Karlston Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 The Best Smart Displays Ever wish you could smash a tablet and smart speaker together? These devices try to offer the best of both worlds. A smart display might be for you if you want the convenience of a smart assistant with the added bonus that comes with having something to look at. When you put Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa into a smart speaker with a tablet-sized screen, you get a fun way to see the weather or album art, watch TV shows, make video calls, and other (mostly) useful stuff. We've tested most of the major displays on the market and have listed our favorites below. Most of our picks use Google Assistant instead of Amazon's Alexa because it's often easier to set up devices and Google provides a simpler service in some ways. Be sure to check out our many other buying guides, including our roundups of all smart speakers, and specifically Google and Alexa. Updated June 2020: We added the 7-inch version of the Lenovo Smart Display to that product's section. Our former pick for a smart speaker, the JBL Link 20, has been discontinued; we added the Sonos One as an option if you want to ditch the screen and updated prices throughout. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more. Photograph: Best Buy Best Overall Google Nest Hub Max The Google Nest Hub Max is a great all-around smart display. It has an unobtrusive design, a 10-inch touchscreen display, some pretty good speakers, and a camera for video calls over Google Duo. The camera can also identify individual members of the house and shows personal information only pertaining to each person. It's a great overall option. Just know you'll need the right amount of space for it, and you may want to pick up a camera cover. There's also the smaller Google Nest Hub with a 7-inch screen. This ends up a slightly odd size, too small to be useful in places like the kitchen, but a little large for the bedside. It can do voice calls, but Google opted out of using a camera, as it's likely you'll put this smart display in more private spaces at home. $230 at Best Buy $229 at Walmart Photograph: JBL Best for Music JBL Link View Smart Display Like the Nest Hub Max, JBL's Link View (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is an all-around winner. It has the best speakers of any display we've tried, and its 8-inch screen is ideal—small enough that it doesn't take up your whole countertop, but big enough for squint-free Google Duo video chats or displaying photos. Plus, it has a built-in privacy cover over its webcam to ensure no one is snooping on you. $277 at B&H Audio $300 at Walmart $300 at JBL Photograph: Lenovo Best for the Bedroom Lenovo Smart Clock Lenovo's Smart Clock is one of the smallest smart displays you'll find, which is ideal for the bedroom. The 4-inch smart display can do almost anything other Google Assistant devices can, gets dim enough not to disturb you during slumber, and suggests alarms based on your routines. The extra USB port means you can plug in your phone to charge as well, possibly lessening the number of dangling wires by your bedside table. Its small size does mean it's less useful for displaying things like recipes or watching videos unless you're quite close. $50 at Best Buy $49 at Walmart Photograph: Lenovo Best for the Kitchen Lenovo Smart Display Lenovo's Smart Display (8/10, WIRED Recommends) can't pump out the jams as well as JBL's Link View, but it has a stylish design that's kitchen-friendly. Google Assistant's step-by-step recipe directions work perfectly on it. It comes in three sizes, 7-inch, 8-inch, and 10-inch. The former two sizes are perfect in a small kitchen; the 10-inch may be too large for some, but we love the bamboo wood grain design touches on the back. You can prop the 8- and 10-inch models up vertically for Google Duo video calls or keep it widescreen, but we didn't miss that feature on the 7-inch. And, like the Link View, this also has a privacy shutter so you can keep the camera covered. $99 at Walmart (7-inch) $199 at Walmart (8-inch) $231 at Walmart (10-inch) Photograph: Amazon If You Prefer Alexa Over Google Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen) Amazon's 2nd Echo Show has a larger 10-inch screen and enhanced, rear-firing speakers. It has a more high-end look and Amazon added step-by-step recipes to Alexa to combat what Google cooked up for its displays. Frankly, it's still not as good as Google Assistant in this regard, but Amazon invented this category, and the latest Echo Show is a promising evolution of the smart-screen concept. There's also the Echo Show 5, with a much smaller screen that makes it more at home on a bedside table than anywhere else. Amazon also has an Echo Show 8, the middle child you might say. We haven't laid hands on one yet, but with the same pixel density of the 10.1-inch model in a smaller form factor, the Echo Show 8 will likely offer the best screen quality of the Echo show family, and 8 inches is often a pretty good size for a smart display. $180 at Amazon (10-inch) $60 at Amazon (5.5-inch) $90 at Amazon (8-inch) Photograph: Facebook To Video Chat All Your Facebook Friends Facebook Portal (2019) Facebook is tired of being confined inside apps and websites. It wants in on the hardware market. The 8- and 10-inch Portals and 16-inch Portal Plus are its answer. WIRED senior writer Adrienne So liked using the Portal (6/10, WIRED Review) but found it "difficult to separate this family of devices from the social network that makes them." And therein lies the rub. To add to the creepiness, the Portal can rotate and has a camera that follows your movements. Facebook stresses that calls are encrypted and the camera can be disabled or blocked with the included camera cover. Outside of video chatting, Portal devices operate like the Echo Show and rely on Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. $129 at Amazon (all models) Photograph: Sonos Or Forget the Screen Sonos One (Gen 2) We don't believe you need to choose a smart display, by any stretch. If you don't feel the need for a screen, a smart speaker offers the power of an assistant and often much better sound. We like the Sonos One ($199) (8/10, WIRED Recommends), because it will give you the best sound you can get from a smart speaker and works with both Alexa or Google. Sonos speakers connect really easily with each other. We also have full roundups of the best smart speakers overall, best Google Assistant speakers, and best Alexa speakers. $199 at Amazon $200 at Best Buy The Best Smart Displays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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