Amazon unveils a cool new trio of Echo Show devices ahead of Prime Day 2021
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With Prime Day right around the corner and the killer deals on Amazon's best in-house devices already piling up for other special occasions, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the e-commerce giant is refreshing and expanding its wide-ranging line of smart displays mere weeks after doing the same with the company's Fire tablet family.
Up for pre-order today, the second-gen Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, and the first-ever Echo Show 5 Kids Edition are scheduled to begin shipping on June 9, which may leave just enough time for their first price cuts to make our undoubtedly extensive upcoming list of this year's top Prime Day deals.
We're talking 13 megapixels, up from just 1 (yes, one) on the old Echo Show 8, which makes it that much more impressive to see the new model retain its predecessor's very reasonable $129.99 starting price.
Interestingly, the first-gen Echo Show 8 is sticking around, at least for the time being, at a small $20 discount destined to get bigger as Prime Day 2021 draws near.
Unsurprisingly, the first-gen Echo Show 5 is on sale at a massive $40 discount, but you might need to hurry as there's obviously no guarantee Amazon will be able to continue selling the device at that drastically reduced price for very long.
Before deciding which of the two "normal" compact smart displays is right for their needs (and budgets), parents may also want to consider Amazon's rookie Echo Show for kids effort as well.
The best thing about the new Echo Show 10 makes its way to the Echo Show 8
While the "all-new" Echo Show 8 looks pretty much identical to its predecessor at first glance, with the exact same overall dimensions and weight, the front-facing camera is borrowed from the "all-new" Echo Show 10, unveiled last year and released earlier this year with a revamped look compared to its own 2018 forerunner.
That's right, both the Echo Show 8 and 10 can now keep you in the frame at all times when video chatting with family or friends. In addition to the aptly named auto-framing technology that pans and zooms to ensure the focus is always on you as you catch up with loved ones from afar, the upgraded Echo Show 8 also has a vastly superior shooter megapixel count going for it.
We're talking 13 megapixels, up from just 1 (yes, one) on the old Echo Show 8, which makes it that much more impressive to see the new model retain its predecessor's very reasonable $129.99 starting price.
At least in part, that's owed to the rest of the key features going largely unchanged, from the HD (1280 x 800 pixels) resolution of the actual 8-inch display to the 2-inch stereo speakers, and of course, all the latest Alexa skills supported by the entire Echo lineup.
Interestingly, the first-gen Echo Show 8 is sticking around, at least for the time being, at a small $20 discount destined to get bigger as Prime Day 2021 draws near.
The Echo Show 5 also comes with an improved camera (and a kid-friendly cousin)
Although a 2MP cam certainly doesn't sound impressive by today's smartphone market standards, Amazon is trying to paint this upgrade as a big deal by pointing out that the second-gen Echo Show 5 has "double the pixels" of the diminutive smart display's first edition.
Otherwise put, the OG Echo Show 5 came with a modest 1MP shooter in tow, while its 2021 sequel features a... slightly less modest 2MP "HD" camera for higher-quality video calls. The only other change seems to be a snazzy new Deep Sea Blue color joining the existing Charcoal and Glacier White paint jobs, with the $89.99 price point of 2019's Echo Show 5 actually going down to $84.99 for the (subtly) revised edition.
The all-new Echo Show 5 Kids costs $94.99 in a single but extremely fun and eye-catching Chameleon flavor with the same exact features as the non-children-oriented new Echo Show 5, plus built-in parental controls, one free year of Amazon Kids+ content, and a two-year worry-free guarantee covering your brand spanking new Alexa-enabled device against... pretty much anything and everything.
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