Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) | Charcoal with 2-Pack GE CYNC Smart LED Color Bulb

Before ordering this one i already an echo show 8”, first gen. I was about to buy another one when i got an add saying that i could pre-order a second gen. I could not find a good comparison anywhere so i asked myself, should i pay 20$ more for an unknown. I did and spoiler alert, it is worth it, kinda.

Positives:

– the new camera features are great. The camera can track you and center you for video calls, real time, and it does it accurately.
– speaking of the camera, the camera upgrade is insane. Went from 1mp to 13mp.
– the processor is supposed to be much more powerful. Looking at the new camera features, understanding where you are in a group of people and tracking you accordingly, it is noticeable. However, given that a lot of the actions on the device are web based, there is not a huge difference on other apps. The responsiveness of the touchscreen is perhaps a bit better but it was good to begin with.
– the unit will go to low power mode when idle, helping you save a penny here and there…
– several privacy features. The stop listening button we have grown used to. The camera can be manually closed shut for privacy. When remote viewing through the show, there is a warning message, etc…

Negatives:

– amazon did not learn from their mistakes. Just like with the show 10”, the power cord is white for every unit, whether the unit is black or white. The camera shutter, is white too.
– the 3.5 jack is gone.

Other thoughts:

the sound quality___

one of the items on my wish list for this one was an improved audio quality. The sound quality improved over the previous gen, i think, but i would say its marginal if that, not enough to even be sure it did.

The white cord___

what i hate the most about my echo show 10 is the white cord on a black unit. Since i fell for it with the show 10 and white would go well with my decor, i preemptively went for a white unit, to eliminate the eyesore, in case amazon did not learn from their mistakes. To a certain extent, i was secretly hoping the cord would be black so i could swap it with my show 10” and fix two problems with one move. Nope, its white.

Even with a warning from me that it could happen, a friend went for the charcoal one and he is still fuming. So, if you are like me that the white cord on a black unit would drive you crazy, and you are going for it, order the white one.

The environment___

if you are still on the fence about this one, be aware that 2nd gen uses recycled materials on its manufacturing. To me this is a selling point.
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tldr,
1) if you use it a lot for video calls, the improved camera and improved camera features, makes it a worthy upgrade. If this is not your cup of tea, waiting for a prime day sale on a previous gen might be better.
2) if having a white cord on a black unit is something that would drive you crazy, get the white one or go for the previous gen.

Updated (june2022): it appears that amazon did learn from their mistakes. Another friend i warned about the cord, told me he didn’t really cared and went for the black one. Well, he got it with a black cord. Given that to me this was the worst negative, i just raised it one star.

At first i was a bit apprehensive based on feedback from others and watching several youtube videos about blah blah blah. So i took the plunge and bought one of these just to test it out and see how it performs as i wanted my own experience to be the judge, and boy oh boy, i am officially impressed.

Sound
the sound is clean and you would not believe the high volume that is coming out of this device. I have mine set to about a little over quarter and it is just good for everything on a daily basis.

Screen
i think the 8 inch screen hits the sweet spot, not too big, not too small. Its clear, the touch response is good so far with no complaints.

Alexa
damn, that woman can catch her name every time, all the time. She doesn’t miss a beat and she probably misunderstood what we asked her to do but after the basics she is quite capable of executing skills.

My usage
i have this device connected to my home security cameras (lorex) and the integration is very good. I can ask alexa to view different cameras and i’m not disappointed by how she handles requests.
The ‘drop in’ feature is nice as sometimes i check in with my family when i’m not at home.
Youtube is functional, in that you have to ask alexa to open youtube and then you manually input your choices, netflix goes through a similar process, but all in all it works and its functional.

Note
i liked it so much that i bought another one for the kitchen.

Note 2
i found it so useful that i bought 2 for my in-laws to also view their security cameras and youtube.

Cons
(1) i’m not a big fan of the split screen keyboard… Probably there is a way to adjust it and i probably haven’t figured it out as yet.
(2) sometimes the cameras open on screen like a picture in picture and i have to pinch to zoom. It does this sometimes and again its probably a setting i have to adjust.

Overall i think this is a very good device based on your use-case and it works well for me.

