I Tested the New Echo Show and Alexa Plus. Now They’re Part of My Kitchen

I’ve been testing smart displays since they first debuted in 2017, watching them go through different designs, sizes and smart home capabilities. While brands like Lenovo and Nest released powerful models, Amazon’s Echo Shows have always been some of the best. Now I’ve found my favorite one.

The Echo Show 11 benefits greatly from its best-ever touchscreen and strong speaker design, but its secret weapon is the upgraded Alexa Plus AI voice assistant, which proved more natural and accurate than ever in my tests. Now this new Echo Show (cheaper than the previous model at $220) is here to stay in my kitchen.

All the things the Show 11 gets right

First, the Echo Show 11 excels with its design. In practice, it’s smaller than the Show 10, happily ditching the awkward rotating base for a stationary speaker base and a solid base plate to keep the display slightly elevated.

That 11-inch touchscreen is just about the perfect size for my kitchen counter: It’s small enough to stay out of the way, but large enough to act as a separate mini TV, a how-to manual or a master of multiple cooking timers. The color on the HD display is a significant upgrade, enabled by the latest adaptive brightness features.

The sound on these larger Echo Show displays has always been impressive for their size, but this model has the clearest, most room-filling audio I’ve heard yet from a Show. The two full-range drivers and 2.8-inch woofer put in the work — and while the sound may never quite reach the heights of an Apple HomePod, it’s the next-best thing I’ve heard for filling my house with music on the fly.

A kitchen companion that’s always ready to help

Why choose the kitchen for my Echo Show 11? In my open floor plan, we spend a lot of time there — and I tend to have my hands busy, which makes voice commands for timers, music, news shows or general questions (what can I substitute for green papaya in soup, etc.) the best option. The Show also provides visuals for timers, reminders and shopping lists, which helps keep my brain organized.

This Show connects to many of my home devices, like showing security camera live views or controlling lamps with smart plugs. It’s received interesting advances here, with routines that you can activate via the on-board temperature sensor or presence sensor. And the camera, with a 3.3x zoom, lets you make calls or just check on the live view with the Alexa app, acting like a small security camera.

Alexa commands are well-suited to quickly adjust volume and brightness or show specific things. While deeper options exist via the touchscreen, I find it easier to head into the Alexa app to tinker. The app allows you to connect streaming services from Apple Music and Spotify/Tidal to Hulu and Netflix. I can use it to disable the camera — which also has a physical control — add photo albums for a slideshow and adjust privacy settings, too.

Whether I’m catching up on a show while cooking (I watched most of Mr. Robot that way) or asking about the fine difference between regular versus star anise, the Show 11 is underpinned by Alexa. The voice assistant recently received a huge upgrade with Alexa Plus, the AI-upgraded version with a new, chatty voice and many more capabilities. Alexa Plus, which is free to Prime subscribers but otherwise costs $20, is a big enough change that I’m still reviewing it separately, but it’s made the new Echo Show significantly better so far.

Think of Alexa Plus as a voice assistant augmented by a chatbot. Except for a small delay at the start, it sounds more natural when it relays information and responds to follow-up questions in a conversational way. Alexa Plus generally seems more connected to information that people want to have (as well as capabilities like ordering an Uber), and is surprisingly quick to adjust itself or admit fault. It’s a much more pleasant experience overall.

The price of the Echo Show 11 is dealing with suggested content

OK, this Echo Show is the best it’s ever been, but it’s not without flaws — well, one flaw. The bright screen is more than happy to show ads, often and at random. While some ads seem connected to things I did on Amazon years ago, others seem entirely disconnected and, indeed, the opposite of what I’d be interested in. From unwanted news and entertainment pieces to music suggestions or product offers, Amazon is gonna Amazon.

Under favorable circumstances, certain suggestions are recipes I’m interested in, such as a beet hummus it showed me while I was reviewing, but those aren’t always the case. Enabling a photo album seems to make ads a little less frequent, but I haven’t found any way to turn them off or tailor them. The good news is that they’re always soundless, but the occasional blurb for some purchase you really don’t want to make is apparently still the price of operation.

Final thoughts on the Echo Show 11

If you’ve been looking for a high-tech kitchen aid or all-purpose home screen and speaker combo, the Echo Show 11 is the best I’ve come across. The screen is crisper, the sound better and Alexa Plus is a fun, chatty upgrade compared to past versions. Connecting music and streaming services really let this display fly. But you will have to put up with a certain amount of poorly targeted Amazon ads, and I can’t blame you if that ends up being a deal-breaker. Fortunately, the rest of the display is on the soundest footing yet.