The 7 best Amazon Echo devices to shop during Black Friday

Read our full review of the Echo Dot (5th Gen) here.

Not sure where to begin with Echo devices? The best starting point is the Echo Dot. It's an easy-to-use smart home speaker, able to fill rooms with music from your preferred streaming service. It responds to voice commands and is even Alexa+ compatible. Plus, at $49.99, it's extremely affordable.

As of 2025, the namesake Echo appears to be discontinued, making the Echo Dot one of the best entry points to Amazon's smart home devices. The Echo Dot is a squat little speaker, measuring 3.5 inches tall, suitable for any countertop, even when you're cramped for space.

Now in its 5th generation, the Echo Dot boasts more vibrant sound with clearer vocals and deeper bass, though it does not have Dolby audio like the Echo Dot Max.

The Echo Dot has a built-in mic and in-app privacy controls, as well as a temperature sensor and motion detector to help automate other smart home devices. Amazon takes smart home functioning quite seriously with its Dot: If you enable sound detection routines, for instance, you can program a particular sound (dog barking, oven dinging, door opening) to trigger a certain Alexa Routine.

Read our full review of the Echo Pop (1st Gen) here.

If you want a smart home device, but aren't ready to drop a lot of money right now, then the Echo Pop is for you. It starts at $39.99 but is often on sale for under $25, an extremely good deal considering it comes with lossless audio.

Mashable writer SaVanna Shoemaker reviewed the lil' Pop in July 2023 and praised it for its ability to (inexpensively) fill up a living space with great-quality music. Besides being a handy and cheap smart speaker, the Echo Pop also boasts "nearly all of the same functionality" as other Echo devices on the market — including that signature smart home compatibility and Alexa voice control. Note that, unlike the 5th Gen Echo Dot, the newbie Pop doesn't have temperature sensors or multi-device pairing.

Shoemaker was quick to mention (and bust) the myth that the Echo Pop is equivalent to a Bluetooth speaker. You cannot, in fact, use it to stream audio directly from your phone. The Alexa app must serve as a handy intermediary in order to do so.

Whether you want an Echo smart speaker in every room or just need a smarter alarm clock, the 2024 Echo Spot is made for your bedside. It has programmable routines to queue your morning wake-up and evening wind-down. Plus, it responds quickly and clearly to Alexa commands, so you can play music from the speaker without opening your phone or ask for a weather report as you're getting dressed.

The 2024 Echo Spot improves about the previous models' shortcomings, creating an easy-to-use smart alarm clock that's both useful and good-looking. It's bigger than both the Echo Pop and Echo Dot; at 4.5-inches by 4.1-inches by 4.4-inches, it takes up just the right amount of nightstand space without overcrowding.

Slanted at a slight angle, the upper half of the clock face features a small touchscreen. While we think it's a little too small, it still has vibrant colors. The bottom half is a 1.73-inch front-firing speaker, the same that comes in the Echo Dot. The speaker produces clear audio that doesn't sound tinny, however, it's meant for small spaces — don't plan on using it for your next party. Alexa also answers quickly to questions and commands, making it easy to turn on a podcast to kick off your morning.

The alarm function works like any daily alarm clock. Snoozing is easy: Tap the top of the device with more than one finger to get another few minutes of rest. Meanwhile, turning off the alarm is slightly more annoying, requiring you to interact with the touchscreen. While it works fine, it would feel more natural to have a "Stop" button on top.

The touch screen is rather minuscule and limited to the small rectangular space on the half-moon top of the clock face. Another big drawback of the Echo Spot comes when you're playing music or listening to a podcast. When audio is playing, the time disappears — a hinderance if you need to know what time it is.

Otherwise, the Echo Spot is a worth entry into the Echo line of devices, offering a well-designed smart alarm clock.

Amazon's Echo devices don't just take the form of compact orb-like speakers. The Echo Show line of devices add displays, and the Amazon Echo Show 8 is the best for most people. It's perfect for the person who wants to be able to take video calls or check the calendar hands-free.

