Now’s the time to buy one (or three).
Amazon Prime Day is always home to an insane amount of deals, and this year has already proven to be no different — especially when it comes to Amazon’s hardware.
Amazon’s been using Prime Day to offer insane discounts on its own gadgets, and for 2019’s sale, one of the best offers we’ve seen so far is the Echo Dot (3rd Gen). The Echo Dot is already a solid buy year-round with its usual MSRP of $50, but right now, you can pick it up for a meager $22.
That’s an insta-buy price if I’ve ever seen one, but if you’re still on the fence, here are five reasons why you should pick up one (or three) before this sale is over.
Compact and powerful
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
$22 at Amazon
This tiny Alexa speaker does it all for less.
Whether you’re on the fence about smart speakers or are knee-deep in the Alexa ecosystem, the Echo Dot is a stupidly good buy this Prime Day. From streaming music, controlling smart home devices, making phone calls, and more, the Echo Dot crams in a lot in a tiny package.
The speaker sounds better than you’d expect
The Echo Dot is the smallest speaker in Amazon’s Echo lineup, and as you’d expect, that also means it has the weakest speaker of the bunch. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Echo Dot sounds bad.
Amazon packed a 1.6-inch speaker into the Echo Dot, and compared to past iterations of the device, it sounds surprisingly great. The volume gets pretty high, the audio isn’t too muffled, and if you have multiple Dots, you can pair two together in the same room for stereo sound or have one in each room of your home for house-filling audio.
You’ll obviously get better speakers with the regular Echo and Echo Plus, but for casual music-listening, the Echo Dot fits the bill better than you’d expect.
You can stream music from a ton of services
On the subject of listening to music, the Echo Dot can stream music from most major services out there. As of right now, that list includes:
- Amazon Music
- Apple Music
- Spotify
- Pandora
- Deezer
- SiriusXM
- Tidal
- Gimme
- Vevo
When you connect your Dot to your account for any of the above services, you can start music, pause/resume playback, and skip tracks using nothing but your voice.
Alternatively, if you get your music from a service that’s not on the above list, you can still stream it through the Echo Dot by pairing the Dot to your phone via Bluetooth.
It’s a great smart home companion
Switching gears away from music, the Echo Dot is also great for people that are invested in smart home tech. Alexa is compatible with most smart home products, ranging from light bulbs, thermostats, smart plugs, and more.
After getting your Dot paired with whatever smart home devices you have, controlling them is as easy as saying, “Alexa” and then whatever command you’d like. Some examples include:
- Alexa, set the thermostat to 70 degrees
- Alexa, turn off the bedroom lights
- Alexa, turn on the coffee pot
- Alexa, lock the front door
For people that already have a lot of smart home gadgets, picking up the Echo Dot makes sense as it’s another gadget for controlling the tech you own. If not, the Echo Dot might be a good catalyst for finally checking out the smart home market.
Best Alexa-Compatible Smart Devices in 2019
It has the same features as more expensive Echos
Perhaps one of the best praises we can give to the Echo Dot is the fact that it isn’t lacking any major features compared to more expensive Alexa speakers.
All of the Alexa Skills work exactly the same on the Echo Dot, meaning you aren’t missing out on any crucial functionality just because you bought the cheapest speaker in the Echo lineup. You can still use the Echo Dot for asking about the weather, setting timers, broadcasting a message throughout your home, making free audio calls, and so much more.
You can fit one in just about any room
Last but certainly not least, the fact that the Echo Dot is so small means that it’ll fit in just about any room of your house. Whether it be your kitchen, bedroom, living room, or anything else in between, chances are you can fit the Echo Dot in it while taking up hardly any space at all.
Having an Echo Dot in every room comes with quite a few benefits.
For starters, it means you can say Alexa no matter where you are in your house, and chances are, at least one of your Dots will hear you. As mentioned above, you can also configure the Dots for multi-room audio and play your favorite song, podcast, or audiobook throughout your entire home.
Compact and powerful
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
$22 at Amazon
This tiny Alexa speaker does it all for less.
Whether you’re on the fence about smart speakers or are knee-deep in the Alexa ecosystem, the Echo Dot is a stupidly good buy this Prime Day. From streaming music, controlling smart home devices, making phone calls, and more, the Echo Dot crams in a lot in a tiny package.
