Best Amazon Echo: Which Echo Speakers or Displays Are Right for You?

Comparison of all Amazon echo speakers and smart displays

Amazon’s echo range is extensive and has grown rapidly over the years. The first echo speaker arrived in 2014. It was a key device for changing the way we interact with technology, bringing the integration of voice control and smart homes into everyday life.

From compact echo pop and powerful echo studios to small screen echo show 5 and giant echo show 21, the echo lineup offers devices to suit every need.

The problem is that the range is very wide and it’s difficult to know what you need and which echo speakers or smart displays work best at home.

Don’t worry, that’s where we come in. This feature explores all currently available Amazon Echo devices.

We delve into their key features, sound quality, smart home compatibility, and unique selling points. So whether you’re a tech enthusiast looking for the ultimate echo smart speaker or display, or a casual user looking for a simple voice assistant, this is a comparison of Amazon’s echo speaker and display.

Best Amazon Echo Speakers: Echo Pop vs Echo Dot vs Echo Vs Echo Studio

You could potentially use both speakers and smart displays, but they are different devices and are useful for a variety of reasons, so start with an echo speaker.

Amazon Echo Pop

(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 99 x 83 x 91mm, 196g
  • Smart Home Features: Materials that incorporate eroticism
  • color: Glacier white, charcoal, lavender bloom, midnight teal
  • release: 2023
  • price: $39.99 /£44.99

The Amazon Echo Pop is the cheapest and most compact speaker in the echo lineup. It offers a 49.5mm front fire speaker and is designed as an affordable way to bring your Alexa to your home. Sound performance isn’t as good as other echo speakers, but it’s a great option for small spaces, making it easy to listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks.

As you can imagine, you can use the Echo Pop to control your smart home device, or ask Alexa to help with daily tasks like setting timers, checking the weather, and calling. Echo POP also allows you to extend your home Wi-Fi functionality if you have an Eero Wi-Fi system. It is also the problem controller.

Overall, Echo Pop is perfect for those who want to add the convenience of a smart home to their lives without breaking the bank, but remember that Echo Dot improves audio quality and is a little more expensive.

Read more about Echo Pop: Amazon Echo Pop Review | Amazon Echo Pop vs Echo Dot | Amazon Echo Spot vs Echo Pop

Amazon Echo Spot

Amazon Echo Spot for Best Echo Speaker
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 113 mm x 103 mm x 111 mm, 405g
  • Smart Home Features: Case
  • color: Black, Glacier White, Ocean Blue
  • release: 2024
  • price: $79.99 /£79.99

While the Amazon Echo Spot doesn’t look very similar to Echo Pop in terms of design, it’s a smart speaker with a 2.83-inch touchscreen display on the front and a small visual interface that helps with features like alarms, album art display, weather forecasting and more.

Like all echo devices, Alexa is built-in, allowing you to control your smart home device, set alarms, check the weather, and access a wide range of information using voice commands. However, the echo spot is perfect as a bedside companion. You can wake up gently with your favorite music. The display can be customized with a variety of watch faces and colors. It can also be used to call other echo devices if you have other families who need nudges in the morning.

The audio features of the Echo Spot are not as powerful as the larger Echo devices (although not bad for size), they are not the cheapest and cannot be used as an Eero Wi-Fi extender. However, if you are chasing a visually appealing smart speaker with some extra features thanks to the small display, the echo spot is a great option.

Read more about the echo spot: Amazon Echo Pop Review | Amazon Echo Spot vs Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echodot for the best echo speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 100 x 100 x 89mm, 340g
  • Smart Home Features: Eero is built in and works with Fire TV
  • color: Deep sea blue, charcoal, glacial white
  • release: 2022
  • price: $49.99 /£54.99

The Amazon Echo Dot is one of the champions of the world of smart speakers and the entire echo range. This is a budget-friendly entry point for Alexa, with a fabric casing with a small spherical design (think it slightly larger than baseball) that can fit neatly anywhere in your home.

The 5th generation (started in 2022) keeps the core functionality of the echodot range strong and doesn’t boast many groundbreaking changes to the previous generation, but the sound quality is decent. Although it doesn’t cut it for audio files, Echodot’s 1.73-inch driver provides clear vocals and ample sound for casual listening.

