Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Echo Show 8 (1st Gen, 2019 release) -- HD smart display with Alexa – stay connected with video calling

Top positive review

I LOVE LOVE LOVE MY AMAZON ECHO SHOW 8HD!!

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020

The pictures show how simple set up is. The screen and images are beautiful and stunning! (Sorry my pics are kinda blah but I have a disability that causes me to shake so this was the best I could do. Believe me they don’t do the device justice! The display is gorgeous, crystal clear and definitely HD!)

Ok, so now for my review...I finally got my first Amazon Echo Show 5 with Alexa for Christmas. I am kicking myself for not getting one earlier! I have fallen in love with these devices and their many capabilities so much that I Immediately bought a dot, 2 Echo Show 5’s an Echo Show 8 and the new Echo Show 8HD plus stands! I am LOVING all the things Amazon’s Echo Shows do. If you don’t have one and you’re on the fence here is the breakdown, pros and cons:

Breakdown: super SUPER easy to use. Plug in the power cord and follow the on screen steps to set up your device to your liking. There are multiple clock faces to choose from, sounds for alerts and you can pick a background or use your photos from Amazon’s photo app. (I also was new to that app and Alexa. Both were super easy to use! My pictures synced faster than any other photo cloud storing app hands down. Plus as a bonus you don’t need to pay for storage. There’s no limit and zero fees!!)

Once you’ve set up the Alexa app (I recommend the Smart Life app that’s compatible with smart devices/plugs and Apple Watch!) you just ask Alexa what you need and boom, it’s done! I asked her to calm down my dog and she put on music! I am amazed. You can make shopping lists (No more searching for a pen and paper in my kitchen), Ask for recipes, play videos, surf the Internet, find out the weather, watch your photo albums, make phone calls to anyone who has the same type of device (like most of the world does by now). It’s seamless and I even had my 8 year old set one up because it was so easy. I love the parental control platform it allows for too!

Pros:
Super easy to set up
Beautiful looking with or without the swivel base
Amazing picture
Great compatibility with phones, smart plugs, Works perfectly with smart devices and apps
Better than FaceTime for video calls
Loud speakers with excellent sound quality
Alexa, Alexa, Alexa! Alexa’s voice recognition is so much better than Siri! Siri can’t understand a thing I say (I don’t even have an accent). If I ask Siri for the weather it gives me traffic. Super frustrating. I think that’s why I was hesitant at getting one of these. Man I wish I knew how much better Alexa is! Everything I ask is instantly understood and taken care of!! Music, calls, drop ins, weather...anything!
The value for the price is unbeatable
Everything about this device is a Pro!!

Cons:
It’s constantly listening. But honestly, I don’t worry about that. I’m sure the government listens in and sees things just through WiFi, the Nelson rating TV system, Arbitron ratings in your radios, computer cameras and cellular/mobile devices. This isn’t the only thing out there and really it’s so worth it for everything you can use it for. Besides, anyone that paranoid about what they’re saying is probably on The Hunt with John Walsh. LOL

The final analysis: BUY THESE DEVICES!! Get them for each room. Enjoy the capability to make your day to day life easier and more fun! Play music, dance and sing and be silly. Display your photos, try a new recipe and make sure that your prepared for rain, snow or heat. The Echo devices are like having a personal assistant that’s holding a computer screen. So enjoy your new found “tech” if you don’t already have any and you’ll be amazed like me at what these devices can do!

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Raoul Duke online shopper

still undecided

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2020

Update:
Pros: When you set reminders they show up on the screen before to remind you they are coming and they stay on the screen for a short while after. This is a really nice feature.

Cons: there is a basic sound mixer with bass, mid and treble to adjust the sound of the device. The only problem is the settings wont save so you have to reset them every day or every time you want to listen to music. This can be a pain when you have several alexa devices and have to redo sound settings every time you want to play music on them all at once throughout the house.

I purchased two echo show 8's when they had them on special. I an echo and an echo dot, but these were my first echo devices with screens so I wasnt sure what to expect. I mainly decided to try them due to amazing price they had that day.
The size of the screen is not bad for a device. I just havent found too many uses for my echo show compared to my plain echo due to limited skill sets.

Screen: the screen has nice a nice image for a device, colors are on the cool side. It will show you the hourly weather which is nice. You can stream prime videos and when you play music it will display lyrics for some songs. You can ask alexa to show you a map of traffic for your work commute, but the map is zoomed out so far you cant tell which roads/route is highlighted. You are also unable to zoom in. If the map view was closer or you could zoom in this would be a great feature. I have blink cameras and the echo show will bring up the live view from the cameras. The image looks good but the buffering time to bring up the image is a good 10-15 seconds similar to my firestick, so anyone at the door will likely be gone by then. It would be nice if they could get the buffering time down so it opens as fast as it does with the blink app on my phone.
You can choose slide shows to play on the screen, for example I am using nature or you can create your own. You can go into settings and turn off the advertisements for websites and news which is nice. However there is no way I have found yet to turn off the banner at the bottom of the screen advertising alexa skills with "try this" The clock is relegated to a tiny corner on the upper left with no way to make it bigger. it would be nice to be able to customize size and design of clock.