Ok, i’ll start by saying i’m a big fan of the alexa devices. I bought the first echo many years ago (still my favorite) and have own almost every model since. I just keep trading them in. I now own about 7 of them & the echo tv box. The echo show 8 & 10 are the best of the best if you want a screen.
I bought this echo show 8 to replace an echo show 5 that never worked properly. I had it in a small corner on a night table. It never understood what we were saying & did what we asked about 20% of the time.
The echo show 8 (2nd ed.) is a big upgrade. It understands most of the time & usually does what we ask 1st attempt.
Our primary use for the device is to control the lights, a/c & fan as well as wake us & let us know if someone is at the door while we’re in bed.
It does all of this very well & understands us about 80% of the time.
My biggest criticism is the annoying suggestions it continually makes that have nothing to do with what we want or what we’ve done in the past. That combined with its inability to answer a question. What time does the bank close, who wrote this song, global questions, historical questions, pretty much everything. In general the echo devices seem to try to make up an answer rather than just browsing the internet for the answer.
I’ve just about given up on them for that & usually just ask my android phone. It always knows the answer.
Amazon, the greatest improvement you can make to these devices is to just give them the ability to browse the internet for information.
Other than that, i do love these devices. They’re a pleasure to use. Alexa is cute as hell & i often find myself saying thank you when she does something because i enjoy the responses. I’m amazed at how human the developers have made her responses get voice intonation correct & actually creating a personality for her. Great job guys!
As for privacy concerns, sorry, i just don’t care. My life is not that interesting that anyone would really care what i say and i like the idea of getting targeted advertising. I’m going to get ads anyway, they might as well be for things that interest me.
If you’re interested in getting one of these the echo show 8 is a great place to start. Consumers gave the 1st edition a slightly better score. I own both & don’t really see a difference except for the usb port on the back of the 1st ed which i’ve never used.

Good evening
i was wondering if i return this alexa was there anyway possible i can get an exchange for the same item except black? The reason why i am returning it if i can was because my 3 year old granddaughter cracked the cord on it so now i cant get it to work. I tryed taping it and it didnt work so i can only hope amazon will exchange for me. I love the product and watch movies on it and my granddaughter watches her stuff on it. Its like there is no more tv. We love alexa!!!!!! I will have a happy grandchild again 🙂 just saying!!!!!lol
thank you so much
kim green

We already had three echo dots. One in the dining room/kitchen and two in the bar/family room connected in stereo. Our daughter has an echo show and when we visit them my wife, who never uses our echo dots, learned to use the echo show because it’s in the kitchen and she likes to cook while we’re there. So i asked her if she would like to have one at home and, to my surprise, she said yes. So i ordered one, set it up, and unfortunately it would not work. It just refused to go through the update process and just kept looping back to the beginning of setup. So i exchanged it, (i love amazon) for a different one and this one works perfectly. We put it in the kitchen and moved the one that was there into our bedroom. My wife loves it. Yesterday she was happily baking bread while rocking out to garth brooks and using the timer feature to time the bread. We love the echo show. It does everything that the echo dots do and so much more. We have the 8-inch model. The picture is large enough to see and read across the room, the image is sharp and crisp, and the speakers sound great. I’ve ordered a stand for it to raise it up a bit and to be able to adjust the angle and tilt of the screen. We’re still learning all of the features and we want to set it up so we can connect with our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids in minnesota and face chat with them. (we live in wisconsin). I’ve also ordered a doorbell camera that will connect with the es and plan on getting a security camera for the backyard that will also connect with the es. We feel like we’re just beginning to tap all of the features and possibilities of this device.

I already had an echo dot in the bedroom and was happy with it, and wanted to get another one for the living room. So i ordered echo show 8 as an upgrade which turned out to be the perfect choice.
The speaker is good.
The camera quality is great for video calls.
And since english is not my first language, i was a bit worried about voice commands, but alexa gets it well and the accent has never be an issue, neither on echo dot not on echo show.

One of the nicest things about this device is that it has a deep, rich sound, especially vs. The es5. It’s also louder, if you need it to be. A bigger screen is easier to read.

As with all alexa devices, you can also use it as a bluetooth speaker. We actually use one for this purpose with one of our firesticks, which is attached to an older plasma tv that doesn’t have built-in speakers. We’ve situated the show 8 on a nightstand that sits beneath the 42′ plasma that is mounted on the wall.

With a little synchronization adjustment in the firestick settings, the lip synch is perfect and you wouldn’t know you weren’t using a sound bar in the $100-200 price range. Plus, we get to use the show’s display for the room’s clock and also all the functions of alexa are for the asking in the guest room!

I am in love. I have been wanting a show for some tome now i wanted the motion one though. Anyway i was lucky enough to get this during a promo at t-mobile. I’m just going to say amazon knew what they were doing when they partnered with them. This may be the best smart item i have. When it’s the loudest (which is very loud) it’s still crisp and clear. Alexa comprehends 100 percent of the time for
me so far. I’m still playing around with it but for now i know i can watch a series of platforms here i can ask for the weather i ask her to play music and all have been such a vibe. What are you waiting for purchase this now. I’ll be doing a review on the motion one when it comes since i’ve already ordered that for my bathroom

I decided to purchase this item and connect it with my ring doorbell i am in my 70s and usually my granddaughter has to connect things up like this. I found this item very easy to set up even for me without any help, the color is great the sound i find superb considering i’m hard of hearing. I have done a connect with a family member on the other end which is nice. The screen is a good size and i even bought the stand to go with it so i can move it easier. I did not know what to expect in this item but i am beyond pleased with it and i would highly recommend.

