Best cheap Alexa devices for 2021
Dozens of new smart home devices launch every year, usually in the fall. Last year was no different, with new products from Amazon, Google, Apple and smaller brands. For Amazon in particular, the Echo smart speaker is one of the best home integration products we’ve seen in years, and that means the potential for a well-oiled smart home working in concert is higher than ever as we get close to the second half of 2021.
BEST CHEAP SMART SPEAKER Amazon Echo Dot (third-gen)
The cheapest smart speaker Amazon offers is the ever-solid third-gen Echo Dot. Sure, there’s a newer Dot available, but its improvements are marginal, so whichever device is cheaper is probably the way to go. This Echo speaker has impressive sound quality for the size if you want to play music (Spotify Premium, Amazon Music, Apple Music and more), along with voice control and all the smarts of the higher-end speakers. Place Echo devices in different rooms of your house for multiroom audio. Not only is the Amazon Echo Dot a reasonable $35, but you can also catch it on sale for $25 fairly often.
BEST CHEAP SMART CAM Wyze Cam (2020)
The Wyze Cam is one of the best reasonably priced devices out there, and it just got an update for 2020. With a reasonable $33 price tag and an impressive set of features, including weatherproof housing, sharper night vision, a wider field of view, a functional siren and more, the third-gen Wyze Cam is better than ever. In addition, with a single voice command you can throw the Wyze Cam’s feed onto an Alexa-powered smart display, like the Echo Show 8.
BEST CHEAP SMART DISPLAY Amazon Echo Show 8
The $90 Echo Show 8 is an Alexa-compatible display that marries all the voice assistance of a speaker to the touch controls of a tablet. It’s been on sale for as little as $65, and it gives you a screen to video chat, play games, watch videos and even stream the feeds of security cameras.