Best Smart Displays of 2024 - CNET

Article updated on October 9, 2024 at 12:58 AM PDT

From sleek smart panels to veritable mini TVs, smart displays fill a number of niches in the (smart) home.

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

What to consider

Smart home ecosystem

Buy the smart display that uses the same voice assistant you are already using to ensure seamless integration.

Personal use

Smart displays come in many different sizes, so be sure to get the one that best matches your primary use.

Where you plan to put it

Some smart displays can be wall mounted to free up counter or table space, others can't so the larger models will take up more room on table.

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

What to consider

Smart home ecosystem

Buy the smart display that uses the same voice assistant you are already using to ensure seamless integration.

Personal use

Smart displays come in many different sizes, so be sure to get the one that best matches your primary use.

Where you plan to put it

Some smart displays can be wall mounted to free up counter or table space, others can't so the larger models will take up more room on table.

A smart home setup can take in a lot of components, but a smart display is one of the better additions you can make. From pint-size models that can fit on the smallest nightstands to big-screen and big-speaker beauties, these displays allow you to take charge of your smart home as well as summon a myriad of media. It can really round out your smart home experience. We've tested and reviewed the top smart displays to help you find the right one to pair with your smart home devices.

There is no shortage of smart displays to choose from. For now, big players like Google and Amazon dominate the smart display market, with each having released numerous generations of devices. Most recently, we've seen the Amazon Echo Show 8 and the Amazon Echo Hub, the latter of which adds simplicity to controlling your smart home. Google on the other hand has the Google Nest Hub (formerly the Google Home Hub) as well as the Nest Hub Max, which adds in face- and gesture-tracking capabilities along with a larger screen -- you can also check out the Google Pixel Tab, which can double as a smart home display and Android tablet.

Nevertheless, whether you're looking to add a smart display to your existing setup or you're just starting your smart home and you find the touchscreen appealing, here are the best models available now. We'll update this list periodically.

The latest version of the Nest Hub with Google services arrived in 2021, and it's a great entry point for the category. It's the smartest and best overall, making the low price even more appealing.

Thanks to the built-in Google Assistant, the Nest Hub responds to all of the same voice command options as the Google Home Mini smart speaker. The Google smart display touchscreen is a little small at seven inches, but the adaptive brightness makes pictures look particularly great. Google will even customize a slideshow of family pics as your screensaver.

You can also control your smart home devices, like your smart doorbell, with an intuitively designed control panel. Unlike most of the other smart displays (and unlike its big brother, the Nest Hub Max), the Nest Hub doesn't have a camera, but that might be a bonus if you have privacy concerns and want to put it on your bedside table.

The second-generation smart home hub model includes Sleep Sensing and Quick Gestures thanks to Google's Soli mini radar. The colorful fabric design on this Google Assistant smart display allows the device to blend in anywhere, although the tablet touchscreen comes in handy if you want step-by-step help through a recipe in the kitchen.

For a long time, the Nest Hub occupied pride of place on this list, thanks to its photo display aesthetic, pleasant user interface and more naturalistic voice assistant. It lacks the built-in camera for easy video calls found on the Echo Show 8. Add that to Amazon Alexa's growing smarts, and the Show 8 has been upgraded to share the "best display" honor with the Nest Hub. Both are great smart displays.

With the Show 8, Alexa will respond to your voice control and voice commands, plus you can use the tablet screen to play games, browse recipes, watch movies and Prime Video trailers, control your smart home and more. The 8-inch touchscreen is small enough to stay out of the way but big enough that you won't have to squint. In the mornings, Amazon's sunrise alarm feature can help ease you out of your sleep with a screen that starts getting brighter 15 minutes before your scheduled wake-up time. The camera also comes with a physical shutter for privacy.

Google Assistant still makes better use of the touchscreen than Amazon -- in particular, the cooking directions and smart home controls are better -- but the Echo Show 8 is close enough, and it comes with a camera for video chats. In short, the Show 8 is Amazon's best smart display yet.

If you want a 10-inch touchscreen powered by Alexa, the third-generation Amazon Echo Show 10 is the latest and greatest in smart display technology. With a motorized base, the Echo Show 10 can follow you around the room during video calls or while you're watching video content on the device. The 10.1-inch tablet HD display looks good, and the device comes with a 13-megapixel front-facing camera, plus a physical shutter for privacy. Amazon also added adaptive color to this Echo device model.

You can use the Echo Show 10 as a smart home security camera and view it remotely in the Alexa app. Group video calling is supported for up to seven people, and Drop In lets you make a call directly to your display from anywhere with the Alexa app. Occupancy and vacancy-based routines can trigger other smart home devices when the Echo Show 10 senses someone entering or leaving the room.

This Alexa device is Amazon's priciest smart home hub display and the most feature-filled smart screen. We think most people will still get by just fine with the Echo Show 8 for considerably less money, but if you're after Amazon's boldest smart display yet with the impressive sound to go with it, this is the way to go. That room-filling sound comes from 2x 1-inch tweeters and a 3-inch woofer to ensure that the audio from the Echo Show 10 is just as elevated as the display itself.

Widgets display on the home screen as a panel that swipes out from the side.

For many years, the Echo Show 10 has been Amazon's largest smart display, but in December 2021, we got the Echo Show 15. This 15.1-inch smart display brings everything that you'd expect from the rest of the Echo Show lineup and allows for more screen room, better entertainment options and the flexibility to mount the screen on your wall.