It can be used as an erotic extender like an echo pop, and has an integrated temperature sensor, allowing for a more seamless smart home routine, such as adjusting the thermostat based on room temperature. Of course, you can also control your music streaming service, get news updates, and make calls like other echo speakers. It can also be paired with a Fire TV from the Alexa Theater System.

While some people may miss the 3.5mm jack removed in this generation, Echodot is a well-designed, versatile echo speaker with a good balance of functionality and price.

Read more about Echo Dot: Amazon Echo Dot Review | Amazon Echo Dot vs Echo Spot

Amazon Echott Kids

Amazon Echo Kids for Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 100 x 100 x 89mm, 340g
  • Smart Home Features: Works on Fire TV
  • color: Dragon, owl
  • release: 2022
  • price: $59.99 /£64.99

Amazon Echo Dot Kids is an Echo Dot, but it is packaged in cute animal designs to make it attractive to younger users. It’s a fun and safe way to introduce kids to the world of Alexa for kids, with not only a children’s version of Alexa, but also a variety of features for kids, including access to age-appropriate content via Amazon Kids+, educational skills, and bedtime stories.

Parents can set time limits, filter content through their parents’ dashboards, ensuring a safe and controlled experience, and Echodot children can also use it to stream age-appropriate music, audiobooks and podcasts.

It doesn’t have the same level of audio quality as high-end echo devices, but it offers clear vocals and a decent bass for your music and audiobooks. It also functions as a smart alarm clock. This is one of the best features and allows kids to set their own alarms with fun sound effects.

If you’re chasing a fantastic smart speaker for kids that is tied to other echo devices you may already have, Echo Dot Kids offers a solid introduction to smart technology for kids, offering entertainment, education and convenience in a children’s package.

Read more about Alexa for Kids: Amazon Alexa for Kids: Explained by Skills, Commands, Parent Controls

Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo for Best Echo Speaker
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 144 x 144 x 133mm, 970g
  • Smart Home Features: Eero built in, Matter, Zigbee, Thread
  • color: Charcoal, Twilight Blue
  • release: 2020
  • price: $99.99 /£109.99

The fourth generation Amazon Echo is a great smart home speaker that offers decent improvements compared to the processor, the latest spherical design, and packs an astonishing punch in its size.

The keys on this echo speaker are in Zigbee support, converting echo into a capable smart home hub, allowing smoother integration and control of various compatible smart home devices. The audio quality is also excellent, with a rich, clear sound that fills the room, and although it may not match those of speakers like the Sonos Era 100, it is excellent for casual listening.

Voice commands control music streaming, adjust smart home settings, make calls, and allow you to access information via Alexa. There is a 3.5mm jack that offers the option of wired connection to external speakers.

Overall, Amazon Echo offers an impressive value proposition. It’s not the cheapest smart speaker around, nor the cheapest echo speaker, but the combination of excellent sound quality, Zigbee hub features and user-friendly design makes it a very good smart speaker.

Read more about Amazon Echo: Amazon Echo Review | Amazon Echo vs Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Studio

Amazon Echo Studio for Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 206 x 175mm, 3.5 kg
  • Smart Home Features: Zigbee and Matter
  • color: Charcoal, Glacier
  • release: 2022
  • price: $199.99 /£219.99

Amazon Echo Studio is the largest and most powerful smart speaker in the echo range, offering a spacious sound that is considerably better than other echo speakers. Not surprising on bass, but your music sounds great and you might even be able to pick out details you’ve never heard before.

One of the outstanding features of Echo Studio is spatial audio compared to the rest of the Echo range. This provides a more immersive listening experience when playing compatible tracks. Of course, you’ll get all the rest of the ALEXA features that come with other echo speakers, but it also includes the ability to set alarms, find weather information, control smart home devices, and use Alexa Dropin and Alexa Calling.

Amazon Echo Studio has Zigbee built into it and can be paired with Alexa Home Cinema’s Fire TV. Overall, Echo Studio is a good option for audiophiles looking for a powerful smart speaker with excellent sound quality. It’s big and expensive, so it may not be the best choice for anyone, but it’s perfect for sound quality.

