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.
FAQs
Do You Need a Smart Display?
Smart displays are helpful, acting as hubs for your smart home devices, walking you through recipes while you chop away in the kitchen, and in some cases allowing you to video chat hands-free too. But we’re not sure how long they’ll be worth it, or even exist, in their current form. Meta’s Portals that we liked are no longer available. Google recently stopped issuing software updates for some third-party displays (more on that below), and it seems to have shifted focus to its new Pixel Tablet (our top pick).
Amazon has continued to make new smart displays, even after losing $10 billion in 2022 thanks to failures around the Alexa voice assistant. The Alexa team was reportedly hit hard by layoffs in 2022 and 2023, but new smart displays have come out since then. Apple still hasn’t made a smart display (more on that below), but it has made smart display-adjacent features for iPhones when they’re charging.
The future of these smart home devices isn’t clear right now, but if you’re going to get one, we suggest sticking with devices directly from the brand whose voice assistant you prefer. Otherwise, consider one of our favorite tablets instead.
Does Apple Have a Smart Display?
So far, Apple has yet to launch its own dedicated smart display. Apple iPhones have a StandBy Mode included in iOS that activates when an iPhone is on its side and charging, using stands like this one from Twelve South. I had hoped this feature would feel similar to a smart display, but StandBy Mode is limited to customizable clock faces, showing your photos, and having your texts pop up in large text that fills the screen. It doesn’t scratch the itch of all the features you get in a smart display and instead feels like a fancy alarm clock.
Amazon will soon start rolling out the new and improved Alexa, named Alexa+. This second generation of the Alexa voice assistant is supposed to be more conversational, able to execute complex tasks and learn new information, and be much more personalized. That’ll be due to its being powered by generative AI.
Alexa+ will also require all voice recordings be sent to Amazon to be processed, and Amazon’s changing its features for recordings with regular Alexa to go to Amazon too. There was a “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” privacy feature, but it was killed in March.
Alexa+ will be available for $20 a month, or free if you have an Amazon Prime membership. While you likely have a membership if you added an Alexa device to your home, it’s a big jump from the previously free assistant (and both versions will have less privacy). Amazon says early access will begin to roll out next month in the US, beginning with Echo Show smart displays, specifically the Echo Show 8 we recommend above, along with the 10, 15, and 21. The privacy change will affect all Echo users, whether or not it’s one of these devices or a different model.
What About Digital Calendars?
There’s a growing market of digital calendars that look a bit like smart displays, but instead of being able to respond to voice commands and stream a video call, these digital screens are designed to have one shared calendar for the entire family to see and view. Skylight, a maker of one of our favorite digital photo frames, makes the Skylight Calendar (starting at $170) that comes in 10 inches, 15 inches, and 27 inches, while I tested the Hearth Display ($699) that comes exclusively in a 27-inch size. Cozyla also makes the Cozyla Calendar+ that starts at 15 inches but goes all the way up to a 36-inch screen.
There are some differences in these calendars, but you’ll find a similar roadblock to them: memberships. Hearth Display encourages using the display to create routines with your family, specifically kids, though you’ll want a kid older than my 2-year-old to use it properly (though the Hearth does have icons designed for kids who can’t read yet), and to sign up for the Family Membership. The Skylight touts a photo screensaver and meal planning tools if you sign up for the monthly Plus Plan.
You could find these devices are for you, but it’s either another device for one parent to manage or something you’ll have to teach your entire family to make into a habit to really get the most out of. You’re likely better off just teaching everyone in your family to share their Google Calendar.
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