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Tomorrow is an exciting time for anyone keen to save big on technology, with the Prime Early Access sale officially launching for the first time ever. The two-day event is a lot like Prime Day but at a different time of year. The thinking is that it means you can do all your holiday shopping earlier than usual, while saving plenty of cash, too. In particular, it’s going to be a great time of year for anyone seeking out highly sought-after technology as Amazon often provides the deepest of discounts on this kind of stuff. When it comes to Amazon Echo devices on sale, we’re already ahead of things by highlighting some of the best Prime Early Access Amazon Echo deals from the sale that you can shop right this very second.
It’s worth remembering that while Amazon is using a different name for this event, it’s basically the same as the Prime Day Amazon Echo deals you may have seen earlier in the year. This is the ideal opportunity to take advantage of and buy any Amazon Echo devices you missed out on earlier in the year, and maybe even save bigger than before.
However you plan on doing things, these Prime Day deals are sure to be a real treat. We’re here to help you figure out what to do. That includes listing the early deals going on at the moment, as well as looking at whether you should buy now, and what to do if you don’t currently have a Prime membership.
Amazon loves to discount its own products quite significantly so it’s pretty much a guarantee that the Prime Early Access Amazon Echo deals are going to be special. However, if you’ve just realized you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, you may be worried. This is a sale exclusively for Prime members so what do you do?
Don’t worry. You can simply sign up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime and you can instantly check out the Prime Early Access deals going on. Anyone who hasn’t previously been an Amazon Prime member is eligible. You won’t have to pay a single cent either, provided you remember to cancel it before the 30 days are up. Otherwise, you’ll pay $15 per month or $139 for the year.
If you haven’t entered the world of smart speakers, then the Echo Dot 3rd-gen is a great starter, not only because it’s a significant upgrade from the Echo Dot gen-2 to gen-3, but also because it’s quite reasonably priced, making it much easier to grab a few to kit out your whole house.
Being slightly more significant than the Echo Dot gen-2, Amazon dropped the logo at the front and made the whole thing a little bit bigger, which means they can put a bigger speaker into the little device to give it much fuller audio than that isn’t tinny or lacks too much bass. Even better, they wrapped the outside with the cloth mesh material that has become quite common for speakers these days, which is both good and bad, since it looks nice but is more prone to spills and stains, although just being careful around it should fix that issue. The sound is also projected in 360 degrees, rather than out the top as you would find with the Nest mini, and that certainly helps fill out the room, even though it’s not going to compete with a speaker made to only be a speaker.
When the Echo Dot gen-3 came out, Amazon’s Alexa wasn’t that smart, to say the least, so the audio quality played a huge part in making it a quality product. Since then, though, Alexa has advanced by leaps and bounds, making it much more capable as a virtual assistant. There’s also a significant microphone upgrade that bumps the number of microphones on the gen-2 to four microphones on the gen-3, which means that you can do a pretty excellent job of controlling your smart home devices, even over the sound of music playing, although that depends a lot on placement and volume of said music.
Overall, the Echo Dot gen-3 is a nice little smart home device that functions as a speaker and is a great way to dip your toes into the whole idea of smart speakers and smart home control through virtual assistants; and is probably one of the better Prime Day Amazon Echo deals that you’re going to find.
With an all-new design, the Echo Dot 4th gen bows down to the idea of a spherical speaker shape being a great design decision, although unlike what you might expect, the sound does not come out in 360 degrees but instead includes a front-facing speaker. You’d also think that, given the larger size of a spherical design, there would be a bigger speaker inside, but instead, it’s the same 1.6-cm sized speaker that was in the gen-3, albeit with the better build quality. Said quality provides it with much better audio fidelity compared to the 3rd-gen that’s able to fill small spaces relatively well and is quite impressive for a speaker of that size and cost, although it definitely won’t compete with the audio quality of bigger and more premium devices like the Echo featured below.
