Echo Present 8 evaluate: Amazon’s greatest Alexa good show will get higher

My favourite new function on the third-generation Echo Present 8 ($149.99) is the widgets. They flip the good show right into a more practical touchscreen controller, making it simpler to get to the information you need with out having to make use of your voice. It’s nearly as helpful as a pill or telephone for shortly checking my calendar, choosing a latest playlist, or turning on the kitchen lights, with the benefit of being a tool anybody in my family can use. 

However this isn’t a compelling sufficient motive to improve to the brand new Echo Present 8, particularly for those who already personal the second-gen mannequin, as widgets are additionally coming to that one (a very good transfer on Amazon’s half). The second-gen Present 8 can be getting the brand new Present’s different trick — Adaptive Content material — which adjusts the display screen primarily based on how shut you’re to it, making it extra helpful from throughout the room. Coupled with the truth that the second-gen is at the moment on sale for $60 (down from $129.99), the brand new Present is a little bit of a tricky promote.

Except that’s, you desire a good residence controller. The brand new Present 8 is the primary Amazon good show that’s a completely fledged good residence hub (no less than till the Echo Hub will get launched). It’s now a Zigbee hub and a Thread border router, along with being a Matter controller and Sidewalk hub. This units you up so as to add and management nearly any good gadget to your own home (sorry, Z-Wave). It’s additionally the primary Present 8 with Amazon’s AZ2 chip on board, which makes its touchscreen snappier and extra responsive and Alexa a tad speedier.

All of this implies for those who’re simply beginning out with the good residence or wanting so as to add your first good show to an current setup, the brand new Present 8 is an effective place to start out. Alongside its good residence chops, it does lots for a very good worth (though it’s $20 greater than the second-gen was when it launched). It’s an Alexa good speaker with a display screen that may do all of the hands-free stuff you’d count on from the voice assistant: set timers, reply questions, play music, be a house intercom. The display screen provides options like video calling, film watching, and visible solutions to questions. Plus, it is a respectable digital picture body.

One more reason to decide on the brand new Present 8 over the earlier mannequin is that the sound is actually good. Echo Present 8s have all the time had respectable sound for good shows, however the third-gen brings a redesigned speaker system and spatial audio. This was very noticeable in testing, sounding considerably higher than the first-gen Present 8 I examined it towards. I additionally in contrast it with a second-gen HomePod, and whereas the $300 Apple speaker is healthier, the Present 8 held its personal. The HomePod had higher readability, and the Echo nonetheless goes a tad too heavy on the bass, but it surely was nice to take heed to and will get loud sufficient. Plus, it’s half the value of a HomePod and has a display screen.

However that is nonetheless an Amazon good show. Which implies a major function of that display screen is to get you to spend more cash with Amazon. Except you flip off all of the extraneous cruft immediately, you’re going to get very irritated with it in a short time. There are nearly 50 totally different choices you’ll want to toggle off for those who don’t wish to get bombarded with “product ideas’’ or ideas of the way to have “enjoyable with Alexa” alongside together with your morning espresso. Learn my weblog on the way to arrange an Echo Present to point out you the least quantity of crap for extra on this.

With every little thing toggled off, it’s doable to show the Echo Present into a good digital picture body (learn my weblog on the way to use the Echo Present as a photograph body). If you’d like a cleaner picture body expertise, Amazon expects you to pay $10 extra for its $159.99 Echo Present 8 Photographs Version. If a digital picture body is what you’re after, there are higher choices outdoors of good shows, and regardless of its different flaws, Google’s Nest Hub is great at displaying pictures.

The primary Echo Present 8 arrived in 2019 as the center baby between the 10-inch Echo Present and the Echo Present 5. It’s lengthy been my favourite of the bunch. It has extra display screen actual property than the $90 Echo Present 5, which is simply too small to do a lot with aside from use as an alarm clock. And at beneath $150, it’s a greater worth than the $250 Echo Present 10, whose predominant trick is only a greater display screen that may rotate. (The wall-mountable $280 Echo Present 15 is known as a totally different beast).

The third-gen Echo Present 8 will get the primary vital redesign for the reason that unique, including a extra shapely rear speaker however leaving the touchscreen largely unchanged aside from including edge-to-edge glass and centering the digital camera. The bezel is unfortunately nonetheless tremendous thick. 

Nonetheless, the touchscreen is now extra helpful, due to the widgets. The principle function of a sensible show is so as to add a visible and contact interface to a sensible speaker. It exhibits what album is enjoying, offers you a pause button so that you don’t need to yell to show the music off, and allows you to see visible responses whenever you ask Alexa a query. 

