Amazon's Echo Show 8 smart display offers a nearly perfect balance of price, performance, and size.

Affordable; Powerful sound for the size; Sharp screen.

Bass and high-frequency response could be stronger.

The Amazon Alexa home invasion continues apace with another capable smart display hard to complain about at the price

Good price; Big sound; Works as a Bluetooth speaker

Display style can be distracting; No Netflix; YouTube only via a workaround; A bit too vibration-happy

The Amazon Echo Show 8 is a really handy piece of tech for the kitchen, bedside or desk. It allows you to have a huge range of control over many piece of smart tech and also entertains you with it’s wide range of available services.

There is little doubt that the Amazon Echo Show 8 is a very versatile smart speaker that is worth every penny it may cost you. It is just the right size to work well around your home—equally comfortable on the bedside, in the living room, in the kitchen, the dining table or even the kids’ room.

If the flagship Echo Show is too big for you, this one will be just right

Hits the size sweet spot; Crisp display; Speakers surprisingly good

No Zigbee; YouTube is awkward to use; Camera tech doesn't impress

The Amazon Echo Show 8 is the smart display sweet spot for many people. It’s big enough for comfortable video chatting, and to fit in drivers powerful enough to fill rooms with music. Its display may not look as refined as the Google Nest Hub Max’s, and the sound won’t worry Sonos. But it is easily good enough in every area to justify its price, either at £120 or the eye-opening £60 promo price Amazon treated us to before Christmas. As ever, Amazon promo periods are the best time to tool yourself up with Echos. We just wish Amazon could find a way to iron out the politics that mean we don’t get such important video staples as YouTube and Netflix.

Good price; Big sound; Works as a Bluetooth speaker;

Display style can be distracting; No Netflix, YouTube only via a workaround; A bit too vibration-happy;

Significantly cheaper than its big brother but with most of the same features, the Amazon Echo Show 8 strikes the perfect balance between price and size. A bright and sharp display and excellent audio make this smart display a perfect allrounder. You miss out on the Zigbee hub of the larger display, but realistically this is a feature that most people won't miss.

Excellent price; Great audio; Screen adds more to the Alexa experience;

No on-screen search; No Netflix support;

It's 2020 and the Echo Show 8 is a year old. But Amazon's fourth Alexa-enabled smart display still stands apart from the competition as one of the best smart devices around. Squeezed between its high-end 10-inch and budget 5-inch siblings, the Show 8 offers the right mix of features and design perks to justify its middle-child existence -- and it's the best direct competitor to Google's Nest Hub. Even a year out from its release, the Echo Show 8 still deserves its Editors' Choice Award.

Amazon's incremental improvements still stand out, one year later.

The Echo Show 8 has solid sound quality and a good screen resolution.; The $130 price tag makes the Show 8 one of the best midrange smart displays on the market.; The physical camera shutter is a small, smart addition to soothe privacy concerns.;

The interface isn't as smooth or easy to use as the one on Google's Nest Hubs; You can't call up YouTube videos by voice;

In almost every way, the Echo Show 8 makes the right compromises and is the best smart display from Amazon’s range. It’s the one to buy.

At a significantly cheaper price than the larger Echo Show, the Show 8 has most of its appealing features and is also a significant step up from Echo Show 5. We think it's the best Alexa screen device yet.

Good option for medium-sized rooms; Significant sound improvement over Show 5; Ideal kitchen device; Great with Ring doorbell;

No Dolby sound enhancement; Price can vary greatly;