Comparing Our Favorite Alexa Speakers
Other Alexa (or Alexa-Compatible) Speakers
There are a lot of Echo devices out there, and some third-party speakers that are Amazon Alexa–compatible. Here’s every Alexa smart speaker we’ve tried and what we thought of it.
Amazon Echo Pop for $40: The Echo Pop is a perfectly fine little speaker, and the cutest one in Amazon’s lineup. Does it have great sound? No. It’s fine enough for background tunes or if you’re limited to a dorm room, but you’ll get much better sound for a similar size from the Echo Dot (but you’ll pay a little more, and you won’t get as cute of colors!)
Amazon Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen) for $90: This smart display is another just-fine option, but it’s too small to be a great display, and the included camera makes it a no for a bedside table; better to go with the above Echo Spot or an Echo Dot.
Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) for $250: This smart display has big sound, but its wonky shape makes it hard to seamlessly fit into your home. It’s cool that it can follow you around while you speak to it, but also kinda weird. It’s great if you have a big kitchen island you’re always moving around, but not much else. It’s been out of stock for a while now, though, so we’re keeping an eye to see if it’s discontinued.
Amazon Echo Show 15 (2nd Gen) for $300: This smart display is a good display, but it clearly wants to double as a TV and isn’t very good at it yet. I’m hoping we see better TV-related performance in the future to make it worth adding to a kitchen or office. It does a great job with widgets, though, thanks to the massive 15.6-inch screen. There’s also the larger Echo Show 21 ($400), which is essentially the same thing but larger.
Amazon Echo Studio for $200: The Echo Studio is our favorite Alexa speaker for music and sound quality, but availability has been limited—it was only in stock for a few days of July, and is out of stock as of September 2025. Amazon just announced its next generation of the Echo Studio ($220) is available for preorder and will start shipping October 29.
Amazon Echo Sub for $130: This subwoofer was our top pick for bass, which can be paired with other Echo speakers to add some bass to your jam sessions. It’s currently unavailable on Amazon but still around for third-party retailers like Best Buy, and we’re keeping a eye out to see if it comes back in stock or not. Amazon did not confirm whether or not it would when asked.
Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) for $269: The Beosound A1 is a durable, beautiful, and great-sounding listening companion, and this second-generation version has an Alexa integration to make it an Alexa speaker anywhere you go. It’s a great speaker, but it’s more expensive than the Sonos Roam.
JBL Authentics 200 for $380: This JBL smart speaker speaks both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, letting you split between the two for different tasks without having to switch your preference in the app. That makes this speaker particularly appealing for folks with a sprawling collection of smart products from both.
Other Devices With Alexa Inside
Why only ask Alexa for help while you’re at home? These accessories let you take your favorite voice assistant with you everywhere.
Echo Frames (3rd Gen) for $330: WIRED reviewer Adrienne So was fully prepared to hate these combo eyeglasses and headphones, but she actually liked them a lot. They look good, they’re surprisingly comfortable, and the sound is OK—although a little tinny, since the speakers are placed just next to your ears. You can answer calls while running and going for walks, and the microphone is good enough that she sounded like she was still on her phone. But the charging base is annoying. The glasses’ arms don’t quite fit into the stand, and you have to be careful to balance the frames at two points.
Echo Buds (2023 Release) for $50: We preferred the 2021 release of these earbuds, but they’re no longer available. The 2023 edition is cheaper, much uglier, and does not have ANC.
What About Amazon’s New Speakers?
Courtesy of Amazon
Amazon announced two new smart speakers and two new smart displays this week at its fall hardware event: the Echo Dot Max ($100), the third-gen Echo Studio ($220), the fourth-gen Echo Show 8 ($180), and the Echo Show 11 ($220). All four are currently available for preorder, with the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio due out on October 29 and the Show 8 and 11 due out on November 11.
The Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio unveil an updated smart speaker design for Amazon, continuing its spherical look but adding a front piece for the buttons that looks similar to a dust cap you’d find on a classic speaker. The Echo Show 8 and 11 both look like an updated take on the uniquely shaped Echo Show 10, but with a more rounded base. All four models promise better sound than their previous generations, and also promise Alexa+ access right out of the box. We’ll update this guide soon with testing notes.
Meet Alexa+
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Amazon has started rolling out the new and improved Amazon Alexa, named Alexa+. It’s available right now for free in early access, though you’ll have to join a waiting list and wait to get selected. I got to check out Alexa+ on my Echo Show devices (which are the only devices you can use Alexa+ on during early access), and it’s been a pretty positive experience. I like the updated, more conversational voice, and Alexa+ did a good job answering all kinds of questions quickly and thoughtfully. Check out our early access hands-on for everything I thought while testing.
Alexa+ has caused some changes, even for those not using it. It requires that all voice recordings be sent to Amazon to be processed. Amazon has changed its features wholesale—now all recordings with regular Alexa go to Amazon, too. There used to be a “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” privacy feature that you could select to have voice requests processed locally, but that feature was killed on March 28, 2025, per an email Amazon sent out to current users of that feature.
There isn’t a timeline for when early access will be done and the final version will roll out. Once out of early access, Alexa+ will be available for $20 a month, or free if you have an Amazon Prime membership. While you likely have a membership if you added an Alexa device to your home, it’s a big jump from the previously free assistant. Still, it’s a nice upgrade and much more on par with the AI assistants of the world, which isn’t a surprise since it’s built on generative AI.