So far, good shows have been good on the visible bit however unhealthy on the contact half. Easy duties like controlling a light-weight or altering an alarm take longer with contact than voice, and the brand new widgets go some approach to addressing that. A sensible residence widget lets me entry a light-weight with two fast faucets now, in comparison with swiping, tapping, swiping, and tapping. A music widget offers fast entry to play a latest album, and the purchasing listing and calendar widgets are equally useful. 

The draw back is you may solely have 4 widgets, they usually’re restricted in each dimension (when opened, they solely use about half the display screen) and customizability (the music widget opens on Beneficial from Amazon Music, and you’ll’t change it). But it surely’s a begin and does make the Present 8 extra helpful on a desk or bedside desk.

The opposite new function is Adaptive Content material. This modifications what’s on the display screen primarily based on how shut you’re. Information headlines and album titles are massive whenever you look from the opposite aspect of the room; as you get nearer, the textual content turns into smaller, and the show provides extra particulars. This can be a neat trick, however because the Echo Present not often shows a lot I wish to see past pictures, I discovered it of restricted use. However if in case you have different use circumstances for the Present, it’s now simpler to see data from additional away.

I examined the Echo Present for 2 weeks, switching it between the kitchen, my workplace, and my bedside desk. I did discover myself reaching for it ceaselessly within the kitchen and workplace, tapping the display screen to pause music within the kitchen once I needed to shout at my child to get off the bed within the morning, and utilizing the good residence shortcut widget to shortly flip the lights on and off in my workplace when beginning / stopping video calls. I discovered it too massive for a bedside clock, although. There’s a motive the Echo Present 5 exists, and that’s it.

I used to be impressed with the Echo Present’s velocity as a sensible residence controller. My Zigbee-connected lightbulb turned off nearly immediately once I tapped the widget display screen. (The brand new onboard radios imply every little thing can work regionally and reduce out the cloud.) But it surely nonetheless took two faucets, which is one faucet too many. And I couldn’t management teams of lights, solely particular person ones. I additionally couldn’t alter the brightness of the bulb. For that, I wanted to enter the principle good residence management display screen, which is clunkier to navigate.

Pulling up a reside feed from a Ring video doorbell or safety digital camera was considerably quicker than on the first-gen Present, taking beneath three seconds in comparison with eight to 10. However this gained’t exchange a Nest Hub as my desktop good show for one massive motive: video. The Echo Present 8 would make an excellent little workplace TV, but it surely solely presents Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video. There’s no YouTube app or YouTube TV, and the place the Echo Present 15 is now a fully-fledged Fireplace TV, the Present 8 continues to be restricted.

Amazon has added its new FAST Fireplace TV Channels to the Present 8, supplying you with someplace round 400 reside TV channels to peruse. Say “Alexa Watch TV,” and it begins enjoying one, with the choice to faucet by means of others sorted by class. Nonetheless, there’s no information that I may discover, so it’s actually solely helpful if there’s something you wish to watch on a selected channel — or for those who’re bored and wish to watch random stuff like somebody whipping up a frittata on Tastemade or cats knocking espresso cups onto their proprietor’s laptops on the very enjoyable Pet Collective channel, I stumbled throughout. (Who wants YouTube?) 

The opposite video disappointment is video calling. The Present 8 solely helps Alexa calling, so you may solely do video calls with individuals who have Echo units or the Alexa app on a telephone or pill. I really like utilizing the Echo Present second gen for Zoom calls, however Zoom isn’t supported on the third-gen.

For those who’re within the Amazon ecosystem, the Echo Present 8 is a good good show. It’s simply the fitting dimension, it sounds good, and it’s quicker than earlier variations. Its Visible ID function makes it helpful as a communal gadget, as it may well adapt the content material primarily based on who’s it (my husband can see his calendar, and my youngsters can see their playlists). The draw back is that this solely works for those who hold the digital camera on (there is a bodily privateness shutter). That digital camera additionally permits the Present to double as a house safety digital camera (though it gained’t report), and it may well pay attention out for appears like smoke alarms or glass breaking whenever you’re not residence (though that’s now a paid function; it was once free). 

However there isn’t a killer function to justify an improve from a second-gen mannequin — and even decide it over that model if you’ll find it for beneath $100. Whereas the third-gen is a correct good residence hub (due to new radios), if that’s your predominant want, I’m inclined to say watch for the Echo Hub. At $179.99, it’s costlier, however its options are extra tailor-made to a sensible residence controller, and it has waaay extra widgets.

If touchscreen good residence management is secondary to you, nevertheless, and also you need good sound plus higher responsiveness out of your good show, you’ll be proud of the third-gen Present 8.

Photographs by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge