Amazon’s champ is back and more affordable than ever

Just as Google wants its Android operating system plastered across every smartphone going, Alexa’s rate of multiplication is starting to put even bunny rabbits to shame. But while there’s been a veritable jamboree of speakers featuring Amazon’s voice assistant in the last year or so, very few of them come close to the Echo itself. What’s so good about the second incarnation of this all-conquering tube? In a word, affordability.

Pick the right moment and you can get an Echo for roughly half the price of a Google Home, and even at full whack you’ll have to spend almost four times as much to get hold of Apple’s Homepod. This makes it a perfect companion for commitment-phobes who aren’t quite sure how far they want to kit out their smart home, but like the idea of having an AI multitasker for company in the kitchen – even if they might not quite know everything that it’s capable of.

What really makes the Echo such a great vessel for Alexa is that it works almost all the time. A new seven-microphone setup means it’s rarely hard of hearing, there are free skills for everything from checking train times to ordering a takeaway, and almost every new piece of brainiac home tech works with it straight out of the box. Sure, the £40 Echo Dot remains our favourite budget speaker, but for those wanting a little more audio oomph this is the Echo to go for.