Products are chosen independently by our editors. Purchases made through our links may earn us a commission.
Credit:
Reviewed / Amazon
Why trust Reviewed?
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
The Echo Dot Kids offers kid-friendly Alexa features. It has privacy controls and good sound quality. It also doubles as an eero Wi-Fi extender.
Read More
In the world of smart speakers, Amazon, Google, and Apple each have their devotees, but Alexa and its Echo ecosystem may take top spot. No two Echo speakers are the same—each has a unique range of characteristics and capabilities, but all include the Alexa voice assistant.
In this guide to the best Alexa speakers, we examine each one that’s currently available, looking at sound quality, responsiveness, and more to help you decide which will work for your needs.
The Echo (4th gen)
(available at Amazon for $99.99)
sits at the top of our ranking of best Amazon Echo devices for its universal appeal, but don’t overlook the others as they may be better suited to your room size or connectivity needs.
Credit:
Reviewed / Sarah Kovac
The indicator light turns blue when Alexa is listening.
Best Alexa Smart Speaker
Amazon Echo (4th Gen)
Release year: 2020
Sized for: Medium-to-large rooms
Speakers: 3-inch woofer, 2x 0.8-inch tweeters
Zigbee Hub: Yes
The fourth-gen Echo smart speaker takes a minimal aesthetic as a fabric-covered orb, offering a sleek look and a rich sound for a small speaker. It also acts as a Zigbee and Matter hub for certain smart home devices, and it has a built-in temperature sensor to help deploy home automation like controlling a smart thermostat.
Alexa functionality is responsive and quick, and the sound on the 4th-gen Echo is certainly respectable for a speaker that’s not much larger than a baseball. You can use it solo, as a stereo pair, or for multi-room music.
Create new routines with built-in motion sensors and voice commands that keep your home's temperature balanced.
Best Value Alexa Speaker
Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)
Release year: 2022
Sized for: Small rooms
Speakers: 1.7-inch driver
Zigbee Hub: No
The 5th-generation Amazon Echo Dot received a significant boost in sound, producing more bass and offering more proficiency in reproducing tracks that lean heavily into those lower frequencies than the previous generation. To be clear, the Dot won’t rattle windows or shake picture frames off their hooks. But for a speaker that weighs less than 11 ounces, the Dot does a surprisingly good job of bringing the bass.
The new Echo Dot now doubles as a Wi-Fi extender for Eero Mesh Wi-Fi systems and is capable of adding up to 1,000 square feet of coverage to your network and handling speeds of up to 100 Mbps. For Eero owners, the Dot represents a useful 2-for-1 gadget that can set timers and tell you the right way to pronounce “biopic” while providing a handy boost to your network.
Aside from the extender skills, the Dot’s updated accelerometer offers new tap gesture controls. Simply tap the speaker’s top to pause or play music, snooze alarms, or even end communications through the Dot.
Unfortunately, not all of the Dot’s features hit the mark. The speaker’s ambient temperature sensor, while intriguing, measured about 9°F to 10°F colder than the actual temperature of the space. Still, this is a rather minor issue compared to the rest of the solid, noteworthy features. Add in the bump in bass and audio quality overall, and the fifth-generation Echo Dot has plenty of perks to once again be one of the most valuable smart speakers around.
If you’re looking for the best sound quality in the Echo lineup, the Echo Studio is absolutely the best pick. It's also a great choice for smart homes because, like the 4th-gen Echo, it has a built-in Zigbee hub.
This speaker is considerably larger than other Echo speakers, but the additional size allows for deeper bass, better clarity, and immersive sound. The Studio is also unique in this space as it is designed to deliver 3D sound, thanks to its Dolby Atmos compatibility. It even features an upward-firing driver that bounces sound off your ceiling to better immerse you in the audio.
Usually, we think of surround sound in reference to movies. But there is a burgeoning movement in music to use 3D-audio technology like that in the Echo Studio to deliver sound that seems to come from everywhere–even above you. At present, it's limited to a small list of artists and streaming services, such as Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal, but it’s becoming more widespread.
