The 10 best Amazon Echo devices for a smarter home

Among Amazon's flagship devices like Kindles and Fire TVs, Echos are the star of the show. These multitasking smart home devices do a little bit of everything in nearly every room in the house. Whether you need a smart speaker, alarm clock, or hub for your other smart devices, there's an echo to help you out. Amazon's list of devices is ever-growing, so we've tested them to find the best Echo devices for your smart home.

Keep in mind, you don't need to buy these devices at full price. They're almost guaranteed to go on sale during events like Prime Day and Black Friday. During Black Friday 2024, we saw discounts of up to 58% on devices including the Echo Pop, Dot, and Spot. So if you are going to buy an Amazon smart home device, it's worth holding out until the next sale.

What can an Echo smart speaker do?

Tring out the new Echo Spot smart alarm clock. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

All Echo devices utilize Amazon Alexa's AI superpowers — it's just a matter of which form you want your Echo to take. The Echo and Echo Dot are smart speakers that you can use for music, phone calls, calendar reminders, or news alerts. Amazon Echo Show devices, on the other hand, can do all of the aforementioned audio stuff, but they also boast colorful displays for making video calls, streaming entertainment, or managing your day. Think of Echo Shows as stationary, more affordable tablets, essentially.

Most Echo devices are designed to act as smart hubs within your home, but some Echo devices can also be taken on the road. Echo Auto brings hands-free Alexa functionality to the car, while Echo Buds and Echo Frames can travel with you anywhere.

What can Alexa do?

Alexa is to Amazon as Siri is to Apple, and is the driving force behind every Echo. Responding to voice commands, Alexa has an answer to almost anything you ask. Just by shouting out, you can play music, adjust the volume, and set an alarm or timer. And that's just naming a few options. On devices like the Echo Show, you can ask Alexa to pull up recipes or search for questions you might have that come up while cooking. Here's a short list of what Alexa can do:

• Control your smart home technology from one central hub

• Access your calendars and set reminders

• Get answers to any question you can think of

• Make phone calls (and video calls with an Echo Show)

• Get the latest weather and news

• Follow recipes

• Shop on Amazon

• Stream music (and video on an Amazon Echo Show)

• Play games

But honestly, that just barely scratches the surface; there are more than 100,000 Alexa skills that you can utilize via an Echo device, and Amazon is always adding more.

Where Alexa gets supercharged is when other smart home tech comes into the picture. If you have a smart thermostat or smart light bulbs, as long as they're compatible with the Alexa system, you can create routines through your Echo. That can be as simple as telling Alexa to turn on the lights in one room or programming Alexa to turn the thermostat down before you come home.

If you're ready for an Alexa-powered home, read on for the 10 best Amazon Echo devices of 2025.