Sound: The speakers are slightly bigger than the echo dot and in similar fashion the show 8 does not have dolby so the sound is more similar to an echo dot. It doesnt sound bad on low, but any bass in the music cant be reproduced and ends up just muddling the sound. If you are used to echo dot, then you will be happy with the sound from the echo show. If you are used to regular echo or echo plus, you will find the sound quality to be less and lacking bass. Although to be fair, if you are streaming music then you not exactly an audiophile or overly concerned about sound quality anyway. I currently have an echo show 8 in master bed and living room, an echo in kitchen and dot in basement. When playing music you can set it to stream out of all the devices at once. This is nice for when you are choring around the house, as you move from room to room the music follows. You are supposed to be able to do this reminders/alarms as well, but when I set reminders to play from "everywhere" it still only plays from the device I used to set it up?

Camera: The echo show has a camera for face to face streaming through drop in feature. The camera is only 1 mp so the quality is pretty low. I was thinking I could use the drop in feature to use the echo show like a security camera and check in on my pets while at work. The natural tilt of the echo show without a stand directs the camera view to the ceiling. You can put it on a stand, but to get a decent view of the room through the camera the screen/echo show has to be basically vertical. Unless your echo show it at eye level, this makes using the screen awkward. So between the camera direction and low quality of image I cant really use it as a security camera to view rooms when away from home. The drop in is a nice feature to communicate with other family members or friends.

Privacy features: the "shutter" switch to cover the camera is a great feature. Not only does it physically cover the camera but you can see that it is covered for reassurance. This is great so a friend or family member doesnt drop in while your walking around in your underwear. You can also push another button to turn off the camera and the microphones so amazon cant listen to you hatch your plans for world domination. As with other Amazon devices wireless connectivity is good, I have never had wifi connectivity issues with any of my amazon devices.

Overall its not a bad device. The sound is subpar to my echo (but on par with an echo dot)and with limited skills and small screen size I dont really find uses for having a screened echo device. I can put one in my basement so I can pull up my blink front door camera when someone rings doorbell, but long buffering time means they might leave or it would be easier to just run upstairs and check the door. If the traffic maps were zoomed in so you could identify individual routes it would make that a great feature. It could double as a security camera to drop in an check on inside house or pets if the camera was better quality and not aimed at the ceiling. I got them at an amazing price, but at this point I am undecided if I will keep them. I might just trade them back in for another echo.

3 people found this helpful

265,764 total ratings, 38,442 with reviews

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From the United States

MsEsquirette

I LOVE LOVE LOVE MY AMAZON ECHO SHOW 8HD!!

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020

Color: CharcoalConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

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Tango's product reviews

One of the best Amazon devices out there

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020

Color: CharcoalConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

I would like to first start by saying that I am a huge Amazon fan but I'm going to try and keep this review unbiased .
To start off this comes very well packaged and is pretty much just like every other Amazon device packaging not flimsy and seems to be made high quality. As for the setup, it is super simple to set up answer a few basic questions and it starts up. The screen is very clear . This product does have weight to it and has one of the best sounding sets of speakers that I have heard in a long time. This does have a software-based equalizer to adjust the low mid and high range. Controlling the device is very simple via voice or via touch, simply say your wake word and then say the command or swipe from right to left and choose a function. I am giving this five stars despite having a few negatives. First negative even though set up is flawless and this appears to be nothing more than a tablet attached to some really high quality speakers and some software you cannot add anything other than skills. Which in my opinion kind of defeats the purpose of having something as amazing as this. I would like to see the ability to utilize and customize screensavers backgrounds whatever and be able to make it my own. There are very limited options for customization. Although this is not a deal-breaker many people including myself would like the ability to select what they want on it such as placing android-based apps. In addition, although the sound is truly phenomenal I would really like to see more control of specific sounds by use of a seven band equalizer instead of just the standard three band, possibly surround sound effects as well. If you have never owned one of these devices before you will be pleased to know that these have fantastic video calling features that can sense low bandwidth and adjust the image quality accordingly I have used this on a hotspot 3g with absolutely no problem getting high def the call quality was pretty decent I did not notice any lag or video degradation while on a high-speed connection as mentioned earlier on 3g video degradation is possible.
Watching movies on this is the equivalent of watching movies on a tablet however the sound quality is truly remarkable. Although the paper documentation is limited the voice controls appear to be exactly the same as the fire cube. I have been using this for about 2 weeks now and it is the perfect companion to my other Amazon devices.
One thing I forgot to mention was that the camera does have a physical shutter which can be manually opened and manually closed to increase your privacy.
As with all echo devices this does have a button to silence the microphone and this does have a volume up and volume down.
All of these settings are controlled via the software settings button which is located by swiping from the top to the bottom and from within the Alexa app.
As we are in the midst of a pandemic with no hard end in sight I did wind up purchasing five of these devices for Christmas gifts. It is in my opinion one of the best most versatile devices on the market which seamlessly integrates with your prime membership. Even if you choose not to have a prime membership you can use all of the features of this device it costs nothing to operate but you do need to have some form of internet connection wirelessly..
Note for people with vision problems. It is recommended by me to avoid purchasing the echo show 5 and purchase a echo show 8 or echo show 10 if you have problems with eyesight or for the elderly as it is a much bigger screen and easier to read.
And again I am rating this five stars.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Trish

