When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works

Home / News / Amazon redesigns Echo Show 8 with spatial audio and adaptive content

Amazon redesigns Echo Show 8 with spatial audio and adaptive content

Echo Show 8 gets a fourth generation rework

Echo Show 8 4th gen

Amazon has redesigned the Echo Show 8 smart device, with spatial audio processing that automatically tunes to the room conditions.

That’s similar tech to many high-end wireless speakers such as those from Sonos and we’re seeing it come to much more accessible devices now.

The Show 8 is similar in design to the rework of the Echo Show 5 from earlier this year and brings a streamlined design compared to the older chunkier versions.

The Echo Show 8 (4th gen) will cost $150/£150 and will be available from today.

A new features, called adaptive content means that if you’re close to the device the content is more detailed. But if you’re further away, you’ll get at-a-glance info instead. Amazon wouldn’t be drawn on whether this will come to other Echo Show devices in due course and it was also unclear if it required hardware to make it work.

The feature seems to be an evolution from the Visual ID tech in devices like the Echo Show 15 to know when you are close to the device or, indeed, who is in the room. This should be quite a welcome change for Echo Show since it doesn’t rely on you making an input to offer you key information in a way that works with how close you are.

Amazon first introduced the Echo Show 8 in 2019, which offered a more compact device than the weighty original Echo Show and subsequent Show 10 but still with powerful audio. And the company had also introduced the even more compact Echo Show 5 to sit underneath it.

Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home