Amazon announced a bunch of new hardware earlier in the week, but the Echo Show 21 wasn’t updated and remains its biggest smart display. You can get a bundle that includes the Echo Show 21 and its Premium Adjustable Stand for $439.99 ($84.99 off) at Amazon. If you don’t have a stand, the Echo Show 21 must be mounted onto a wall using the included mount, which isn’t always feasible.
The Echo Show 21’s namesake feature is its 21-inch 1080p display, which offers plenty of digital space for widgets, including a calendar, shopping list, and multi-day weather forecast. The big screen comes in handy when you use its built-in Fire TV to watch TV shows and movies. The Echo Show 21 comes with an Alexa voice remote, so you can navigate through video apps more easily.
Amazon equipped the Echo Show 21 with a four-driver audio system that should sound richer than smaller smart speakers. It also has a 13-megapixel camera, which automatically zooms and pans to keep you in frame if you’re video chatting with someone. When you’re done with the call, you can close a physical privacy shade that blocks and disables the camera. You can also mute its microphone if you don’t want to make Alexa requests.
The Echo Show 21 has Thread and Zigbee antennas, so it can be used as a Matter Controller. A lot of smart home accessories — including plugs, lightbulbs, and thermostats — have Alexa or Matter support, which makes the Echo Show 21 a solid smart home hub, especially if you want to see the status of your most-used accessories at a glance. It’s an investment, even on sale, but the Echo Show 21 offers a lot to offer if you use all of it as a smart home hub, compact TV, and centralized digital dashboard for your reminders and calendar.
The smart display is the main appeal of Amazon’s bundle, but we shouldn’t forget about the stand, which offers 360 degrees of swivel and 30 degrees of tilt.