Which Amazon Echo speaker should you buy?
Amazon’s Echo devices are amongthe best smart speakersavailable on the market, mostly because they include innovative features such as Wi-Fi extenders, thermometers, and smart home hubs. There’s a bunch of them to pick from, ranging from the modest Echo Dot to the higher-end Echo Studio, so knowing which one is best for you isn’t easy. Let’s dive deep into their specs and price to find the perfect one for your lifestyle and needs.
Amazon Echo (4th gen)
The standard Echo is Amazon’s flagship smart speaker, which offers a great combination of audio quality and smart home features. Its orb-like design enables it to produce 360-degree audio, which means it can be placed in a central location in any room to blast your favorite tunes.
Since it’s an Alexa-powered device, it comes with a fair share of smart home features, including a built-in Zigbee hub, which lets you connect an important number of smart home devices without needing an additional bridge. It also houses an ultrasound motion sensor, which allows you to use your Echo speaker to trigger routines, such as automatically turning the lights on when someone walks into the room.
The Echo isn’t cheap, though. It traditionally sells for $100, which means it’s best to feature it in your living room, dining room, office, or kitchen if you want HD audio in these rooms. Unless you listen to music in your bedroom and need high-quality audio while you shower, you should probably get a cheaper Echo Dot for these rooms.
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This flagship smart speaker is a great pick if you’re looking for the best of both worlds. With great audio quality and a plethora of smart features, it’s a great pick if you don’t mind dropping a few bucks on it.
Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen)
The Echo Dot is probably Amazon’s most popular smart speaker, as it’s a smaller and cheaper version of the standard Echo with a different approach to smart home features. Indeed, it features a built-in temperature sensor, allowing you to check it from anywhere, in addition to the same ultrasonic motion sensor as the standard Echo. It also comes with Eero built-in, which means it can double as a range extender for your existing Eero Mesh network.
This is a particularly convenient and affordable device that can replace smart home products while using less real estate. However, it doesn’t come with a built-in Zigbee hub, so you must use a separate hub to connect your smart home devices. you could still use your Echo Dot to control the devices with your voice, though.
It also delivers decent audio and comes in a compact form factor, meaning you can place it in any room. Our recommendation would be to put it in rooms where you don’t necessarily need premium audio quality, such as a bathroom, a desk, or a kitchen, depending on how much you value audio quality. Otherwise, it’ll fit perfectly in your living or dining room as long as you don’t have unrealistic expectations about its audio quality.
The Echo Dot (5th gen) costs just $50 and is often discounted, so you can snatch a couple to place around your house and also benefit from built-in security features without breaking the bank.
Smaller and more affordable than other Amazon speakers, the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is a perfect option for those with little space. While not as feature-rich, it’s a great speaker for the price.
Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (5th gen)
The Echo Dot with Clock is the same device as the Echo Dot, but features LED lights that allow it to double as a clock. In addition, these lights can display relevant information, such as the current song’s title and artist, or even weather and temperature data.
It’s mostly relevant to place on a nightstand, as it can replace an old-fashioned alarm clock while offering smart features and good audio quality. That being said, it’s possible to place it anywhere you’d want an extra speaker and clock. At $60, the Echo Dot with Clock is a fair price considering it can do more than play music and control your smart devices.
This speaker has all the great features of the Echo Dot (5th Gen), only this time with a clock. For a little bit more, the Echo Dot with Clock can show additional info, like weather and temperature data. Plus, it functions as an alarm clock.
Echo Dot Kids (5th gen)
As its name suggests, the Echo Dot Kids is designed for children and offers a specific kid-friendly design — the speaker comes in the shape of an owl or a dragon. In addition to all the Echo Dot features, the Kids version comes with a two-year worry-free guarantee, specific parental controls, and a one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription, which helps children learn and entertain themselves by interacting with Audible books, interactive games, and educational Alexa skills.
Its price is acceptable at just $10 more than a traditional Echo Dot and includes additional features. However, given its looks, it’s probably best to place it in the kids' bedroom, playroom, or office if they have one.
The Echo Dot Kids features two adorable design possibilities: an owl or a dragon. It also has parental controls and a one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription.
Echo Studio
The Echo Studio is Amazon’s higher-end smart speaker with excellent audio quality, featuring Dolby Atmos and ultra HD spatial audio powered by five directional speakers. In addition, it doubles as a Zigbee smart home hub (like the standard Echo), meaning there is no need to use another hub to operate your smart lights and other devices that use the technology.
Considering the Echo Studio is a premium device traditionally priced at $200, we recommend placing it in rooms where you often listen to music and need excellent audio quality, such as your living or dining room. That being said, the Echo Studio can automatically adjust its acoustics based on the environment, providing the best audio quality possible.
A powerful speaker, the Echo Studio puts the other speakers to shame, but for a price. Featuring 5 well-balanced speakers and smart audio optimization, the Echo Studio is the whole package.
Get the right Echo speaker for you!
With five speakers to pick from, Amazon didn’t make it easy to choose the right speaker. Some come with advanced smart home features, which you may not need depending on your setup, while others come with more advanced and immersive audio quality.
Regardless of your needs, all Echo devices come with Alexa, which we think offers asuperior smart home experiencecompared to its rival, at least for now.
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