The Echo Show 8 is Amazon's mid-range smart display, combining the abilities of Echo smart speaker with an 8-inch touchscreen. An upgraded model was just released earlier this year, but Amazon still has some first-gen units taking up space in warehouses, so it's starting to go on steep discounts. Now you can pick one up at multiple retail stores for $69.99, a savings of $40 from the original price. For comparison, the new Echo Show 8 currently costs $130.
The original Echo Show 8 is a smart display, similar to Google's Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max, but with Alexa instead of Google Assistant. It can control smart home devices, call people, answer questions, stream music, and more using voice commands (and sometimes the touch screen). There's also a stand sold separately that can position it a bit higher for video calls. When you don't want Jeff Bezos listening in, there are switches on the top for muting the microphones and covering the camera.
Amazon Echo Show 8 (1st Gen)
The first-gen Echo Show 8 is a great option for an Alexa-powered smart display, especially at the sale price of $70.
Since it has a screen, the Echo Show 8 can display video feeds from some types of security cameras and connect to select streaming services — Netflix support was added last year. Compared to the newer Echo Show 8, this original model has a much worse camera (1MP vs 13MP), but the new model lacks the 3.5mm audio output present on this first-gen model.