amazon expands the Echo Show family with prettier, smarter, and more powerful 8 and 11-inch models

Amazon's first-ever Echo Show 11 edition is here with a "modern" design and pretty impressive internals, and with it, an upgraded Echo Show 8 has also arrived.

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Amazon Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 smart displays
While we all continue to wait for Apple to make its belated debut on the smart display scene with (allegedly) an affordable touchscreen-touting HomePod model of some sort, Amazon is incredibly making the Echo Show roster even more diverse in addition to also expanding the non-display-carrying Echo portfolio.

This new Echo Show 8 looks a lot sleeker than the old Echo Show 8


Because Amazon couldn't have possibly made its latest smart displays look like spheres (as is the case with the new Echo Studio and Echo Dot Max), the fourth-gen Echo Show 8 considerably reduces the bezels of its 2023-released predecessor, which allows it to squeeze quite a bit more screen real estate into a very similar package from a weight perspective.

Amazon Echo Show 8

Smart Display with Spatial Audio, Designed for Alexa+, 8.7-Inch Touchscreen with 1340 x 800 Pixel Resolution, 13MP Front-Facing Camera with Auto Framing, Built-in Smart Home Hub, Custom Woofer for Room-Filling Sound, Front-Facing Stereo Speakers, AZ3 Pro Chip with AI Accelerator, Omnisense Technology, Two Color Options
Pre-order at Amazon

Although I wouldn't go so far as to call the new Echo Show 8 a complete redesign of the 2023 edition, you're clearly looking at a more elegant device here with a significantly slimmer profile, a virtually unchanged 13MP auto-framing camera squeezed into that thinner top bezel, and perhaps most importantly, a higher-quality 8.7-inch screen promising improved clarity regardless of surrounding lighting conditions and "maximized" viewing angles.

The display is not particularly impressive in terms of its resolution, slightly bumping up the pixel count from 1280 x 800 to a 1340 x 800 mark that obviously doesn't cross from the HD to the Full HD category.

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The sound performance is also enhanced thanks to a totally new "audio architecture" with front-facing stereo speakers "strategically placed under the floating display" to deliver crystal clear tunes directly toward the user and a custom woofer capable of producing "room-filling" spatial audio.

Will you pre-order one of Amazon's new smart displays?

I already have
10%
I'm seriously considering it
30%
I think I'll wait for a discount
35%
No, these are too expensive for me
15%
No, I don't need/like smart displays
10%

Like the top-of-the-line new Echo Studio speaker, the 2025 Echo Show 8 packs a custom AZ3 Pro chip designed to make those Alexa+ experiences shine with their convenience and intuition, and given all these serious upgrades, it should come as no surprise that the $149.99 list price of the 2023 Echo Show 8 is now bumped up to $179.99.

The first-of-a-kind Echo Show 11 might be the best smart display to buy right now


Look, both the upgraded Echo Show 8 and the all-new Echo Show 11 are great, packing super-powerful sound, supporting all the state-of-the-art Alexa+ skills right out of the box, and not exactly costing a fortune when you think about it.

Amazon Echo Show 11

Smart Display with Spatial Audio, Designed for Alexa+, 10.95-Inch Touchscreen with 1920 x 1200 Pixel Resolution, 13MP Front-Facing Camera with Auto Framing, Built-in Smart Home Hub, Custom Woofer for Room-Filling Sound, Front-Facing Stereo Speakers, AZ3 Pro Chip with AI Accelerator, Omnisense Technology, Two Color Options
Pre-order at Amazon

But the Echo Show 11 is a little better, and not just because it's bigger. Its key strength is probably the quality of that extra-large 10.95-inch screen, which sports a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, thus entering Full HD territory.


That's a higher pixel count than what the 2021-released Echo Show 10 offers, which makes me think this bad boy is designed to replace that model in Amazon's 2025 smart display lineup. Coincidentally (or not), the excessively bulky and not-at-all-stylish Echo Show 10 is listed as "currently unavailable" on Amazon, unlike the Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen), which is very much alive and available at a cool $50 discount ahead of next week's big Prime Day sale.

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The Echo Show 8 (4th Gen) and the Echo Show 11 are naturally unlikely to receive any price cuts during that 48-hour event, mainly because their actual release is set for November 12. You can pre-order the larger of the two models today for $219.99, which feels like a more than fair price considering that aforementioned screen resolution and size, but the otherwise unchanged list of features and capabilities from the slightly cheaper new Echo Show 8.

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