Though users could access many of the best streaming services, like Prime Video and Netflix, on the Show 15 from the start, in September 2022, Amazon brought the full Fire TV interface to the smart display, making it an even better multimedia device. However, due to the device's thinness and rear-firing speakers, audio is a bit of a letdown on the Echo Show 15. Thankfully, you can group speakers together to improve the audio if you have more than one Echo device.

Adding another way to take advantage of the extra large screen real estate, Amazon first introduced Widgets with the Echo Show 15. This feature lets you put small customizable interactive blocks of the things you want to see right on the home screen. I keep my shopping list, a calendar with upcoming events, my favorite smart devices and a weather widget on my device. This makes quickly glancing at information really easy as it is all up front for me.

Widgets display on the home screen as a panel that swipes out from the side.

The Amazon Echo Hub is truly a smart display because though it does have speakers, you likely won't use them for a party. Instead, the 8-inch display is designed to be a central control point for managing your favorite Alexa smart devices. The easy-to-navigate dashboard allows you to control individual devices or an entire room. This device has been great in my home, with my wife and children less familiar with everything that is set up in our home. This way there's a simple way to see what smart devices are available.

In addition to being a smart home management device, it also functions as an Alexa speaker, allowing you to use voice commands to do everything else you'd expect from a typical smart speaker. The Echo Hub can even be a digital photo frame to show all your favorite memories. But thanks to sensors on the device's front, as you approach it, the screen will show you smart home devices and be ready to help you out.

Google Nest Hub Max: At over $200, the Nest Hub Max ups the Google Assistant's screen size from 7 to 10 inches and offers better sound quality than before. The real story is the addition of a sophisticated camera that can track movements and gestures, or identify faces to show you personalized info on the screen. It's an impressive combination of hardware and software, but the Google Nest Hub Max comes with privacy concerns. For most people, we think the original, camera-free Nest Hub is a lot closer to the smart display sweet spot.

Amazon Echo Show 5: The Echo Show 5 is the cheapest of Amazon's displays, and it features most of the perks of the Show 8. Its resolution is lower than the Show 8 and its screen is smaller. While it features a tap-to-snooze alarm feature that makes it perfect for a bedside alarm, its sound quality isn't close compared to its bigger siblings.

Amazon Echo Show (second-gen): The original Echo Show helped popularize the smart display back in 2017 and the second-gen Show improved on it in every way with better design, sound quality and a more useful screen. It's a good premium counterpart to the attractive $40 entry point of the Echo Show 5, although it's a little tricky to find in stock at the moment. The second-gen Show has great sound quality and a 10-inch screen. The touchscreen just isn't as useful as similar models with Google Assistant.

Lenovo Smart Display 10: If you want a 10-inch touchscreen powered by Google Assistant, Lenovo's smart display looks elegant and features the same smarts as the Nest Hub. There are three different Lenovo smart display models with 10-, 8- and 7-inch screens. The 10-inch Lenovo smart display has a bamboo back that's particularly well-suited for the kitchen.

Lenovo Smart Clock: This smart alarm trims out a lot of the functionality of smart displays. There's no camera and you can't watch videos. You can customize alarms and scroll through screens with weather and commute info. Thanks to a recent update, you can also look at personal pics and the Smart Clock will scroll through selected albums from Google Photos as your screensaver. It's cute and tailored for your nightstand, but it's more of an upgraded alarm clock than a full smart display.

We have options on this list that offer both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa as the voice assistant available to help with questions and smart home controls. It is important to pick the smart display that best matches what you already use. If you have an Echo device already in your home, then going with an Echo Show will seamlessly integrate into your home. But if you have a Google Home device, then you'll want a Google Assistant display. If you currently have neither, then go with the one that satisfies your personal preferences best.

If you plan to use the smart display primarily for controlling your smart home, and you use Alexa, then you'll likely want to go for the Echo Hub. But if you want more of an all-around device that will work great for watching videos, then perhaps a Google Hub Max, Echo Show 10, or Echo Show 15 would best suit your needs.

You'll want to consider where you'd like to place this smart display. While something like the Echo Show 8 (2023) or Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) don't need much room, the Echo Show 10 does. But if you go with the Echo Hub or Echo Show 15, you can mount those on the wall with the included hardware to free up more space on your table or counter.

For smart home users, the smart display will function as a sort of visual dashboard, showing you all your connected devices and their statuses. You can view cameras and doorbells on your smart display screen, as well as make video calls, watch online content, view recipes and ask general knowledge questions. There are other fun features like books, games, puzzles and holiday easter eggs. Smart displays also double as digital photo frames and helpful clocks and calendars.

A smart display admittedly doesn't do as much as your Android tablet or iPad. You won't be able to download any apps or view every single streaming platform. It isn't portable, either. Smart displays are focused on being hubs or command centers for your smart home. It's a device you'll plant on one shelf or countertop and likely leave it there for its entire life.

Well, that depends. If you're interested in smart home tech, a smart display is a helpful way to view everything you're setting up and controlling within your home. If you like making video calls, smart displays are a good way to do so without sacrificing your phone or laptop battery. If a smart home isn't really your cup of tea or if you're hesitant to put more cameras, microphones and voice assistants in your home (we wouldn't blame you), then a tablet or small laptop will meet your needs.