My husband and i were waiting anxiously to purchase a second echo show for our upstairs room. Luckily, the echo show 8 went on sale, and we scrambled to get one! Such a great investment, especially if you have a ring camera. The quality and size of the screen is great! The sound is awesome, and i love how you can personalize it with your own pictures. Great product, and worth the price!

After trying every current generation echo show, i finally settled on the show 15 for my kitchen, the show 5 for my office desk, and the show 8 for my nightstand. It works perfectly as my bedside assistant and the screen is just big enough to see the time and my photos clearly across the room. I use it to control my fire tv stick hands-free on my bedroom tv and as my daily alarm clock. What’s impressed me most about this show 8 is the sound quality from the speakers. In my opinion it sounds better than the 4th generation echo i have on my mantel and between the show 8 and the show 5 and 15, it’s no competition. The only thing that sounds better is the echo show 10 but i hated the rotating display on that thing so i returned it and got the show 8 instead. I’m really happy with it for the $70 i paid for it. Not happy enough to pay the full asking price of $130, but it’s well worth it on sale.

Every echo show experience still has me dreaming of an apple smart display though. The user experience on echo shows is just like fisher price level in quality. Choppy, laggy touch interactions, things just refusing to load, and way too many options in need of switching off to use the thing as a simple photo display. I swear i have to go into the home content settings and switch something off every other day just so i see my own photos more than amazon’s useless recommended content.

I love the echo shows and currently have a 5, 8 and 15 in my house. I plan to purchase an echo show 10 and will be on the lookout for similar products in the future. I love the integration with each other and with my other amazon smart home products (such as the thermostat and ring products).

However, my biggest complaints with the echo shows (and this is a problem in every version i have) is the voice recognition. My echo show 15 feels like i have to scream at it in order for it to pick my voice up. My echo show 8 will often mistake what i said, even though i have setup voice id and have spent a decent amount of time talking to it. This can be especially frustrating when asking it simple questions or trying to accomplish simple tasks like adding an item to a shopping list. Since i usually have my phone on me it makes me feel like i should have just asked siri to add it, as the overall time it took to complete would have been faster. If amazon can improve this aspect of the devices, i will be much happier with the entire echo show line.

The other issue i have is with the camera features. Drop ins seem to work almost every time, without any issues at all. Live view however, works about 50% of the time on the echo show 15 and 8. I could only get it to work once on my echo show 5 and had to send it back for a replacement (haven’t tested it again since i received my new one). I see others mentioning this issue online and the recommended solution is always the same, try turning off the camera features and turning them back on. I have repeatedly tried this and have tried using the live view from multiple devices, and the success rate is very low. It’s to the point now that even if i don’t want to make a call to another echo device, i will still just use the drop in feature because i know live view won’t work, or will take multiple attempts before it actually connects.

Overall though, i feel like these issues are mostly software related and could be fixed with future updates. The product is awesome, particularly if you bought in to the amazon ecosystem and can make use of the easy integration of all the different amazon devices.

Bought it for the kitchen (where i already had an echo show 5) because i thought the larger screen would make it easier to read recipes as i’m cooking. Somehow it ended up in the bedroom, where i already had an echo dot (which i use mostly for weather reports in the morning and playing music), so the presence (and size) of the screen really hasn’t made a difference. I keep thinking i’ll use it to watch tv in bed, but i’m more inclined to listen to audio books on my phone or fire tablet, so haven’t done much of that, either. I do appreciate having the clock visible all night long so i don’t have to hunt for my phone (usually lost in the bed) when i wake up and wonder what time it is. A fine device, really, but i already had the aforementioned dot, fire tablet, two fire tv’s, a flex, and alexa on my phone and in my car, so maybe i’ve just reached my saturation point. I bought one for my friend (who until that time had no alexa devices) and she loves it. So, if you don’t already have alexa in every room, get one. It’s fun.

I have to yell at this to get attention,, never had to do that with my echo .
I also had to turn the equalizer all the way up to make the sound loud. My standard echo is louder.
Easy to set up, but i bought this to use with my ring doorbell to view instead of my cell, and if you ask to see the front door it will show you a live view but briefly and if someone rings the bell it will show you and if you have motion detection it will announce and show you but the announcement cannot be turned off and is annoying so having motion turned on is not a good thing,,
also if you ask to see the front door it will view the outside briefly and turn off , it will not stay on live view and that is what i wanted this for..
All in all, it works just like my echo did , this just has a touch screen to view 2 way calling if you know someone that has one or you can watch youtube videos and such..
For the price i feel it was worth it..

