More clever monitors we like
Google Nest Hub is priced at $100: If you don’t need a camera and don’t mind the smaller 7-inch screen, Google’s second-generation nest hub is a great choice. It has an wake-up alert that emulates rising sunlight for morning mornings and has sleep tracking technology to track your sleep quality despite poor quality results. It also supports gestures by using unique radar technology (such as playing or pausing videos that move manually).
Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen, 2023), priced at $90: The smaller and cheaper third-generation Echo Show 5 has a 5.5-inch screen that works best on a desk or nightstand. We think it’s too small for a kitchen or a living room, but it depends on how you plan to use it.
Echo Hub, $180: The Echo Hub is not a smart display. It lacks powerful speaker capabilities and does not have a camera for calls or Amazon’s pour-in video calling feature. Instead, it focuses entirely on smart home dashboards with built-in Alexa, as well as features like widgets and photography frameworks. I think it has the best, easiest features for a smart display and cuts the rest. However, if you want a good speaker, don’t choose this one.
Smart monitor skip
We don’t like every smart display. These are the ones that you skipped after trying.
Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen, 2021) at $250: This smart display is located on top of a large cylindrical speaker, which sounds great. The screen physically rotates to follow you around the room as you use, keeping the frame while you are chatting or keeping the streaming workout video in line of sight while you are moving. Since the screen moves around, you may position it in a tighter space, especially in corners. This is a unique model that is currently in stock, but let’s note that it is restocked.
The Echo Show 15 costs $300: This is the largest of them, with a 15.6-inch display and with customizable widgets so you can always use smart home device controls and calendar reminders. It can be mounted on the wall like a TV (sold separately), and performs 15 pairs with the Fire TV remote control (you can use the app) to use the streaming feature. Voice commands are not good for streaming, so they feel like the weirdness between a smart display and a TV, not great in either department. The Echo Show 21 ($400) is essentially the same device, or even bigger.
Third-party Google displays: Google no longer recommends some of the third-party Smart monitor update software for us in this guide. If you have one, it still works, but over time some features may suffer or disappear completely. This seems to be the fate of most third-party Google Smart monitors, which is why we no longer recommend them.
FAQ
Do you need smart display?
Smart monitors are helpful, acting as a hub for smart home devices, browse recipes when you cut them off in the kitchen and in some cases video chats can also be done for free. However, we are not sure how long they have been in their current form, or even how long they have existed. Our favorite Meta portal is no longer available. Google recently stopped releasing software updates for some third-party displays (more on this below) and seems to be shifting the focus to its new Pixel tablet (our preferred).
Even after losing $10 billion in 2022, Amazon continues to make new smart presentations, thanks to failures around Alexa Voice Assistant. The Alexa team was reportedly hit by layoffs in 2022 and 2023, but new smart displays have emerged since then. Apple still doesn’t do smart displays (more on the following!), but it’s already a smart display feature when the iPhone is charging.
The future of these smart home devices is not yet clear, but if you are getting one, we recommend sticking to the device directly from the brand of your favorite voice assistant. Otherwise, consider one of our favorite tablets.
Does Apple have smart displays?
So far, Apple has not launched its own dedicated smart display. Apple iPhone has an alternate mode included in iOS, which is activated next to the iPhone and when it is charged, using a booth like Twelve South. I had hoped this feature would feel similar to the Smart Display, but the alternate mode is limited to a customizable clock face that displays your photos and pops up text in the large text that fills the screen. It doesn’t scratch all the features in the smart display, but it feels like a beautiful alarm clock.
Amazon will soon begin rolling out new and improved Alexa called Alexa+. The second generation of Alexa voice assistants should be more conversational, able to perform complex tasks and learn new information, and become more personalized. This will be due to the fact that it is powered by the generation of AI.
Alexa+ will also require all voice recordings to be sent to Amazon for processing, and Amazon also changes its recordings with regular Alexa to Amazon. There is a “Don’t Send Voice Recording” privacy feature, but was killed in March.
Alexa+ gets $20 per month, free if you have an Amazon Prime membership. While you may have membership, if you add an Alexa device to your home, it’s a big jump compared to the previous free assistant (both versions have less privacy). Amazon says that starting with the Echo Show Smart monitor, especially the Echo Smart monitors we recommend above, and the Echo Shot 8 for 10, 15 and 21.
What about the digital calendar?
These digital screens are designed to have a shared calendar that can provide an entire family with a shared calendar to view and view, but digital calendars are becoming more and more like smart monitors, but are not able to respond to voice commands and stream video calls. Skylight is the maker of one of our favorite digital photo frames, which makes the Skylight Calendar (starting at $170) 10-inch, 15-inch and 27-inch, while I tested the fireplace display ($699) and came in just 27-inch sizes. Cozyla also made the 15-inch Cozyla Calendar+, but all the way to the 36-inch screen.
There are some differences in these calendars, but you will find similar barriers to them: membership. Fireplace display encourages the use of monitors to create routines with family (especially children) although you want a kid who is 2 years old to use it correctly (although the furnace does have icons designed for children who cannot read) and register for a family membership. Skylight touts photo screen saver and meal planning tool if you sign up for the “Mooner Plus” plan.
You can find the right device for you, but either another parent-managed device or you have to teach your entire family the habit of truly getting the most out of it. You’d better teach only everyone in your family to share their Google Calendar.
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