On with the SHOW

WE PUT AMAZON'S LATEST ECHO DEVICES TO THE TEST

- JUSTIN CONNOLLY

TURN IT UP TO 11: The Echo Show 11 in action

THERE'S no doubt Amazon has led the field with the best AI voice assistant in Alexa for some time now.

And in my mind, there's no better way to interact with it than via a smart speaker. It just feels so much more natural than having to pull your phone out and open an app.

Add a screen and a camera into the mix, and you have the best experience of all - the least friction to getting things done, and the most useful array of possibilities.

The new Echo Shows are the best realisation of this setup yet, and I've been testing both new versions of it for a few weeks now.

Released late last year, the Echo Show 11 and 8 are essentially the same device with differing screen sizes.

On the Show 8, we have an 8.7in display with a resolution of 720p. The 1lin screen on the Show 11 packs in more pixels with a resolution of 1080p.

To my eyes, the quality of the video on both is very good, and the only real reason to upgrade to the 1lin would be a requirement for more real estate there's literally nothing to distinguish between the devices other than that.