This Simplifies My Life

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2019

Color: CharcoalConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

I received my Echo Show 8 today and it's already set up and I'm very happy with it. I bought a second one, as well, to give to my mother for Christmas. I intend to buy security cameras very soon to work with Alexa, and I just purchased smart bulbs to use in my home. I also have a 43" TCL Roku Smart TV, which I can control, to some degree, with Alexa. I'm still figuring it out, but I've been able to switch from antenna TV, and open my Hulu app on the TV through Alexa. I haven't tried asking for a specific show or channel to play, but Alexa should be able to do those commands. The Echo is in my kitchen and the TV is in my bedroom, and they communicate just fine.
I was in the cleaning mood tonight, and have been listening to some great Motown through the Echo Show 8 from my Amazon Music account. I'm impressed with the speakers and clarity. They're not top of the line, but they sound great, not at all tinny.
I also noticed that when I turned the lights down, the Echo automatically went into a standby mode, blank with just the time showing. The music continued to play, however. When I turned the lights back on, it woke up again, displaying song lyrics, etc. Oh, and even with the music up at its loudest, I am able to give Alexa a command without having to yell, even from across the room.
The Echo does continually show suggestions at the bottom of the screen, which some people have complained about. I pretty much ignore it because I'm not usually staring at the screen for it to bother me. While it's just sitting there, it will also go through news headlines. There may be a way to change these features, but I haven't yet explored that possibility.
I did, also, ask Alexa to open Hulu and started watching a show directly on the Echo, just to test it out. It worked well, and the picture looked good. I just had to sign into Hulu on the Amazon Alexa app.
There's still much to learn, but overall, I can see the Echo Show 8 being a helpful and fun part of my everyday routine. I asked Alexa to set a reminder alarm, which she did, and that's going to be a huge help for me. Once I get security cameras and the lights put up, I'll be set. I resisted getting any kind of "Smart" device for a while, but I'm glad I finally got the Echo. I'm always looking things up on my phone, or setting alarms to remind me to do things, so this just makes staying informed and organized so much easier. I will probably get another Echo Show 8 for my room after I get the security cameras so I can check them without having to go into the kitchen.
I scooped up my Echo Show 8 and my mother's during the Black Friday sale on Amazon, so I couldn't resist the price. I also got Echo Dots for my four grown daughters, and will see how they like them.

UPDATE: I thought this was great. I asked Alexa for the number to Fed Ex, which she found. Then she asked if I'd like her to call them for me. I talked to Fed Ex through Alexa and the call was clear. After the call, I said, "Alexa, hang up." And that was it! I didn't have to pick up my phone or search for the number. I love my Echo!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Mike L.

This is an amazing device!

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020

Color: SandstoneConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

We have both the Echo dot and the Echo Show 5 as well as the Echo Show 8. Having all three devices allows for a great comparison. Each device has its place and each is an excellent value (what it will do for what you pay).

Buying them when they are on sale is the way to go, given that they have frequent sales (worth the wait). But of the three, the Echo Show 8 really blows the others away. First, having the video screen brings significant advantages to the Echo Show 5 and 8 (the number represents the approximate diagonal size of the screen in inches). Being able to watch videos, see news as text and have the words for songs show up (they do for most Amazon Music songs) makes the Echo Shows well worth the investment. The sound on all three Echos is excellent, but the Show 5 has deeper bass and better volume than the dot and the Show 8 has about three times the volume of the Show 5, with excellent bass. And the larger screen on the Show 8 is not only larger than the Show 5, but much brighter.

