Best Buy and Home Depot have an Echo Show 21 sale that brings Amazon’s large Alexa display down to $319.99. The retailers list the 21-inch smart display at $80 below its usual $399.99 price, matching the lowest price tracked by The Verge.
The deal matters if you were pricing out a wall-mounted smart home controller and a small kitchen TV as separate gadgets. Amazon built the Echo Show 21 to do both jobs: it has a 1080p display, built-in Fire TV, Alexa, smart home controls, speakers, and a camera for video calls.
Is the Echo Show 21 sale worth it?
The discount puts the Echo Show 21 only $20 above Amazon’s smaller Echo Show 15, according to The Verge. That makes the larger model easier to justify if the main draw is a big screen for calendars, recipes, streaming video, or smart home widgets in a shared space.
The Echo Show 21 is also one of Amazon’s Alexa displays with the fuller smart home control set. The Verge says the Echo Show 21 and Echo Show 15 support Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, so they can control a wider range of compatible lights, plugs, sensors, and other devices than a display that only talks to Alexa through the cloud.
Matter and Thread are smart home standards meant to make devices from different brands work together more reliably. In the Echo Show 21, that support means compatible devices can be controlled locally through voice commands or on-screen widgets, according to The Verge.
- Best Buy lists the Echo Show 21 at $319.99.
- Home Depot lists the Echo Show 21 at $319.99.
- The usual listed price is $399.99.
Amazon includes a voice remote with the Echo Show 21. That remote is for media controls, including streaming services, but The Verge notes that it does not control widgets or Alexa skills. For the smart home side, the touch display and voice commands remain the point.
The display also has a 13-megapixel camera with auto-framing for video calls. Auto-framing keeps the user centered in the shot while moving around, which is more useful in a kitchen or family room than a fixed webcam angle pretending life happens at a desk.
The Echo Show 21 is designed for wall mounting. Buyers who want it on a counter, shelf, or kitchen island need Amazon’s separate adjustable stand. Best Buy has that stand for $99.99, down from $124.99. The stand tilts up to 30 degrees and can rotate 360 degrees.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