Breaking beyond just audio, we're now jumping into the Echo devices with visual displays, also known as the Echo Show lineup. First on our list is the Echo 8 with its 8-inch HD touchscreen and 13-megapixel camera. It can act as a sous chef in the kitchen, serving up recipes while keeping your hands free, and it can just as easily make video calls to keep up with friends and family or stay productive while WFH (though our reviewer SaVanna Shoemaker noted some issues with Zoom functionality). You can also "Drop-In" on any other Alexa devices in your household, including video chat with other Echo Shows.

That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Echo Show 8's visual feats, though, and the gorgeous display really opens up the door to an incredible amount of enhanced Alexa functionality. The Echo Show 8 can even function as a security camera, and you can check in on what it sees via the Alexa app on your phone while you're away. That said, you can close the camera shutter and shut off the mic for more privacy.

If you're looking for the same capabilities in a smaller size for the bedroom or office, however, the Echo Show 5 is an equally nice choice. Note that the smaller-screened Show 5 won't do as good of a job with streaming, pulling up ingredient lists on recipes, or other tasks that require a large display. Check out our full in-depth comparison of the two for more details. 

Looking to get a speaker for the kids room? The Amazon Echo Dot Kids speaker is great since it responds to voice commands while keeping parental controls in place. Not to mention, it comes in adorable designs, too.

The Echo Dot gets an adorable facelift in this kids' version of the device. You can choose from cute and colorful designs — like an owl or dragon — for the outside, but the inside is exactly the same as the latest-model Echo Dot. The Echo Dot Kids is not just a pretty paint job, though; it also comes with a free year of Amazon Kids+, a digital subscription designed for kids aged 3-12 to access kid-friendly audiobooks, educational Alexa skills, interactive games, homework help, bedtime stories, and more — all without ads. (Though to be fair, you could always subscribe to Amazon Kids+ separately and use it via any other Echo device too.) 

In addition to a built-in mic off button for privacy, the Echo Dot Kids is also packed with parental controls: Like only giving kid-friendly responses to any questions asked, filtering out explicit songs when playing music, and only allowing calls to parent-approved contacts. It also allows Alexa's voice to be changed to that of an owl- or dragon-inspired character, making the whole experience more fun for little ones. And, it comes with a 2-year worry-free guarantee that allows for replacement if it breaks (which is a huge step up from the Echo Dot's 90-day limited warranty).

Want to bring all the perks of a smart home device to your car? Do exactly that with the Amazon Echo Auto. Your car needs to have a USB port to operate it but that's it. Once plugged in, it will play music through your car's speakers at your command.

PSA: Amazon has an Echo device just for your car, in case you weren't aware. While other Echo devices are designed mostly around the idea of being a hub for smart home devices, the Echo Auto brings that very intelligence to your vehicle.

As of now, you likely don't have a ton of smart tech to control while in your car, but the Echo Auto allows you to access Alexa's hundreds of thousands of skills hands-free while you drive. You can control your music, podcasts, or audiobooks, or make phone calls and send texts.

You can also remotely control your devices at home from the road, such as turning on your lights and bumping up your thermostat for a warm welcome when you walk in the door. You can even contact roadside assistance, all with simple voice commands.

The Echo Auto comes with an adhesive mount, USB-A cable, and AUX cable, and it's built with privacy controls, such as a "mic off" button.

Read our full review of the Echo Buds (2nd Gen) here.

A surprising entry in the Echo line-up is a pair of earbuds. If you're in the market for a new pair of in-ear buds and already in the Amazon ecosystem, then the Amazon Echo Buds are a pretty good option, with their surprisingly effective active noise cancellation and easy-on-the-wallet price.

If you love Alexa and simply want to take her epic skills with you wherever you go, Amazon has created wireless earbuds to help you do just that. They're designed to be compact and comfortable, though they are a bit larger than some competitors' earbuds. Their fit is customizable, however, and they're IPX4 sweat-resistant so you can use them during intense workouts without worry. They also have active noise cancellation to limit background sounds, and a "passthrough" mode that allows you to safely hear what's going on around you.

Like other Echo devices, you can use voice commands to make calls, set reminders, and utilize tons of other Alexa skills as well. You can also tap to pause, skip, and rewind your music, and you'll enjoy up to five hours of music playback per charge (or 15 hours with the charging case). Also, you can mute the earbuds' mic from within the Alexa app, but as our reviewer Alex Perry notes, she will keep reminding you to unmute them, which can get annoying.