We have chosen to put the Show 8 in the kitchen and it is the main unit we use (it easily fills a large room with high quality sound). The Show 5 works well in a bedroom and the dot is perfect for a hallway, bathroom or smaller space. All three seem to pick up our voice from anywhere in the room very well, unless you also are listening to TV or other sound-producing devices - but that is as I would have expected.

One unexpected advantage of the Show 5 and Show 8 (haven't tried it on the Dot yet) is the ability to make calls WITHOUT pairing with a cellphone. You can ask Alexa to call the number you speak - and it will make the call. Although I have not tried it yet, I assume this would also work with 911 - which would be great for older adults that might fall or otherwise not be able to reach a phone or emergency button. Having a voice entry system is a huge advantage.

We plan to purchase the Show 5 and Show 8 for family gifts at birthdays or Christmas, we are so impressed with them. We have also found them ideal for older adults that live alone and would like to have "something to interact with". My mother-in-law is 93 years old and nearly blind, and she LOVES the Echo dot. She is unable to see the TV screen anymore or operate a remote and for that reason the Echo Shows would not be a good option for her. But she uses the Echo Dot constantly to ask about weather, news and other voice-tasks, and loves being able to ask it to play music from her youth (the Amazon Music subscription has been an excellent investment for her as well).

We watched many comparison videos (check them out on YouTube) between the various Echo models as well as comparisons with the Nest and other competing devices. I would recommend the Echo Show 8 as the best choice for most individuals or families. The extra cost of the Echo Show 10 is hard to justify unless you are using it to control a number of smart home devices. But, for the modest difference in cost over the dot or Show 5, the enhanced sound and viewing of the Show 8 is definitely the way to go!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

SubieNewbie

It's Just OK. I Wanted To Love It. Read About Deal Breakers Here.

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

So I bought this Echo Show 8 on a whim for my bedroom because I wanted a better sound for music in there than the Spot that I have now. Granted it's much bigger and there are no comparisons in virtually every area measurable. However, I was disappointed with two things.

First, the depth of this unit seems excessive and it's definitely not best used on a nightstand. It just takes up a big footprint. I thought I had ample room but with a lamp, a coaster, and two charging pads for my phone and watch, I had virtually no more room to even put the TV remote down on the nightstand.

Secondly, and most importantly, it only has two microphones on the top of the unit. Whereas the Echo and Echo Dot has four and seem much more sensitive when detecting my voice. The Echo Show 8 will sometimes barely pick up a command when the Echo Dot in the next room, which clearly has sonic superpowers, will reply back. I have two Echo Dots in my home, one Echo Show 5 and now this Echo Show 8. The Dots far out perform the Shows when it comes to sensitivity and average percent that they are correct in interpreting my request. They are all supposed to have far field technology where, as I understand it, two Echo products may hear a command but the closest one responds. This needs a lot of work. And I believe the answer is quite simply that the Dot has four microphones. Two more than the Shows. Which seems odd to me considering the vast difference in price.

Now as far as the sound goes, it is really quite good for the money. After adjusting the equalizer in the settings to up the bass, mid and treble. You can also request these to be increased or decreased by simply commanding something like "Alexa, increase the mid" (or treble or bass). Each request increases the setting by one level. I believe there are five positive levels and give negative levels from the flat center.

After tweaking the sound settings, Alexa does not sound hollow and music is full and fills a small to medium sized room. Bluetooth pairing from your phone is also simple and I like that I don't have to rely on the Alexa app to modify settings. The setup was super simple as expected. It's just a matter of logging in to your Amazon account with the touchscreen prompts. It guides you through everything you need to complete and customize your home screen/clock.

Using personalized photos is a little clunky because you are forced to create an album using only Amazon photos instead of just uploading what's already on your phone's native photos app. That's actually a really big negative. Because of that, I don't have any personal photos on my Echo Show.

If you don't follow what I'm saying, lemme give you an example: when you use Facebook, for instance, and you want to upload a photo, the app simply opens your phone's photos and you can randomly pick one or several photos to create your post. Here, you must download the heavy Amazon Photos app which just duplicates your already existing photo app. Then you must create a specific album of photos that you want to see on your Show. Then you must share it to the Show. I believe that changes to the album can only be done thru your phone with the exception of discontinuing use of that album all together and going back to the default Amazon screen saver photos, which you can do on the Show without your phone. But again, you cannot make changes and add or drop photos to the album you've shared without the Amazon Photos app on your phone.

So here's the deeper issue. Since most Android phones are already bloated with endless and mostly useless Google apps, it really irks me that I must download another set of heavy apps to have Alexa simply turn off the lights or play some sleep sounds or to show simple photos of my family and friends on the Echo Show. I just don't like the fact that Google and Amazon can't get together on much of anything. Personally I prefer Google Photos over Amazon's but Alexa is hands down better than the Google Assistant and their related devices.