Read more about Amazon Echo Studio: Amazon Echo Studio Review

Best Amazon Echo Smart Display: Echo Show 5 vs Show 8 vs Show 10 vs Show 15 vs Show 21 vs Echo Hub

If you’re looking for a smart speaker that offers additional functionality by having a display, the Echo Show range is where you’re looking. We compared all the echo shows below, but also highlighted the echo hub. This is the device you need right after Smart Home Control.

Amazon Echo Show 5

Amazon Echo Show 5 Best Echo Speaker
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 147 x 82 x 91mm, 456g
  • Smart Home Features: n/a
  • color: Charcoal, Cloud Blue, White
  • release: 2023
  • price: $89.99 /£89.99

Despite its compact size, the Amazon Echo Show 5 is a great small screen smart display and is well provided. Perfect for nightstands, kitchens, or places where you need a small visual Alexa companion, like an echo pop or echo spot.

The 5.5-inch display is perfect for video calls, watching recipes, and staring at the weather. Additionally, Alexa is built-in, allowing you to easily control your music, smart home devices and access information. Elsewhere, the Echo Show 5, like other Echo Show models, doubles as a digital photo frame, displays a live feed of compatible cameras, and works brilliantly as an alarm clock with tap-to-s-nooze capabilities.

The sound quality is sufficient for casual listening and news updates. With clear and crisp audio of its size, the Echo Show 5 is affordable and makes it the first smart display to be an excellent priced one.

Read more about Echo Show 5: Amazon Echo Show 5 Reviews | Amazon Echo Show 5 vs Echo Show 8

Amazon Echo shows 5 kids

Amazon Echo introduces 5 kids for the best echo speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 147 x 82 x 91mm, 456g
  • Smart Home Features: n/a
  • color: Charcoal, Cloud Blue, White
  • release: 2023
  • price: $99.99 /£99.99

The Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids is the Echo Show 5, but it is designed with kids in mind like The Echo Dot Kids, offering a compact smart display with a variety of colorful designs. There is a 5.5-inch display for watching videos, playing games, and watching videos calling parent-approved contacts, but the clear and crisp sound is perfect for kids to listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts.

Parental controls allow parents to manage screen time, set bedtime, filter content, and ensure a safe, age-appropriate experience. The built-in Alexa is child-friendly, allowing children to ask questions, hear stories, play games and learn new things.

Echodot kids may just want their kids to play music or ask for help with their homework, but if they want to have a visual interface, the Echo Show five kids will entertain and educate them in a safe digital world.

Amazon Echo Show 8

Amazon Echo Show 8 Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 200 x 139 x 106mm, 1.34kg
  • Smart Home Features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread
  • color: Charcoal, glaciers white
  • release: 2023
  • price: $149.99 /£149.99

The Amazon Echo Show 8 is a great option for anyone looking for a top midsize smart speaker with a display. This is an 8-inch device that balances the Compact Echo Show 5 with the larger echo Show model below, making it perfect for your kitchen, living room, or home office.

It has dual 2-inch speakers and a passive bass radiator, providing rich sound for music, movies or video calls, while the 13-megapixel camera offers detailed details suitable for video chat. As you can imagine, Alexa is at the heart of the Echo Show 8. It now has voice control for music playback, smart home device management, and information search, and the Echo Show 8 supports Zigbee, Matter and Thread to easily connect to a variety of devices.

The screen resolution is sharper and the user interface may benefit from smart home control modes like the Echo Hub, but overall, the Echo Show 8 is a great hub for entertainment, communication and smart home control.

Read more about Amazon Echo Show 8: Amazon Echo Show 8 Review

Amazon Echo Show 10

Amazon Echo Show 10 Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 251 x 230 x 172mm, 2.56kg
  • Smart Home Features: Zigby, substance
  • color: Charcoal, glaciers white
  • release: 2021
  • price: $249.99 /£259.99

The Amazon Echo Show 10 begins to sneak into the larger smart display offered by Amazon, which offers a unique twist by having a rotating screen (no pun intended). The 13 megapixel wide-angle sensor provides good quality on video calls, while it has a 10.1-inch display that automatically packs pan and tilt and holds it in the frame during video calls, ensuring a center stage at all times.

