More Smart Displays We Like
Google Nest Hub for $100: Google’s second-gen Nest Hub is a great option if you don't need a camera and don’t mind a smaller 7-inch screen. It has a wake-up alarm that emulates the rising sun for gentler mornings, and it has sleep tracking tech to track your sleep quality, though the quality of the results isn't great. It also supports gestures—like playing or pausing a video with a hand movement—by using unique radar tech.
Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen, 2023) for $90: The smaller and cheaper third-gen Echo Show 5 has a 5.5-inch screen that works best on a desk or a bedside table. We think it's a bit too small for the kitchen or living room, but that depends on how you plan to use it.
Echo Hub for $180: The Echo Hub isn't exactly a smart display. It lacks powerful speaker capabilities and doesn't have a camera for calls or Amazon's Drop-In video call feature. Instead, it focuses entirely on being a smart home dashboard with built-in Alexa, plus features like widgets and the photo frame. I think it takes the best, most easily used features of a smart display and cuts out the rest. But if you want a good speaker, don't choose this one.
Smart Displays to Skip
We don't like every smart display. Here are the ones we're skipping after trying them out.
Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen, 2021) for $250: This smart display is situated on top of a large cylindrical speaker, which makes it sound great. The screen physically swivels to follow you around the room as you use it, keeping you in frame while you video chat or keeping your streamed workout video in your line of sight as you move about. Because the screen moves around so much, you may have trouble positioning it in tighter spaces—especially in corners. It's a unique model, and currently out of stock, but we're keeping an eye out to see if it restocks or not.
Echo Show 15 for $300: This is the largest of them all, with a 15.6-inch display, and it has customizable widgets so you can have smart-home device controls and calendar reminders available whenever. It's made to be mounted on your wall like a TV (a stand is sold separately), and the Show 15 pairs with a Fire TV remote (you can use the app) to use the streaming features. Voice commands for streaming don't work well, so it feels like a weird in-between of a smart display and a TV that doesn't excel in either department. The Echo Show 21 ($400) is essentially the same device, just even larger.
Third-Party Google Displays: Google is no longer updating software for some of the third-party smart displays we used to recommend in this guide. If you have one, it will still work, but some features will likely suffer or disappear entirely as time passes. This seems to be the fate of most third-party Google smart displays, which is why we don't recommend them anymore.
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