If Amazon released their own phone, I'd buy it simply for ease of integration for my smart home devices and to avoid duplication that eats up valuable storage space. C'mon Amazon, forget the Samsung Galaxies of the world and introduce the Alexa Universe. Lol.

My last complaint it that the Echo Show cannot surf the web like the Kindle Fire tablets or like any tablets, for that matter. Alexa decides what she chooses from the internet and from what sources. You can only choose in the settings whether you want her to use the Silk browser or the Firefox browser. But you cannot access the browser directly either by touchscreen or voice. For instance, let's say you want to know about the history of your hometown. You must ask Alexa to tell you about it. She almost always defaults to a Wikipedia article. You have no choice to open your towns own website or any other source. She does not even give you the option of links to open after her cursory relply because, again, you are not able to access a browser directly.

So in a nutshell, I use this device now in my bathroom to see the news headlines, listen to music with lyrics displayed while I brush my teeth, and have Alexa turn the lights on and off in the bathroom. It really serves no profound purpose but admittedly looks kinda cool. I'm sure to keep the camera cover closed in the bathroom just in case there's some weirdo somewhere across the country who hacks Echo Show devices for his own show, if you know what I mean.

I can see this being useful for someone who cooks and wants to see a recipe (that of course Alexa chooses) or for someone who may not like a smartphone to do visual calling with loved ones. And of course the sound is much better than the Dot or Spot. But really it serves no unique function that you phone cannot do sitting on a stand that costs $15 on Amazon. So I have it in my head to buy a couple Echo Plus devices and create a home stereo group on the Alexa App along with my Spot so I can have the visuals, still, but in a smaller package plus the nice, full sound in my bedroom. Ugh. What a rabbit hole I've fallen into with Amazon. Yet, once you turn everything over to Alexa, you can't go back. My fingers are crossed for my invitation for the Amazon Ring. Now that's a unique product that I can use and fills an untapped niche. Pick me Amazon! As if I need more Alexa devices. Haha.

91 people found this helpful

Helpful

justme624

Not Just A Glorified Alarm Clock...

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2019

Color: CharcoalConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

I have been reading the Amazon Echo 5 reviews for quite sone time and trying to make up my mind on if I should buy it or not. When I saw the pre-order starting for Echo Show 8 I was not sure if I was going to get it or not but I put my name on the list anyway. Before the Echo Show arrived I planned on it just basically being a clock for me but I was wrong! I had every plan of holding onto my alarm clock even after I set up the Echo Show in my apartment but it did not work out that way. I saw the “skill” for this speaker to play my Apple Music so that was the first thing that I tried because I wanted to see if it had good speaker quality like my Wonderboom blue tooth speaker which is my usual way of listening to my playlists. It exceeded my expectations and since I set it up I have not turned on my Wonderboom speaker at all which is amazing to me because I like quality sound. Even stopping the music for a few minutes is easily done with a voice command. I am, and have been a longtime fan of everything Apple. I do have an Amazon Kindle Fire but thought that would be it for me with Amazon’s devices. I thought that I would have as much of a “problem” as quite a few others had with the things that come across the Echo’s screen but to my surprise it is not bothersome at all to me. I have long liked Apple’s customer service and when I purchased my smart tv and my sound bar I saw that one of the services Amazon provided was customer support. My friend had set up the tv and the soundbar for me and he relied heavily on this service that Amazon provided in setting it up with the soundbar. While I was confident that I would not need to use this service when I set up the Echo Show I figured that it would be fairly easy but was happy that if a problem arises and I cannot figure it out that I could always call and find an answer from Amazon. I saw that on Black Friday (today) that the selling price is lower than I bought it for ($99) but that was to be expected. I just decided that I would write a review on this product since it seemed ironic to me that I chose Amazon over Apple in this type of device. I was seriously thinking I would stay with my plan of buying the Apple Home Pod because of the critical reviews of “ads” on the Show but I see I am wrong with that. Since I have set this unit up I see that it has surpassed my expectations because it is a great product that not only has great sound, it also has good clarity on the screen. The only problem I have encountered with the Echo Show, and it is not much of a problem, is to remember to say Alexa instead of Siri. Since I have only a small efficiency apartment (400 square feet) I do not need another Echo Show but if I did I would not hesitate to purchase another one of these units. For me to write something like this for an Amazon product it is a pleasant surprise because I myself rely heavily on all reviews because they are very valuable in deciding what to purchase since I am on a small fixed income and I figured there are so many reviews of the Echo Show that I wouldn’t have to bother with that but I changed my mind after seeing this is a wonderful product. Thank you Amazon for giving such good quality for such a small purchase! I would not hesitate to even buy one as a present for somebody if they wanted something like this.