FAQs
What’s the Difference Between an Echo and an Echo Show?
A regular Echo is a smart speaker, or a speaker with microphones in it so it can hear you speak to it and respond. An Echo Show is a smart display, which has a screen and a camera to let you make video calls, stream content, and see your questions answered on a screen. Both have similar capabilities when it comes to smart home control, answering questions, and playing music, but Echo Shows have extra abilities thanks to the screen. All Echo Shows have a camera and come with a physical camera cover for privacy.
When’s the Best Time to Buy an Echo?
The best time to buy any Amazon speaker is during a major sale event like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day, when there are often steep discounts. You’ll often see the cheaper speakers discounted for around 50 percent off, and the larger speakers see some nice sale prices too.
How and Where Should You Set Up Your Alexa?
Alexa speakers get the best use in spaces you’re in often. I like setting mine up in my kitchen and living room—usually a display in the kitchen, so I can pull up a recipe or the weather while I make my morning cup of tea, and a speaker in the living room so I can play music and command the lights without a screen to distract from the TV or playing with my son. You can also set one up in the bedroom to use as an alarm clock, but make sure it’s a model without a camera for the best privacy.
Ultimately, what’s most important is that the speaker is somewhere it can hear your commands. Where that will be will vary based on your home, but think about where you’ll be when you ask for the weather or to dim the lights, and place your speaker accordingly.
You’ll set up Alexa speakers using the Alexa app, which allows you to manage multiple Alexa speakers if you own more than one through your Amazon account. Third-party speaker setup methods may vary.
Is Alexa Always Listening?
Alexa is always listening, to a certain extent. It’s designed to only listen for its wake word, and shouldn’t be recording or processing any audio unless it hears that word. But Alexa can sometimes mishear a word and think it’s the wake word, or hear a word similar enough to activate the speaker. If you’ve owned an Alexa, there’s likely been times that the assistant suddenly responds when you weren’t speaking to it. Once it hears the wake word (or what it believes to be is the wake word) it will start listening to everything in an attempt to hear what you need and respond.
Alexa+, the latest version of Alexa, will also remain on for a little bit after you ask a question to listen for follow-up questions, no wake word required. Both Alexa and Alexa+ light up in some fashion (regular speakers will turn the light ring blue, while the displays will have a blue bar appear on the screen) to let you know the assistant is listening. Most Echo devices also have a physical mute button, and will display a red light or red bar to let you know when the mute is activated.
How Do You Remove Ads and Spam From an Echo Show?
If you’re using an Echo Show device, you’ve likely noticed there’s tons of default content the device will show you. Sports scores! Local news! A recipe you might be interested in! It makes the device exhausting and annoying to be near.
Here’s how you can control what you see:
- Swipe down from the top of your Echo Show to pull up the menu, and select Settings.
- In the Settings menu, choose Home Content.
- There are upward of 40 options you can toggle on and off on this menu, and you should remove as many as you can that you don’t use. I usually remove all but weather forecasts and recently played audio.
While you’re able to turn off interest-based ads from third-party skills (this is under Alexa Privacy in the Settings menu), it won’t stop all ads. The only setting that is ad-free is choosing Photo Display mode, which can use either Amazon’s included library of photos or your own. The downside is that that turns it into a digital photo frame, so you won’t even see a clock or features like widgets.
Can I Have My Alexa Requests Locally Processed, or Do They Have to Go to the Cloud?
There used to be a privacy feature called Do Not Send Voice Recordings that let you have all your voice requests processed locally on your Alexa device, instead of being sent to Amazon’s cloud storage. That feature was killed in March 2025 to support Alexa+, and even if you continue to use the old Alexa, you don’t have access to that feature any longer.
Alexa+ is still only in early access, and you can only get it by joining the wait list and waiting to be selected. It’s random, and so far Amazon doesn’t have a timeline for when everyone on the list will get it or when early access will be over. You’ll just have to join the wait list and wait to see when you’re chosen. Once you do, check out our hands-on for what we liked about Alexa+ so far.
How Does WIRED Select Smart Speakers to Test? How Are These Speakers Tested?
For this guide, we specifically test speakers that are compatible with Amazon Alexa. It’s a big limitation and narrows down the options significantly, especially compared to speaker options you’ll see in our other guides like the Best Bluetooth Speakers. That’s mainly Amazon’s own ecosystem of speakers, and while there are third party options, the best options tend to be of Amazon’s own design to work with its own voice assistant.
Each speaker gets installed in a tester’s home to test for day-to-day use, as well as to see how the microphone performs, how the speaker sounds with different types of music, how well the smart home control features work with compatible devices such as smart lights and video doorbells, and other features as necessary (e.g., streaming features on smart displays).
How Does WIRED Get Models? What Does WIRED Do After Testing Them?
We acquire review units usually as a press sample, though we will also independently purchase samples if need be. All review units in this guide were provided as press samples with no obligation to cover or promises for what that coverage would be.
After testing, we keep most of our picks either installed for long-term testing in our homes, or in storage to compare against updated models and new speakers that come out. If the sample becomes irrelevant or unnecessary to keep, we donate it locally.
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