Amazon Echo Show 8 ($180) and Echo Show 11 ($220) hands-on: better hardware and software, Alexa+ is an improvement, but no camera cover and ads are coming later
Amazon's Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 launch this week, here are my first impressions — | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon has steadily refreshed the Echo Show 8’s physical design and smart-home role, including a 2023 redesign with a centered camera and built-in smart-home hub. The new models extend that hardware-and-software iteration while putting more emphasis on Alexa+.
Camera privacy remains an unresolved product trade-off: a 2018 Echo Show review also flagged the lack of a hardware shutter. The planned addition of ads adds a separate question about how much control buyers retain over the display after purchase.
First-order effects
- Buyers now choose between $180 and $220 display devices with improved hardware, software, and a better Alexa+ experience, but neither model provides a camera cover.
- Amazon plans to introduce ads later, changing the expected on-screen experience for owners after the initial purchase.
Second-order effects
- The combination of higher device prices and future ads raises the value threshold for Echo Show buyers: Amazon must make Alexa+ and the upgraded hardware compelling enough to offset privacy and interface concerns.
- Ads create another incentive for Amazon to treat the Echo Show screen as an ongoing service surface, rather than solely as a smart-home control or communications device.
Third-order effects
- If this approach is repeated across the category, smart displays may increasingly be sold as AI-enabled service endpoints whose economics include recurring on-screen monetization, not just hardware margin.
- The continuing absence of a physical camera cover leaves privacy hardware as a durable differentiation point for rivals and a potential constraint on adoption in more privacy-sensitive settings.
The trend: AI-enhanced smart displays are evolving from one-time hardware products into continuously updated, monetizable household interfaces.