UPDATE-
I decided to call customer service since I was not happy with seeing the selling price go from $129.99 to $99 and now to $79. I usually never call for things like this but I was very happy with the agent telling me that I will get a promotional discount which is very good for me since I am on a very small fixed income. Thank you Amazon your customer service is always good!

9 people found this helpful

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cacalazani

A Great Addition to Your Home Tech

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2019

Color: CharcoalConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

This is my first Echo device. Had already set up several skills on the Alexa app before the Echo Show 8 arrived, so I was ready for it; and had my expectations already set as to the quality of the response to the voice commands. If you are considering entering the Echo 'echo-system' and are on the fence about getting one of these, try downloading the Alexa app to your phone or tablet and try it out. On the phone app (iPhone and iPad in my case), a button push activates Alexa; with the Show 8, just say her name and she starts listening.

Some of the Alexa skills still need some work, and your satisfaction with them may vary. But for the Show 8, it's great! The speakers sound better than I expected (actually are pretty awesome compared to the Show's size) and will fill the room with sound. The Show 8 has an external speaker jack on the back, but I don't see ever using it - the internal speakers are THAT good - can feel the bass from the speakers vibrating the kitchen countertop. With the speakers in the rear, having it backed up close to a wall provides the best sound projection and quality. A similar concept to some higher end Bose speakers, which have rear-firing elements that are designed to reflect the sound off of a wall and provide more ambience.

When music is played, the lyrics scroll on the screen, so you can sing along (if your housemates and dog can stand it). Even when playing at a higher volume level, I can still get Alexa's attention but it may take more than one attempt. The microphones are quite sensitive and will pick me up from another room as long as there is not much background noise. The Show 8 also has Bluetooth, so you can pair it with a phone, laptop or other device and play music through the Show 8's speakers. I do this frequently since the Show 8's speakers sound much better than the internal phone or laptop speakers. I did notice a bit of a delay in watching a video on the laptop, and then the audio coming out of the Show 8. It just may be an artifact of using Bluetooth to send the audio.

Rather than the recommended stand (or no stand), I purchased the "Echo Show 8 Adjustable Aluminum Swivel Stand" also sold on Amazon (you can see my review of the stand on that page). A stand is recommended to allow you to position the Show 8 at an optimum viewing angle.

I also purchased several of the Meross Wifi smart plugs (also sold on Amazon). Have them programmed to link with Alexa so I can give one command (such as "Alexa, turn on Christmas Lights") and ALL the plugs in the Christmas group turn on at the same time. Pretty cool! Once Christmas is over, the plugs will be assigned other duties.

The Show 8 can browse the web. There is a Firefox skill that will allow you to open a web browser. And if you don't like tapping letters on the screen, you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (see photo). If you have an HP printer, it can be linked to the Show 8 to print grocery lists or stuff you find on the internet.

Not a deal-killer for me, but can't seem to be able to disable the "Try Alexa <blah blah blah>" on the bottom of the home screen. You CAN disable the skills cycling with other topics in the center of the screen as another reviewer noted. I have the Show 8 in my kitchen; so the display is not "in my face" and I am not looking at it all the time, so it is not THAT big of a deal.

Have to admit I was skeptical and wasn't sure if I would find it useful....but I'm liking this device more every day. Now an Echo Dot has found its place in our household as well. Along with some Echo Buttons....

Like the Echo Show 8 so much that I ordered another one to give to my daughter and son-in-law!

1,386 people found this helpful

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Geoff

Totally worth it!

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2021

Color: SandstoneConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

We finally got better internet in our home and could finally use the echo dots I had gotten over a year ago. When we had slower internet speeds (5Mbps), we couldn’t use any smart device, not just echo devices. We were lucky if we could stream movies uninterrupted. Now that we have good internet, they work amazingly. We have a dot in the bedroom, another in the living room, and our new echo show 8 in the kitchen. Anyways, I happened to see that the Echo Show 8 was on sale for a great price and decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did. As stated, we have ours in the kitchen and we love it. I can look up recipes when cooking. I can have Netflix going in the background while cooking. We love that we can upload pictures and see them as the screensaver. We listen to music on it A LOT! For just that reason alone, it was totally worth the $89 I paid for it. There are Bluetooth speakers out there that don’t even sound this good and cost more than what I paid. I will say, it is a little heavy on the bass, but that could also be my location of it. It’s on a shelf in a sort of corner cubby. But really, it sounds great. Way better than my echo dots. I also like that I can drop-in (see through the camera) from anywhere outside my home and see what’s going on in my kitchen or check on my dogs using the camera that’s on it. About gave my teenage son a heart attack once dropping in when he was getting snacks and was home alone. That’s worth $89 alone, lol. As far as setting things up and connecting other devices, there is a learning curve and that can be frustrating as far as setting up groups and uploading photos, or dropping in (that was actually pretty easy), but that’s more of an Alexa app and photo app thing, not a device issue. Concerning voice recognition, it does a pretty good job of it. Sometimes it doesn’t pick my voice up and I have to repeat, and other times it picks it up when I’m not talking to it. That’s really a minor thing to me. I also have it connected to quite a few smart bulbs and plugs and it works great with those. Planning on getting some blink cameras soon, as well. There are a lot of complaints about the “Try this” text at the bottom, but I promise you, we don’t even notice it anymore. Don’t worry, if you’re watching Netflix it doesn’t show those pop ups. I gotta tell you, I’m a fan of the Amazon line of smart devices. I haven’t really had any bad experiences with them and will continue to use them going forward. You have to understand though, having a good internet provider makes a huge difference. At 5Mbps, we couldn’t use our echo devices and it was a real bummer. Now that we have increased the speed, everything works great and I can’t wait to get my next fun and functional smart device. Oh, one last thing, we got the stand to go along with it. LOVE IT! Definitely something to consider.

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MikenzCO

Updated 11/23/2020 FYI Wyze Cam owners important info

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020

Color: SandstoneConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

Updated 11/23/2020 - after an update to the device yesterday it appears the buffering issue has been resolved for all wyze devices with one exception being the wyze cam pan. otherwise for the first time in months the echo show is not constantly buffering the image. also a first, where before the wyze image on the show would time out after a few minutes and go back to the home screen. now it keeps showing the wyze cam vid feed until you change things. for those who would use this as a baby monitor this is a very good development.

Updated 11/21/2020 - the biggest reason we purchased this was to use along with our various wyze cam devices. unfortunately as i found out only after the fact, there has been an ongoing buffering issue between the two devices now for several months. sometimes you can watch a live stream from a wyze cam just fine. however more often than not you can't as every two seconds the screen freezes and buffers.

of all our wyze devices only the new wyze cam outdoor does not do this. for some reason that model does just fine viewing on the echo. but the v1, v2, pan units all buffer to the point it is unusable. i like the show for the most part but the reason for the purchase didn't pan out and nobody at either end has a solution to date.

original review - we started out years ago with the first echo and since have several generations of dots, echo plus, show 5 and this the 8" show. as with its smaller cousin this unit works the same, does the same things.

you can watch prime vids. you can use it as a clock. easy vid calls or even intercom within your home. you can manually block the camera if you don't want that aspect. if running a timer you'll not only hear it when its done but in the upper right corner of your home screen you'll see it counting down.

if you ask it a question it'll not only give you an audible response but also pull up pertinent videos, information, etc. on screen for you to use. you can either tap on the screen or just stick to telling alexa what it is you want. you'll also get on screen weather, upcoming reminders, etc. fyi within the settings you can have it show you more or less depending on your personal preferences.

settings can be accessed from the touch screen or using the alexa app. ours is set to auto dim. as evening approaches the screen dims and then when the lights are out it will go dark except for the on screen clock. you can however set it to go totally dark it comes down to your preferences.

the audio quality is about on par with the echo plus. obviously not near the bass response but still a lot better than i had expected. it also has a 3.5mm audio jack at the rear which is nice to have.

you can ask it to 'show' you just about anything. ask it what is an olde english bulldog and you'll get the audio response and imagery on screen. if you want more information just tap on one of those images or ask. we have both the show5 and this model. if you plan to watch vids frequently i definately would go with this size and not the smaller. related the screen resolution on this size is much better than the smaller show5.

everything you need to get going is in the box. setup has somehow been made simpler than in other amazon devices. personally i do not see how they could have made getting started any easier. it really does walk you through each and every step with most of those being entirely automated.

the two things i don't like about the device are listening and cam time out. as to the listening to begin with i had frequent issues getting it to hear what i say correctly. the speed and how i speak where the other units do just fine this one misses words, gets the wrong ones or just sits there silent requiring multiple tries to acknowledge it heard 'alexa.' i have no accent to speak of. my speech sounds much like that you get from tv newscasters if that makes sense in regards to no accent. so i do not understand why the microphones have such a hard time hearing me compared to the others? so now i've learned to slow down my speaking and enunciate words as clearly as i can. when i do that problems listening are rare.

the only other gripe has to do with the main reason i purchased this, for our Wyze Cams. once the Wyze app is enabled you can just say for example, "alexa show me the front door." it loads and then you are streaming to your echo with both video and audio. the image looks great but the gripe comes down to the built in 'time-out.' the video stream will only hold for a few minutes then it reverts back to the home screen. i hope this fix this soon, it should just be a coding issue.

overall having the additional abilities the other echo units do not have. the combination of both audible and visual information. it is just a great design and even with the mic's not picking up as well as our other devices i'd still purchase it again.

all said i would recommend this to most but due to the microphones for some it could be problematic. at least when you say something you also can see what it heard you on screen. otherwise i'd say this is a really good device and if considering say a regular echo unit or even a dot i would seriously consider this or its smaller cousin the 5" model instead.

10 people found this helpful

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Shopper

purchased for Ring doorbell cam; had to investigate how to set that up

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2020

Color: SandstoneConfiguration: Device onlyVerified Purchase

I bought the Echo Show 8 for myself through Amazon.

Upon initial setup, I had trouble connecting the device to my Amazon account. No matter what I did it wouldn’t accept my Amazon username and password, which I knew were correct. It just displayed a message that it couldn’t register my device and prompted me in circles wanting me to sign in to Amazon again and again. Very frustrating.

I learned through a web search that this is a common problem with the Echo 8, especially when it’s been gifted to someone and the receipient is trying to set it up. Amazon is aware of the issue. I saw a lot of people on a discussion board complaining and going back and forth with tips and tricks—all of which I did and none worked—until I saw a couple of people say they just called Amazon support and had the customer service person set up the device on their end.

Now, calling any customer support is always my very last option so I tried a few more of the tips and tricks posted to the discussion board and when nothing worked I did finally call. It was late at night so I didn’t have to wait very long and the person was really nice and set up my device on his end. It only took a few minutes and that worked perfectly.

If you get the message that Echo doesn’t recognize your Amazon username or password, don’t waste your time trying to figure it out and getting frustrated, just call Amazon customer service. It’s easy.

Whenever I get any device I immediately set up all my privacy options and preferences, which I could do pretty quickly thanks to having watched a YouTube video earlier of someone unboxing his Echo and walking through the settings and features. It was helpful to watch that video so you may want to find one to review.

The ability to choose what content to show on the Home page is nice. Why the designers didn’t think that people would want the date displayed on the homepage mystifies me. It shows time and local temperature but there’s no option to display a day of the week or date. Weird. I saw online that many folks feel the same way and have made Amazon aware, so maybe it’ll happen down the road.

I especially like that I can turn off the microphone and shutter the camera. I don’t use voice commands often and I don’t like to think I’m being listened to, so my mic is off most of the time. When I do use it, there’s been good voice recognition.

I bought this specifically to keep in my kitchen to use with the Ring doorbell so that I could see who’s on the porch when someone rings or when there’s motion detected.

I was SO disappointed that when I connected my Echo and Ring accounts that when there was motion on the porch Echo would only announce that there was motion but didn’t show a live view. Having live view was the whole reason I purchased this! I looked through all the settings for Echo and Ring but no luck. I considered returning it.

But then...

I did a web search for how to show Ring doorbell video on Echo and someone posted a solution on the Ring discussion board! Now when there’s motion or a doorbell ring, my Echo automatically shows a live feed. To do this, you set a Routine for Alexa. Here’s how:

1. Use the Alexa app (not Echo, but the Alexa app on your phone)
2. Routines
3. Enter routine name
4. When this happens
5. Smart home
6. Front door
7. Enter: when front door detects morion
8. Anytime (keep this selected)
9. Add action
10. Alexa says > Customize
11. Enter response: show the front door
12. From > Choose device
13. Choose your Echo Show

It works! I’m happy.

I notice that the device can be slow pulling up things—Ring video, news stories, even settings. Some or all of that could be my wifi. I also feel like the touch screen isn’t as responsive as it should be. I always have to swipe multiple times to bring down the settings screen or to display a different screen and that’s been bugging me.

I haven’t yet tried watching any Netflix or Hulu. I did connect with Amazon Music which was fun; I like that the screen shows song lyrics as a song plays, if they’re available. The speaker sound is alright but not great. They sound muffled to me, but I didn’t buy this for music anyway. There are equalizer settings for the speakers in the Alexa app, so I could fiddle around with that. It’s more than sufficient for tinkering around in the kitchen.

Looking forward to displaying recipes on this instead of squinting at my phone while I cook.

I also bought a magnetic swivel-and-tilt base so I can position the Echo at the different angles. I wasn’t positive that I’d want this gadget but turns out I’m really glad I got it.

Overall, I’m content with the Echo Show 8 so far. I still have a lot to learn about what it can do so I hope it continues to serve me well.

=======
UPDATE

I see that the Home Screen *can* show the date but only when I turn off the overhead lights and Echo dims itself. I guess the designers think we only want to know the date if we wake up in the middle of the night?

21 people found this helpful

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