The Echo Show 10 also boasts powerful audio credentials that offer a 2.1 speaker setup with a tweeter and a woofer that provides sound filling the room. This means that this smart display is a very good option for watching movies and videos while actually cooking or listening to music. Meanwhile, the built-in Zigbee Hub and Matter Support are simplified smart home controls.

It’s not small, and this smart display is very thick compared to something like the wall-mounted Echo Show 15. This means that it doesn’t for everyone or every home, as it requires plenty of space. The screen resolution is also not very sharp compared to some of its competitors. That said, Echo represents an attractive option for those looking for a feature-rich smart display with excellent audio and a unique video call experience.

Read more about Amazon Echo Show 10: Amazon Echo Show 10 Reviews | Amazon Echo Show 8 vs Echo Show 10

Amazon Echo Show 15

Amazon Echo Show 15 Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 410 x 260 x 40mm, 2.2kg
  • Smart Home Features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread, and Fire TV are included
  • color: Charcoal, glaciers white
  • release: 2024
  • price: $299.99 /£299.99

The 2n-gen Amazon Echo Show 15 is a large, versatile smart display designed to be the center of your home. The 15.6-inch full HD screen is perfect for watching videos, following recipes, and controlling your smart home. This can be used on stands that are ideally mounted on a wall or sold separately. It also comes with built-in Fire TV and comes with an Alexa remote in the Box, making it perfect for viewing content.

When Alexa Voice Control is built in like other Echo devices, you can easily control your music, make video calls, check news, and set reminders. The Echo Show 15 can also be used as a digital photo frame to display your favorite photos. You can use this to view compatible smart home cameras and ring video doorbells.

Echo Show 15 can automatically toggle between different views, such as calendars, to-do lists, weather forecasts, and more based on your activity, and you can also customize your home screen to display your favorite apps and information.

The larger size means it’s not everyone’s tea, but for a wall-mounted smart display with some great features, the Echo Show 15 is a sure option to consider.

Read more about Amazon Echo Show 15: Amazon Echo Show 15 Reviews / Amazon Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 10

Amazon Echo Show 21

Amazon Echo Show 21 Best Echo Speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 540 x 340 x 38mm, 4.9kg
  • Smart Home Features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread, and Fire TV are included
  • color: Charcoal, glaciers white
  • release: 2024
  • price: $399.99 /£399.99

The Amazon Echo Show 21 is the largest echo device with a huge 21-inch display that provides a large canvas for video calls, watching movies, or viewing recipes.

Compared to the Echo Show 15, it offers better sound quality with richer audio and deeper bass, but the sound can be distorted slightly at a higher volume, and is not the best sound echo speaker despite being the most expensive.

Like the Echo Show 15, the Echo Show 21 is wall mounted (as designed) and mounted on a table mounted on a separate stand, with a built-in fire TV so you can watch all of your favorite streaming platforms.

It has an automatic pan camera that keeps frames during video calls even when moving around, and the Echo Show 21 is a great smart home hub, seamlessly integrated with a variety of smart devices, providing problems, threads and Zigbee support.

The screen resolution may be sharp, but it is still sharp and the user interface can sometimes feel a bit messy. Otherwise, this is an impressive package and a compelling option for anyone looking for a large, versatile smart display that can act as a central hub for entertainment, communication and smart home control.

Read more about Amazon Echo Show 21: Amazon Echo Show 21 Reviews | Amazon Echo Show 21 vs Echo Show 15

Amazon Echo Hub

Amazon Echo Hub for the best echo speakers
(Image credit: Ambient / Amazon)
  • size: 202 x 137 x 15mm, 365g
  • Smart Home Features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread
  • color: white
  • release: 2023
  • price: $179.99 /£169.99

Amazon Echo Hub is a dedicated smart home control panel designed to simplify the management of connected devices. It features an 8-inch touchscreen that displays a customizable dashboard, allowing you to easily view and control a variety of smart devices, including cameras, lights, locks, thermostats and more.

It supports Zigbee, Thread, and Matter protocols to ensure seamless integration with existing smart home setups, view live camera feeds, set up routines, and control your home with voice commands through Alexa.

While echo hubs are less versatile than full-fledged smart displays and other echo show devices, they are great as dedicated smart home control centers, offering a convenient and visually appealing way to manage connected devices.

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