Regardless of whether or not you use this speaker to play 3D music, the sound it delivers will be satisfying and impressively full for a speaker of its size.
The Amazon Echo Pop is a compact smart speaker with decent sound quality.
Best Cheap Alexa Speaker
Amazon Echo Pop (2023)
Release year: 2023
Sized for: Small rooms
Speakers: 1.95-inch driver
Zigbee Hub: No
The Amazon Echo Pop is the smallest and most affordable Echo smart speaker yet. It supports Matter-enabled devices and works as an Eero Wi-Fi extender. The Echo Pop delivers decent sound quality for a speaker that isn't much larger than my morning cup of espresso. The audio is crisp, clear, and just fine for listening to in the background.
However, when the volume is up, the Echo Pop struggles with clear, crisp audio, and it sounds a bit tinny, especially on heavy rock songs. For small spaces like dorm rooms, this is a great pick.
It does not have an audio jack on the back like the Echo Dot does—it only has one port for power meant for use with the included 15W power cord. It comes in fun colors like Lavender and Midnight, plus standard Echo device colors Charcoal and Glacier White.
The Echo Pop isn't the smart home powerhouse that the Echo Dot is. The Pop's lack of motion and temperature sensors is one of the biggest differences between the two features.
For less than $40, the bright and cheerful Echo Pop offers quick and easy access in one compact size, making it a great Alexa smart speaker for small spaces, teens, and other scenarios when you just don’t want to spend a lot.
The Echo Dot Kids (5th gen) sounds just like the Echo Dot (5th gen) in terms of quality. While the two smart speakers also share other similarities, like temperature sensors and acting as an Eero Wi-Fi extender, the kids' version has some noticeable differences that make it the best choice for little ones. First, the design is kid-forward, with adorable options for a Dragon or Owl.
It also comes with one year of Amazon Kids+, which is a digital subscription service by Amazon intended for children ages three to 12. This grants access to Audible books, games, and educational Alexa skills.
With this smart speaker, Alexa gives kid-appropriate responses and filters explicit song lyrics. Parents can manage the Kids Echo Dot smart speaker in the dashboard of the Alexa app for iOS and Android. It is also possible to pause the speaker, set daily time limits, and manage contacts. Parents can also add content purchased on Amazon directly to the Echo Dot Kids (5th gen) speaker, like books.
One downside to the speaker is that we could not set volume limitations on the speaker. Despite its small size, the speaker gets fairly loud, so this would be a nice feature to have.
Like other Echo speakers, there is a mic mute button on the top to protect your child's privacy. The speaker’s base illuminates red when the mic mute button is enabled, offering a visual clue that the speaker is not listening.
Of note, this Echo speaker comes with a two-year warranty that includes a free replacement if it breaks.
Amazon used to sell a version of the Echo Dot with a clock built into it, but it always looked a little thrown together. The Echo Spot changes that—it's a full-on bedside clock, complete with information about the weather, calendar events, and the ability to control smart home devices. This display isn't as powerful as those built into the Echo Show devices, but it still comes in handy.
Of course, Alexa is built into the speaker, and it's just as full-featured as anywhere else. You can ask it to control things like your smart home devices, find information from the web, and, where appropriate, it'll use the display for additional context.
The speaker built into the device isn't all that powerful, so don't expect to be able to produce ultra-deep bass, but we found in our review that it was more powerful than we expected, especially for a speaker in its size and price range. Not only that, but you can pair it with the Echo Sub subwoofer to help out, which is a neat touch.
Amazon offers a few so-called "kids" versions of its speakers, but most kids will be perfectly happy with the cheaper Amazon Echo Pop Kids. The speaker is available in a few kid-friendly designs, including ones with Avengers or princess characters.
As you might expect, the speaker offers access to kid-friendly content, and it includes a six-month subscription to Amazon Kids+, which includes content from Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, and more. There are parental controls built into the speaker, which can be accessed through the Alexa app on a smartphone.
The actual speaker built into the device is fine, but not great—though considering that it's built for kids who presumably aren't audiophiles, that may not matter. Just don't expect to get deep bass or much detail in the high-end.
