There’s not much you can’t buy from Amazon. From groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances, the Everything Store usually has whatever you need, including a line of its own branded smart speakers and displays, tablets, and ebook readers. Whether you’re looking for a voice-activated assistant, a tablet for all your binge watching, or a feather-light e-reader, Amazon has it all—and there’s no better time to buy than during Prime Day, when the retailer offers steep discounts on its own branded products. To help you navigate page after page of deals, we’ve rounded up everything we think you need to know to save the most on the things you want.
Amazon Echo speaker and smart display deals
If you’re new to smart speakers and don’t want to spend a lot on something you aren’t sure about, the Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) is an inexpensive way to get your feet wet. We suspect it’ll be discounted to $30 or less this Prime Day; the 4th Gen version with an integrated clock will probably drop to $40.
If you’re looking for a device that offers better audio but won’t take up much room on a shelf or desk, we recommend the Amazon Echo (4th Gen). For even better sound, consider the Echo Studio. It’s bigger than the Echo (and it costs a fair bit more), but it produces a louder sound with significantly improved bass, and it has an integrated Zigbee radio for expanded smart-home control. The Echo Studio is likely to be discounted to as low as $150 this Prime Day if 2020 trends continue.
Another great Echo to consider for a nightstand or kitchen counter is the Echo Show 5. During Prime Day last year, the 2019 version of the Echo Show 5 dropped as low as $45. Though we expect to see that pricing again for the older model, Amazon has plans to release a new, faster version with a better camera on June 9. This new model will likely be discounted by at least $10, but Wirecutter Deals senior editor Nathan Burrow thinks there may be a wait to get it. Folks looking for something with a larger screen are also in luck: The Echo Show 8, the top pick in our guide to smart displays, will also be nicely discounted come Prime Day. Though the Echo Show 10 is not an official pick, our Deals team is also keeping an eye out for price drops on that larger model, whose automatically rotating display makes it ideal for home cooks and frequent video callers.
Amazon Echo deals live now
The Amazon Echo, our top pick for Alexa voice-controlled speakers, is a great choice for people who are new to smart speakers. As the latest version of the Echo, the fourth-generation model has an impressive sound that plays louder, clearer, and with more bass than previous iterations. Easy to control and relatively affordable (even without the deal), the Echo offers the complete range of Alexa functions, meaning you’ll be able to use your voice to ask the Echo to find answers to questions, control your smart lighting and other smart-home devices, and even order pizza for dinner. This deal, which brings a pair of these smart speakers down to $120 with the code ECHOPRIME, offers the best price per Echo we’ve ever seen—making it a great time to nab it for less.
Ready to move away from using your phone as your alarm clock? A smart display can be a good replacement. The Echo Show 5 is a good choice because it does everything that the larger Echo Show can do but it’s smaller, making it easier to fit on your nightstand. It also adjusts its screen brightness to the room’s lighting, so it won’t keep you up at night. The Show 5 Gen 1, now down to the lowest price we’ve seen, can also act as your personal assistant as you get ready for the day in the morning: You can ask it to give weather updates, find traffic reports, or play your favorite morning radio show.
The Echo Dot is the perfect choice for a beginner looking to dip their toes into the world of smart speakers. Affordable, compact, and sphere-shaped, the Dot gives you a surprisingly good sound for something so small, along with all the control and features of Alexa (and if you find that you want better sound, you can easily connect the Dot to any Bluetooth speaker you may already have at home). For folks already entrenched in the Alexa ecosystem, adding another Echo Dot (or two) to another part of your home can extend your smart assistants’ range and allow you to seamlessly keep the music going, no matter where you are. Down to $50 when you use the code PDDOT2PK at checkout, the Echo Dot doesn’t normally drop this low, making now a good time to buy.
Though we don’t officially recommend the Amazon Echo Buds, we still think they’re a good choice for anyone looking for the ability to use Alexa hands-free. The Echo Buds aren’t perfect—they offer a middling five-hour battery life and can be a bit large for smaller ears—but we still think they’re an above-average pair of earbuds with average noise-cancellation. Senior staff writer Lauren Dragan, Wirecutter’s resident headphone expert, warns any interested shoppers to set their expectations appropriately, though, because even though this is a good deal, “you’d be buying $80 headphones that you’d want to upgrade after 6 months or a year most likely.”
The Echo Auto is a way to add Alexa to your vehicle, but we don’t recommend it. Down from a street price of $35 to $15 as part of a pre-Prime Day promotion, it claims to allow you to use your voice to play music, check the news, make calls, add to your to-do list, or manage your calendar. We don’t like the Echo Auto, as per Wirecutter Senior Editor Grant Clauser: “It’s an interesting concept, and is nice when it works, but it frequently doesn’t.”
When it comes to e-readers, you can’t go wrong with Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite. It’s our top pick for a reason: The screen displays crisp, easy-to-read text and clear images, it’s light and small, and it’s waterproof (bath readers, rejoice!). Because the 10th-generation Paperwhite includes Bluetooth capability, you can stream audiobooks, too. We also recommend the Paperwhite because Amazon offers an impressive catalog of affordable reading materials and has partnerships that let you check out books from public libraries. We think the Paperwhite is likely to drop to $85 or less during Prime Day—so if you’re shopping for a new e-reader and see competitive pricing, don’t hesitate to jump on it. Though Amazon may release a new version of the Paperwhite sometime in the near future, we still think the 10th-generation version is an excellent ebook reader, and most Kindle improvements in recent years have been iterative, not game-changing.
Though we think the iPad is an all-around better tablet, cheap tablets like the Amazon Fire series are great for casual video watching or even light reading. The Fire HD 8 does well on these simple tasks, so it’s a good affordable alternative if you’d rather not join the Apple family. Amazon released two new 10-inch Fire HD tablets in late May, just in time for Prime Day. The Fire HD 10, which sells for $150, will come with an eight-core processor, 32 GB or 64 GB of storage, and 3 GB of RAM. The more expensive Fire HD 10 Plus, selling for $180, has 4 GB of RAM and can charge wirelessly. We’re not sure yet if these new tablets will become picks—in the past, as our reviewers have said, “underpowered hardware, an Amazon-centric version of Android, and a limited app store” have kept us from recommending Amazon’s pricier tablets—but we do plan to test the HD 10 and HD 10 Plus soon.
If watching streamed content on a tablet screen isn’t for you—and you don’t have a smart TV—Amazon also makes the Fire TV Stick 4K, which allows you to easily stream the movies and television shows on your must-watch list. However, even if you see discounts on the Fire TV Stick, we think you should pass and get either the Google Chromecast with Google TV or the Roku Streaming Stick+ instead. Our reviewers found that the Fire TV interface prioritizes Amazon content first and makes it difficult to find content from other services—that’s okay if you buy almost all of your content from Amazon, but if not, it can be a real pain. The interface also has ads on every page, which can be hard to ignore.
About your guide
Elissa Sanci is a staff writer for Wirecutter, where she covers deals, consumer shopping, and personal finance. Based in Denver, she previously worked as an editorial assistant at Woman’s Day, where she wrote about everything from worthy charities to girls’ empowerment. Her byline has also appeared in Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire.
