Price: $299 / £299 / AU$549
Screen size: 15.6 inches
Dimensions: 15.8 x 9.9 x 1.4 inches / 40 x 25 x 3.5cm
Resolution: 1080p resolution
Connectivity: Matter, Wi-Fi, Thread, Zigbee, Bluetooth
Voice assistant: Alexa
Camera: 13MP
Weight: 4.85lbs / 2.2kg
Pros
- Improved camera and audio hardware
- Built-in Fire TV interface
- Supports Vision ID
- Matter, Zigbee, and Thread support
Cons
- Audio quality still poor
- Smart-home controls take a backseat
- Table stand sold separately
Price: $299 / £299 / AU$549
Screen size: 21.5 inches
Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.2 x 1.5in / 54 cm x 34 cm x 3.8 cm
Resolution: 1080p resolution
Connectivity: Matter, Wi-Fi, Thread, Zigbee, Bluetooth
Voice assistant: Alexa
Camera: 13MP
Weight: 10.7lbs / 4.9kg
Pros
- M4 chip delivers top-notch performance
- Design is still the best
- All-day battery life
- Lower price
Cons
- – Apple Intelligence is still a mixed bag
TechRadar Smart Home Week
This article is part of TechRadar’s Smart Home Week 2025. From lighting and switches to robot vacuums and smart thermostats, we’re here to help you pick the right devices to make your life easier, and get the most out of them.
If you want your Alexa smart speaker to do more for you than tell the time and play some tunes, you’ll want to invest in a larger smart display like the Echo Show 15 or 21; but which is better?
Amazon announced the devices just ahead of the official announcement of Alexa+, Amazon’s new AI upgrade to its ever-popular voice assistant, positioning these larger Echo Show screens as the favored interfaces for its new, agentic AI, so there’s more reasons than ever before to consider a smart display-cum-speaker-cum-TV; deciding which is your only barrier. So, here’s how the two models line up.
Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 21: Price
The Amazon Echo Show 15 costs $299 / £299, while the Echo Show 21 is $100 / £100 more expensive, and both are available directly from Amazon.
Both are wall mountable, but if you want a desktop or counter stand you’re looking at $100 / £100 on top of that for the official stand. There are a wide range of compatible VESA mounts available online, however, and our top tip is to find a rotating mount, as both of these screens can be installed in portrait or landscape orientation.
It’s also worth considering the price of Alexa+. By itself, the AI subscription service will be $19.99 as it rolls out in the US, or it’s free as part of an Amazon Prime membership. Global pricing and release plans are to be determined.
Overall, it’s slim pickings between the two screens, with the $100 / £100 difference mostly accounting for screen size. I’d argue the Show 15 is slightly better value as, for less, you get pretty similar specs across the board otherwise.
Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 21: Design
Modeled after a simple picture frame, the Echo Show 15 and 21 screens are laid on a white mat surrounded by a black frame. Along the top here are its speakers, volume controls as well as two pinhole microphones. There are manual privacy features, too; a microphone mute button that glows red when activated and a privacy shutter that covers the 13MP camera.
You’ll also have to factor in the 1.5m power cable when considering placement, which needs to be inserted into a recess on the back of the display and could limit your options when it comes to positioning your Echo Show. Also included is the Alexa voice remote, which is a neat addition, albeit one that falls a little flat owing to the fact that it can’t be used for skills and services outside of the Fire TV interface.
There’s minimal difference other than size, really, but that can be a big deciding factor. It all comes down to what you want from your smart display; if you want a visuals-first entertainment center, go for the Echo Show 21, whereas if you want a household planner heads-up display in family rooms, go for the Echo Show 15. I’d also say if you’re not planning on wall-mounting your new Echo Show, definitely opt for the 15. The 21-inch version does attach to VESA mount stands, but it takes up an awful lot of space and lacks grace, aesthetically speaking, when stand-mounted.
- Winner: Echo Show 15 for its versatility, Echo Show 21 for wall-mounting
Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 21: Performance and display
Both the Echo Show 15 and 21 offer crisp images with a highly reflective 1920 x 1,080 display. The viewing angle for these screens isn’t the best, which is a misstep for devices designed to be glanced at from various places in a room, but provided you don’t place it directly in a sunbeam, you should get by just fine.
Compared to the original Echo Show 15, the audio is much improved, offering surprisingly punchy sound from the two 2-inch woofers and 0.6-inch tweeters. Still, if you’re particular about image and sound quality, it’s an idea to hook up better speakers, as I found the speakers to be modest at best.
The new, auto-framing, 3.3x zoom 13MP camera is a notable improvement for better Alexa Drop-Ins, and that’s paired with the on-board proximity sensor on board, which not only helps to control the screen’s brightness, turning it on when someone approaches the device, but also it’s content. Using facial or voice-recognition, the Echo Show will display content relevant to me – say, a TV show I’m mid-way through watching, but when my partner approaches the screen, it might show him his favorite artist.
In recent years, Amazon has added widgets to its smart displays, allowing you to more easily organise your life with shopping lists and calendars to daily reminders You can also customize the kinds of information you see day-to-day, like local weather reports or smart home favorites to control your home. Worth highlighting is that Alexa+ has its own distinctive UI from what we’ve seen, which only adds to this customizability.
Support is provided for Matter and Thread, which means you can use the Echo Show 15 and 21 as a Zigbee Hub, and setup is just as easy as the rest of Amazon’s Echo range.
The only thing that distinguishes these two models in the performance department, really, is that the pixel density is slightly lower on the Echo Show 21 owing to its larger size; it’s not visible to the untrained eye, though, so I’d call this particular battle a draw.
Which one should you buy?
Technically speaking, the Echo Show 15 wins this one due to its versatility and lower price point, but with these two devices being near-identical it’s a pretty close match. Ultimately, it’s as much about what you’ll want to use the devices for; if you want to watch TV and movies and have a nice big screen to display your important updates, the Echo Show 21 is the way to go. For more of a countertop solution with a more lightweight frame, it’s the Echo Show 15.
Of course, all of this could well change once we’ve had some proper hands-on time with Alexa+, depending on how that interface renders; my guess would be, however, that the new AI-bolstered voice assistant won’t be changing the game that drastically.
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josephine.watson@futurenet.com (Josephine Watson)
