The Best Amazon Echo Speaker Is Now $80.
The Amazon Echo Dot line has long been a good choice if you’re looking for a compact and affordable way to enter the Alexa smart home ecosystem, combining decent sound quality with versatile smart home capabilities. And right now, the latest Amazon Echo Dot Max , released late last year and offering improved audio and communication features, is on sale for $79.99 (originally $99.99) in all colors.
This speaker earned an Editor’s Choice award from PCMag, which noted that it delivers “pretty powerful bass considering its modest size.” At 6.1 x 5.6 x 5.8 inches, it’s more compact than the previous Echo model and features a new design that might remind you of the Death Star—it’s a sphere with a large, flat volume control plate that makes the buttons more visible and a light ring that shines toward the speaker and displays the volume level as a white arc. (One drawback: the smaller size means a smaller woofer than its predecessor, though PCMag noted that the bass is still “deep enough.”)
One of the Dot Max’s key advantages is its voice assistant functionality. It has Amazon Alexa built in, and Amazon Prime members can upgrade to Alexa+ for free (usually $20 per month). The Amazon Echo Dot Max supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E, serves as a hub for smart home devices like Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, and includes Wi-Fi radar, ultrasonic, temperature, and light sensors that detect your presence in the room.
While the Echo Dot Max is a good choice at this price, if you plan to use it primarily for listening to music, the newer Echo Dot model (now $50) may be sufficient.