It supports modern smart home tech, too. It can be used as a Matter controller, allowing you to set up and control modern smart home devices, and it works as an Eero router, so it can extend your home mesh network.
What To Consider When Buying An Alexa Smart Speaker
Who would use this?
When it comes to buying one of Amazon’s Alexa smart speakers, it's not necessarily a case of "better" or "worse." Some speakers serve different purposes than others, and there's no use spending more money on a speaker that has features you won't appreciate.
If you're buying a speaker for your child, for example, they might appreciate the Marvel design on one of the kids’ models more than they would appreciate better audio quality.
And, if all you want is to be able to ask Alexa questions in your kitchen, you don't need to shell out for an Echo Studio that has better audio quality that will only serve to give Alexa's voice a bit more depth.
Key features
Built-in Alexa functionality: This one's easy—all Amazon Echo speakers have Alexa built into them. Alexa doesn't really change depending on what speaker you have, except in the cases of being able to control different smart home devices that some speakers can connect to and others can't.
Speakers and audio quality: One of the biggest differences in Amazon Echo speakers is audio quality. The larger Amazon Echo speakers have bigger and more speaker drivers built into them, and can produce better audio. The downside? They're bigger, and more expensive. If you plan on using the speaker to listen to music a lot, then it may be worth shelling out for a higher-end model.
Connectivity: Amazon Echo devices connect through Wi-Fi, but they can also connect to devices through Bluetooth. Additionally, some of the newer models can be added to an Eero network, extending a mesh Wi-Fi network.
Safety: Amazon Echo devices offer a range of safety features that could come in handy. For starters, they let you call 911 if needed, but they can also be central to a smart security system through services like Alexa Emergency Assist, which allows users to contact Urgent Response agents, get smart alerts for sounds like smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and more.
Smart home integration and Zigbee: All Amazon Echo speakers connect to your Wi-Fi network, but some go far beyond that, serving as a helpful tool in your smart home. Some work as a Zigbee hub, allowing you to connect to Zigbee devices that you can then control with your voice and the Alexa app, while others work as Matter controllers, meaning you can use them to connect to other Matter devices, including Google Home assistants. And, some serve as a Thread border router, which lets them participate in the Thread smart home mesh network.
Care, maintenance, and warranty
You'll want to take care of Alexa speakers the same way you would any other smart speaker—they're not designed to get wet, and you should avoid dropping them where possible.
Alexa smart speakers can take some day-to-day bumps and bruises, but if you take care of them properly, you shouldn't need to do anything to maintain them. They have a one-year limited warranty, which covers manufacturer defects. In other words, it won't cover damage incurred after you purchased the Echo.
FAQ: What To Know About Alexa Smart Speakers
What’s the difference between Alexa and Echo?
Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant. It can respond to voice commands, and it performs a wide variety of functions to help you throughout your day. Alexa can help you manage smart home devices like lights and thermostats. It can also take notes and give you calendar reminders, make purchases online, and more.
In order to use Alexa, you need Alexa-enabled devices or the Alexa app on a compatible smartphone or tablet. There are a host of smart appliances that have Alexa built in, but you can also pick up Echo devices to bring Alexa into your home. That includes the smart speakers featured here, and the Amazon Echo Show, which can make video calls and stream movies and TV.
Alexa is the main way you control Echo products. You can use it to also display photos across devices, pull up streaming content, play music in a multi-room audio setup, and more.
What is Alexa+?
Alexa+ is Amazon's upcoming generatuve AI-based version of Alexa. Alexa+ is more conversational and understands what you're trying to say a little better than Alexa has before, plus it can remember previous interactions, and has advanced features like the ability to handle more complex tasks.
It'll likely be a huge upgrade for Alexa once it starts rolling out. It's free to Amazon Prime subscribers, which is likely a large portion of Echo buyers, but those who don't have Prime will need to pay $19.99 per month to access Alexa+. It'll first roll out to Amazon Echo Show devices, but eventually will come to other Echo speakers too.
Do Echo speakers have privacy settings?
