Amazon’s Echo Show 16 Priced at $499.99 as Preorders Open

Grace Kim

Amazon announced the Echo Show 16 at $499.99, including a wall mount, and opened preorders for release later this year. The anti-glare Nanomatte edition costs $569.99, and Amazon is offering a $100 preorder discount. At $499.99, the device costs twice the $250 Echo Show 11 and $200 more than Apple’s new HomeView smart display. Amazon demonstrated the hardware at a small media event in New York City. The company positions the Show 16 as a household hub rather than a voice assistant with a screen. A short hands-on session suggests Amazon has addressed a recurring criticism: smart displays often promise too many functions and rarely execute any of them well.

What does the Echo Show 16 add?

Amazon’s Screen Styles give the home screen four layouts: a family organizer, a smart-home dashboard, an Alexa widgets page and a digital photo frame. Users can keep a layout visible at all times or summon it when they approach the display. The layouts provide touch access to calendars, meal plans and frequently used smart-home controls. The Show 16 gathers the family calendar, weekly meal plan, family photos, smart-home devices and video-doorbell activity in one place. Earlier Echo Shows added visual context to a voice-first assistant. The Show 16 extends that approach into a broader household control panel.

The full-HD screen appeared responsive, bright and clear, with deep blacks. Its slim-bezel design closely resembles Amazon’s Alexa Tablet Pro 12, and both offer anti-glare Nanomatte as an upgrade. The Echo Show 16 uses a MediaTek processor rather than Amazon’s AZ3 chip. Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices and services, said: “A lot of the same work went into this as the tablet.” Two optional stands support desktop placement, though the device may be too large for a kitchen counter. The Show 16 has slimmer bezels and a thinner body than the Echo Show 15 and Echo Show 21; the Show 21 also costs $499.

A slim speaker box runs the length of the screen and contains eight custom woofers and two tweeters. The hands-on test found its sound better than a tablet and on par with the Echo Show 11. Luke Combs’ “The Way I Am” sounded clear, loud and smooth, though the system lacked some depth. Four microphones sit inside the device, but the test did not establish whether Alexa hears better in this format.

How does Alexa Plus work on the larger screen?

The new favorites bar appears on most screens and opens a programmable menu of device functions. It can switch among the Show’s functions, including third-party Alexa skills and integrations. In the hands-on test, the bar opened promptly and sent the user directly to the selected application.

The Show 16 supports Alexa Plus for voice conversations and chat. The latest version can conduct deeper research. Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s current vice president of Alexa and Echo, will move to another role next month and described the updated assistant as more capable. He said: “It has access to more models and now has more depth of reasoning, is more capable of multitasking, and better at breaking down both complex tasks and vague tasks.” The new “next best actions” feature makes proactive suggestions based on prior conversations. During a demonstration, Alexa suggested where to buy hardware cloth for a chicken-coop project and recommended hiking trails and YouTube videos for a Scotland trip.

Cards organize Alexa’s memory and appear on the Show, in the redesigned Alexa app and on Alexa.com. Users can reopen a conversation and continue where they left off, or pin a card to the Show’s Alexa Widget face. The interface uses more of the display than the current blue Alexa screen filled with white text. The Show 16 also runs the full Fire TV interface and includes a redesigned Alexa remote that felt more comfortable in the hand during testing.

What does Alexa show when the room is empty?

Two ambient screensavers can appear when the device detects that the user has left: a photo frame or Alexa Recommendations. The latter follows the rotating-screen concept used on current Echo Shows. Recommendations can show weather, news, photos, other content and display ads. Amazon did not demonstrate the option during the media event. Incoming Alexa and Echo vice president Aidan Marcuss said the mode “will continue to offer the broad variety of content, just as it does now.” He confirmed that full-screen ads appear only in that mode, not on other home screens. Users can disable Alexa Recommendations or turn off the ambient display entirely.

What does the rebuilt smart-home map add?

Amazon rebuilt the map interface that launched in 2023. Users can zoom into a 3D view of smart-home devices and control lights, locks, cameras and other equipment in place. The map updates in real time, so a room lights up when the user activates a light. It also provides a bird’s-eye view of the home and neighborhood. Exterior Ring cameras feed the same map. When someone approaches the house, a figure appears and the user can tap it to open the live feed from the camera that detected the person.

Will older Echo Shows get the new features?

Amazon says the new interface and features will eventually reach all current Show devices, but it gave no timeline. The Show 16 includes customizable home screens at no extra cost. Older devices will require a subscription for those screens, although Amazon did not disclose the price.

The hands-on test suggests the Show 16 can succeed where many smart displays have struggled. Its advantage lies in combining touch controls, voice functions and a large display within one device. The commercial test is whether Amazon can justify $499.99 against the Echo Show 11 and Apple’s HomeView. The next pricing milestone will reveal whether subscriptions for older devices can broaden the platform or leave the Show 16 as an expensive niche product.