Smart home tablet deals are somewhat common, often dropping to super-low prices more regularly than the average tablet. As one example, weeks ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, Amazon has chopped $50 off the last-gen Amazon Echo Show 8, offering a capable, mid-size smart home hub for just $100.
The Echo Show 8 in between the Show 5 and Show 10 when it comes to size, offering a basic 8-inch LCD display that’s good enough for most. To be sure, there is a newer generation of the Echo Show lineup that feature a few small upgrades, though the newest Echo Show 8 sells for $180 and doesn’t see nearly as many discounts as this generation.
✅Recommended if: you’re looking for a straightforward, Alexa-compatible device for controlling your other smart home devices; you like having a smart home device with a camera privacy shutter and a switch to mute the microphone; you want something with built-in speakers for music streaming and shows.
❌Skip this deal if: you prefer a smart home tablet that’s a different size than this one; you need something with Dolby audio processing and you have the budget to upgrade; you’d prefer to spend a little more to go with the latest-gen Echo Show device.
Many of the best Amazon Echo Show devices offer similar hardware and features, with the main exception of being housed in different-sized screens. This particular deal is for the 3rd Gen Echo Show 8, which still offers a Full HD LCD display, built-in speakers and microphones for easy voice command access, and a useful privacy shutter for the selfie cam, as well as a switch to turn the microphone off.
Whether you primarily use it as a photo frame for family pictures, smart home control device, streaming screen, or all of the above, the Echo Show 8 has been well-liked since its launch, and especially because of its decent audio quality, size, and a powerful camera for video calls. It also boasts better audio than previous generations, and it isn’t too far off from the newer generation—except for a sizable price difference.