Buy Amazon Echo Show 8 on Amazon – $80

The Echo Show 5 is clearly meant as a nightstand companion and won’t blow you away with its 5-inch screen, but it delivers better sound quality than you’d expect for the size while including helpful alarm clock features like a sunrise alarm and an ambient light sensor. The Echo Show 8 can fill that role, but its 8-inch display makes it the better of the two for following recipes or catching up on your Netflix queue.

In both cases, Alexa is the main draw — it’s still one of the most capable voice assistants and helps you control smart home devices, play music or start video chats (there’s thankfully a built-in privacy shutter). So long as you’re comfortable with Amazon’s ecosystem in the first place, they should fit right in to your household.