Which Amazon Echo or Alexa Speaker Is Best for You?
Amazon's family of Alexa-enabled devices keeps growing. From the spherical Echo to the swiveling Echo Show 10, you can get Alexa into your home in many ways. These devices can answer your questions, help you order essentials, set timers, play all sorts of audio content, and even function as the control hub for your growing smart home. These are our favorite Echo and Alexa-compatible speakers for every home and budget.
The best time to buy any Amazon speaker is during major sale events like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day, as the company usually has steep discounts. If you're trying to decide which smart devices might be best for you, be sure to check out WIRED's picks in our roundups: Best Smart Speakers, Best Bluetooth Speakers, and Best Google Speakers. We also have guides on setting up your Echo speaker, creating Alexa routines, and Alexa skills that are actually fun and useful to help you get started.
Updated November 2021: We've updated prices and added the Sonos Roam.
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- Photograph: Amazon
Best Overall
Amazon Echo (4th Gen)Amazon's fourth-generation Echo (8/10, WIRED Recommends) notably changes the shape of the cylindrical speaker into a speaker ball. Unless you have a personal vendetta against Alexa, this is probably the best smart speaker you can get for around $100. Amazon has dialed in its digital signal processing and sound quality over the previous three Echos, and the rounded edges here help fidelity. The new Echo comes with Amazon's AZI Neural Edge processor too, which helps it recognize speech better than ever.
It works in any room in the house. Use it in the kitchen for recipes and timers, in the bedroom for news and weather, or in the bathroom for shower sing-alongs. It's compact, sounds decent, and is well-suited to everything you'd want a smart speaker to do. If music quality is your top priority, scroll down to the Echo Studio and Sonos One, which are our favorite Alexa speakers for listening to music.
- Photograph: Sonos
Best Non-Amazon Speaker
Sonos One (Gen 2)The Sonos One is the WIRED Gear team’s favorite smart speaker and multiroom speaker. (We gave the first generation 8/10 and our WIRED Recommends seal of approval.) If you’re going to buy one (or two) speakers for your home, the One is a smart bet thanks to its Wi-Fi networking, which lets you string any Sonos speakers together, and its robust support for nearly every music and audio app you can imagine. It also features Google Assistant, if you want to betray Alexa for its biggest rival (and you just might).
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Best for the Bedroom
Amazon Echo Dot With Clock (4th Gen)I (Parker) have had a third-generation Echo Dot with Clock on my bedside table for nearly a year now, and it's the greatest alarm clock ever. You can easily check the time in the middle of the night, thanks to the forward-facing digital clock, and it wakes me up with my favorite seasonal playlists. I have it tell me the weather as I'm getting dressed, too. Alternatively, it's also great in the kitchen, where the display can show the status of a timer.
The fourth-gen Dot is the latest and comes in two models—one with a clock and one without. It looks very similar and round like the standard Echo (our top pick), which means the Dot projects sound even farther. But you'll probably need a bigger speaker if you want to enjoy anything other than background music while you dress or cook.
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Best Portable Speaker
Sonos RoamThis portable speaker from Sonos (9/10, WIRED Recommends) works great in Bluetooth mode, but if you hook it up to your home's or vacation spot's Wi-Fi, you can use it as a portable Alexa speaker. I like to use it to set timers in the kitchen and check the weather on trips to the Oregon coast, and it will surely see lots of cabin time in the Cascades this winter. This little speaker fits easily in a car cupholder, and it comes with an IP67 dust- and water-resistance rating, so you won't need to worry about dropping it in the mud.
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Best Display
Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen)The Echo Show 8 has been our favorite screen for Alexa for two generations in a row for good reason. We like this size more than the 5-inch and 10-inch versions, the smaller of which felt like a weird smartphone, the larger like a weird tablet that spins around everywhere. This one's like Goldilocks' perfect porridge; it's just big enough that weather updates, video chats, and recipes show up clearly, but compact enough that it doesn't take up too much valuable countertop space. This 2021 model is nearly identical to the old one but gets a much better camera and the ability to use it as a security or baby monitor.
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Best Buds
Amazon Echo Buds (2021)We liked the old Echo Buds, but we're even bigger fans of the 2021 update (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Amazon's new earbuds come with wireless charging, noise-canceling tech, and a surprisingly ergonomic fit. Better microphones mean that Alexa voice controls work even in loud environments. The overall experience of using the headphones feels like a future we've seen in sci-fi movies. Need to set a timer, check the weather, or see what happened with your favorite sports team? Just ask these earbuds.
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Best Sound
Amazon Echo StudioAmazon's Echo Studio is for anyone who wants the biggest, boldest sound they can get from an Alexa device. It's got 350 watts of power and a downward-firing subwoofer that pumps out more low end than most other speakers this size, and it even listens and adjusts the sound to fit your space. There's an upward-firing midrange speaker in addition to two side-facing ones, which makes the Echo Studio capable of playing 3D audio codecs like Dolby Atmos. In fact, the speaker automatically "upmixes" your music from standard stereo to better fill your space.
You can buy two and pair them to create a soundbar-like Dolby Atmos experience, though I'd probably stick with a standard Atmos soundbar.
- Photograph: Yamaha
Best Alexa Soundbar
Yamaha YAS-209The Yamaha YAS-209 is a soundbar/wireless subwoofer combo that doubles as a smart speaker for your living room. Alexa is inside, as well as two virtual sound modes, two HDMI ports, Wi-Fi, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth, which makes it exceptionally easy to use. It also sounds quite good for the price, making it one of our favorite soundbars.
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Best Compact Soundbar
Sonos Beam (Gen 2)The Sonos Beam is also another great Alexa soundbar because of how compact and easy it is to use. The small, pill-shaped bar will seamlessly work with any other Sonos speakers you have, and you can easily play music on it when you aren't bingeing Netflix. It sounds amazing no matter what audio is coming out of it, and it goes head to head with bars that are much larger. As it's made by Sonos, you can switch over to Google Assistant, should you ever decide Amazon's ecosystem isn't right for you.
- Photograph: Joseph Shin
For More Bass
Amazon Echo SubIf you've got some small Echo speakers around the house but their bass output isn't scratching your itch, consider adding an Echo Sub. This wireless subwoofer can easily integrate with any Amazon-made speaker and can do wonders for bringing out your favorite bass lines—or for annoying your downstairs neighbors.
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Best for Kids
Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition (4th Gen)This special edition of the Echo Dot has easy-to-use parental controls that allow you to set time limits, filter explicit content, and review activity. The tiger-colored sphere comes with a year of Amazon Kids+, which includes thousands of Audible books and other special games and features. After that, you'll be charged $3 per month. Alexa can help your kids spell, play their favorite music, or—via another speaker in your house—remind them of dinner time.
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