Amazon Echo Pop

Get the Amazon Echo Pop if you’re looking for the cheapest Alexa smart speaker, and don’t really care about some smart home features.

The Amazon Echo Pop isn’t much smaller or more budget-friendly than the Echo Dot, yet it sounds worse, does less, and feels cheap. Our advice: get a Dot instead.

The Echo (4th Gen) is still my top recommendation for an Echo speaker, and it’s been on sale for as low as $50. If it’s a choice between a fourth-gen Echo and an Echo Pop — there’s no contest. While the Echo (4th Gen) still doesn’t have Amazon’s latest processor, it is an excellent smart speaker and a more useful smart home hub. It does everything the Dot can, plus adds Zigbee compatibility as well as Thread, and it sounds really good.

If you're looking for something eye-catching for casual music listening, and you aren't looking for a clock or full-bodied sound, the Echo Pop is a fun choice. Even if you don't use it often, you'll enjoy looking at it more than other affordable smart speakers.

The Amazon Echo Pop is an affordable little smart speaker that lets you put Alexa in any room.

The main thing most Amazon products have going for them is the price point at which they are sold. If we're comparing prices, the Echo Pop is around $10 cheaper than a standard Fifth-Gen Echo Dot. If you were to purchase this device on Amazon right now, $40 for a Matter-enabled smart speaker and Wi-Fi extender combo isn't really that bad. But let's be honest, very few people will be paying that.