This thing is awesome as a speaker, secondary screen for videos and on demand information. It’s quicker than googling something off hand, and has lots of integration with other devices.
The only downsides are that its streaming integrations are extremely limited. You can face cam with alexa and zoom, but it would be nice to have had facebook as well, and the media integration leaves a lot to be desired. At the bare minimum it should have the big streamers, disney, hbo, espn especially as this thing is fantastic for sports at a desk. Also the screen is a resounding meh. The video quality isnt fantastic and pretty much everything just looks washed out, but i understand the tradeoffs for the attractive price. Altogether i really enjoy it and would highly recommend. Just know what you’re getting for the low price.

I have the 1st gen and i like it. I like this better because of the increased camera quality and auto zoom feature. But i wish it had aux port like 1st gen because i want to connect it to my surround sound system that doesn’t have blue tooth. Another thing is i wish the smart home had full access like the app and be able to set that as home/main screen so it’s ready to use instantly-it could be a mode to turn on (smart home control mode). Other than that i like it.

This otherwise amazing product is profiling.

Obviously the algorithm that regulates its performance has been designed to link language and cultural affinity. And that’s wrong.

We are bilingual in our family. We speak both spanish and english. And we decided to set up echo for spanish language.

As a result, what we get are news from spanish broadcasting stations, and suggestions for music or products we don’t like.

The whole process is so rigid that even when we ask alexa to show the new york time headlines… It shows telemundo.

We switched the language over to english and as a result all the cultural and ethnic assumptions changed as well.

Maybe there is a way of talking to alexa in spanish without being profiled as latino that watches telemundo and listen to banda el recodo. If there is a way of doing it, we’d really appreciate the info.

I bought an echo show 8 2nd generation for my +90 yr old parents. I live far away from them and i needed an easy way to stay in touch. The advertising shows this product as a great way to keep in touch with grand parents. I would like to point out to the engineers of this product that grand parents may not be technologically savvy. Teaching elderly how to give alexa simple commands or how to touch the screen to answer a call is way more challenging than i expected. I had practiced with my parents how to answer a call over an over again until my hair almost caught fire. They did eventually learn and now i can contact my parents via skype from afar to stay in touch. The reason i chose echo show 8 over echo show 5 and other competing brands is it works with skype. I had to do a lot of online searching to figure out how to set it up. The user of the echo show device needs an amazon account and also needs to have alexa downloaded to a pc or mobile phone, but i prefer the pc. The reason for all the accounts is, you must link a skype account (that also has to be created) to alexa which can only be done on the alexa app via the pc or mobile phone; it cannot be done through the settings on echo show 8. There are yet additional settings accessible only through the amazon account, e.g., to undo some settings. The person calling the echo show 8 device also needs to have a skype account. Note, the skype account linked only to echo show 8 will have its status indicator off. Additionally, i discovered that the echo show device has face and voice recognition. It’s similar to the corresponding tools in apple’s ios, but not as elegant. I set it up for my parents; its usefulness is doubtful because the shortcomings become apparent when tested by elderly. Skype does not actually run on echo show 8 and therefore cannot be set to automatically answer a call as is possible for a device that has skype installed – a useful feature in case of an emergency. Something similar is available if the echo show 8 device has ‘drop-in’ mode enabled and the caller is on the device’s contact list, and caller has alexa on their pc or mobile phone. The caller can then ‘drop-in’ on the echo show 8 device and the call is automatically answered by the echo show 8 device. Setting up echo show 8 for use with skype is not easy if you are unfamiliar with amazon’s operating system. Given all the setup complications, i give the echo show 8 a less than perfect rating. I am still happy with the product i bought for my parents.

The white one looks good and has a white cord. I don’t relay have any complaints about the unit. The camera feed from it can be easily seen on alexa. I am a little disappointed that it does not have a mode to be just a large clock and weather display full time ( apparently previous version did ). I had hoped this would be a good replacement for a weather station display when i added some remote temperature sensors to my system i understand that display from those would depend on alexa skill from their manufacturer. However i thought i could at least get a constant outdoor condition display then ask for info from my other sensors. Since it is in my bedroom , i don’t really care about the constant recommendations for music , movies etc

You can’t set this thing up like a normal echo device. You have to do it on the device itself. Instead of using the seamless option of linking it to your account from your alexa app. You have to manually enter emails and passwords on the device itself. The explanation i received for this from amazon was “but this one has a screen!”