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Amazon's new Echo Show: Buy 2, save $100

There's already a deal to be had on Amazon's updated flagship Alexa device. Plus: Get the new Echo Auto for half price? Maybe?

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read
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The newly redesigned, larger Echo Show is $100 off when you preorder two.

Ben Fox Rubin/CNET

Amazon's big event Thursday yielded a ton of new hardware, including a new version of the somewhat-maligned Echo Show. If the new design appeals to you and you have plans to deploy more than one, there's a deal to be had.

For a limited time, you can save $100 when you preorder two Echo Shows. Just add two to your cart and the discount will be applied automatically. The device is scheduled to ship around Oct. 11.

The Echo Show aims to be the centerpiece of your kitchen or den, adding a screen to the Alexa smart-speaker mix. The second-gen Show bumps that screen up to an iPad-level 10 inches, up from the previous 7 inches.

It also promises improved sound thanks to a pair of 2-inch neodymium side-firing drivers and beefed-up bass. So-so sound quality was one of the complaints about the first-gen model.

Watch this: Amazon's new Echo Show boasts a revamped design

Another complaint was the design, but the Show 2.0 looks prettier and features the same kind of soft-fabric casing now common to the Echo and Echo Dot . The tapered backside hides a lot of the ugly bulk that damaged the first version's aesthetic.

With the discount, each Show ends up costing you $180 instead of $230, for a total of $360. Could you buy an Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet instead, pair it with a Bluetooth speaker and achieve more or less the same thing? Yes (see "Build your own Echo show on the cheap," below), but with the Fire HD 10 priced at $150, you wouldn't be saving all that much.

Of course, you wouldn't be on the hook for two of them, and the Fire HD 10 is currently on sale for $110 for Prime subscribers. You could also use a Fire HD 8 (just $80).

Still, if you like the idea of a screen-enhanced Alexa and want to deploy a pair of them, this is a pretty good deal. Amazon will no doubt offer Echo-line price breaks around Black Friday , but there's no guarantee the Show will be among them.

Your thoughts?

Read more: Build your own Echo Show on the cheap

Bonus deal: Amazon also introduced the Echo Auto yesterday, a product I hope will work better than the current crop of Alexa-in-your-car gadgets. (All signs point to yes, thanks in part to the Auto's eight internal microphones.)

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Assuming it works well, I'm definitely in for $25. (Probably for $50 as well, if I have to.)

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

It's going to sell for $50, but if you request an Echo Auto preorder invitation, you have the chance to buy it for $25.

I've tried a couple of third-party gizmos like this. They just didn't work well, mostly because road noise interfered with voice detection. The Echo Auto can "hear you over everything," Amazon says, including music, a blasting AC and so on.

I'm eager to try this, so you can bet I submitted my request for the $25 option. Now all I have to do is wait. (Those accepted will be notified "later this year," Amazon says.)

Bonus deal No. 2: This Qi charging pad is only $5!

Bonus deal No. 3: There's an Apple AirPower alternative you can buy now for only $40.


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