Privacy might seem like a thing of the past. Everywhere you go, there's some computer watching or listening. But, in your own home, you can do a few things to protect yourself, even from naturally invasive smart home devices.
You can stop your Echo speaker from listening for (and possibly mishearing) your wake word by turning off your mic via the mute button on the top of the device. Or, turn on audible alerts within Settings in the Alexa app to know when your Echo is listening beyond just the indicator light.
You used to be able to ask Alexa not to process requests in the cloud, however Amazon is removing this feature as part of its push of the Alexa+ subscription. Generally, cloud processing is considered relatively secure, however it’s certainly not as private as processing requests locally. It’s also completely expected as a change—it’s possible Amazon will build smaller versions of its generative AI Alexa in the future, but the large language models required for this new generation of virtual assistants simply can’t run on a device with the processing power of an Echo. Still, it would have been nice to keep the feature for those who don’t want to use Alexa+.
Why You Should Trust Our Expertise
Because every Echo speaker has its own strengths and features, our testing couldn't be standardized across each device. Instead, we used each Echo for several weeks before deciding which one is best for which use cases.
The writers of this guide have extensive experience testing smart home devices and speakers, and a deep understanding of why some Echo speakers are better than others. The takeaway? Different Echo speakers serve different purposes—and as a result, an option that's better for some users might not be better for others.
What Other Reviewers Are Saying About Alexa Smart Speakers
Most experts agree: Amazon’s best Echo speaker is simply the Amazon Echo. It may not technically be the best-sounding, but it strikes the best balance between audio, features, and price, making it the best option for most people looking for an Alexa smart speaker.
Wired: Wired's top pick is the Amazon Echo, which aligns with our recommendation. According to Wired, the Echo is great because it sounds good while still offering a compact-enough build.
TechRadar: TechRadar also awards the Amazon Echo as the best Echo speaker overall, for its good balance between sound quality, smart home features, and price.
CNET: CNET notes that the Amazon Echo is the best Echo smart speaker, too, thanks to its solid price point and good audio quality.
What Owners Are Saying About Our Best Alexa Smart Speaker
Overall, reviews of the Amazon Echo are good, with users generally impressed with the speaker's audio quality for the price.
Amazon: The speaker has a 4.6-star average on Amazon, and generally, reviewers note that the speaker delivers great audio for a variety of different genres. One review included mention of the "the sound is really smooth and crisp."
Best Buy: The reviews are even better at Best Buy, with the Echo coming in with a 4.8-star average. One was from a user who noted that they "listen to a variety of music from classic to blues to pop to rock and the speaker does a good job producing a quality sound with a clean bass sound. The rest of the functions take a little time and research to explore and set-up, but once set-up, are easy to use."
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
The product experts at Reviewed
have all your shopping needs covered.
Follow Reviewed on Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram,
TikTok,
or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.
Sarah Kovac is an award-winning author and accessibility editor for Reviewed. Previously, she worked with a multitude of outlets such as Wirecutter, TIME, PCMag, Prevention, The Atlantic, Reviews.com, CNN, GOOD, Upworthy, Mom.me, and SheKnows.
Rachel Murphy is Reviewed's home editor. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a freelance writer for publications like Insider and Mashable, and as an associate editorial producer for Good Morning America. Aside from smart home tech, her interests include food, travel, parenting, and home renovation. You can usually find her sipping on coffee at any time of the day.
Christian de Looper is a consumer tech journalist with over a decade of experience. De Looper has covered all areas of the consumer tech industry, from smartphones to smart homes — and has attended all of the major trade shows, including CES.
De Looper has always been interested in consumer technology, but his love for gadgets and electronics blossomed into a full-blown passion when he started writing about it while completing his degree in audio production.
Since then, he has written for many of the top tech publications, including Digital Trends, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, and many more. He loves getting his hands on all of the latest gadgets, but when he’s not reviewing tech, he can be found hanging out with his family or producing music.
Nick Woodard is a tech journalist specializing in all things related to home theater and A/V. His background includes a solid foundation as a sports writer for multiple daily newspapers, and he enjoys hiking and mountain biking in his spare time.
Our team is here to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and experts obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.