Even though it’s a bit bigger than its 3rd-gen sibling, it still has all the same features, including the four control buttons at the top, although they’re not depressed into the design but rather stick out of it, adding a nice tactile feel to them that gives you an immediate idea of what you’re doing, even if you’re not looking. The four microphones are also still there, although they’re hidden under the hood of the cloth mesh that was first introduced with the gen-3 and has now made its way to the gen-4. Alexa features remain largely the same, although with the added benefit of Alexa Gaurd, which functions as a sort of compliment to your regular home security, as it can turn lights on and off randomly or listen in for the sounds of things like breaking glass and alert you.
If you’re still somewhat on the fence on which gen you should go for, there’s a pretty good breakdown of Amazon Echo Dot 3rd-gen vs. Echo Dot 4th-gen that might help you decide, but if you’re willing to pay the extra $10 or so, it’s worth picking up the 4th-gen version, especially during the Prime Day Amazon Echo deals where you’ll get a good discount. Also, while we’re at it, you should also consider the ; it adds that extra little bit of function and is only slightly more expensive. You don’t need to kit out your whole home with them, but supplementing the non-clock versions is a good option.
The Echo Auto is one of the best smart home devices on the market, bringing the conveniences of Alexa inside your car. Simply ask Alexa to find nearby businesses, check your calendar, make calls, pause your audiobook, play music, and more for the ultimate hands-free experience. Echo Auto hears your commands over road noise with eight microphones, making your trips safer than you thought possible. One of the best parts of Echo Auto is the setup — it starts in seconds, uses your existing phone data plan, and works through your car speakers.
If you’re tired of fumbling with your phone while driving, this Amazon Echo Auto Prime Day deal is the deal for you. Echo Auto uses the Alexa app to access your content — just ask Alexa to play an artist, genre, station, or song from any of the best music streaming services, including Apple Music, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and more. Listen to the best audiobook apps like Audible or stream your favorite podcast on your drive to work. You can even play games like Jeopardy!, 20 Questions, and more, which will make family road trips entertaining for the entire family.
With this Amazon Echo Auto Prime Day deal, you can use your alone time in the car to multitask by updating your calendar or setting reminders without taking your eyes off the road. You can even share or update your ETA with compatible Echo devices at home. The possibilities are endless with Alexa in your car — use Skills to find the cheapest gas with GasBuddy, a place to park with ParkWhiz, or get roadside assistance with Nationwide or Urgent.ly. Echo Auto is designed to protect your privacy like all Echo devices and has several layers of security, including a microphone off button. You can also view, hear, and delete your voice recordings any time for added protection.
If you want to upgrade your Echo experience at home, the Echo Show 5 2nd-gen is a nice option, given its screen. At 5.5-inch and a resolution of 960 x 480, it’s roughly the size and screen quality of a lower-end tablet, which is expected given its price range. While it’s not meant to be like a tablet, it functions pretty well as an additional screen around the house, and you can use it for anything as mundane as a clock to show the weather or something a bit fancier like a digital picture frame. The screen is large enough to make both uses visible from a distance, so we certainly appreciate that aspect.
There’s also a 2-megapixel camera in the front that can be used for calls, which, again, isn’t competitive with a modern phone, tablet, or computer, but it’s powerful enough that you could still use it without much fuss. More importantly, it allows you to make calls without needing to constantly pull a phone out and is a nice companion if, say, you’re in the kitchen cooking, and the focus isn’t as much on the video aspect as it is just having somebody to chat with. The audio quality is also quite reasonable, featuring a slightly larger 1.65-inch speaker that does a surprisingly good job for its size, and has about the same audio quality as the Echo Dot 4th-gen, so if you have one of those, you know what to expect roughly.
Of course, the biggest factor here is the additional functions when it comes to using it as a smart home controller; and functions in a similar way to other Alexa-driven displays, meaning you get tied into things like Amazon Prime and Amazon music with a better UI than having no screen at all. That being said, one downside is that it’s not a significant upgrade to the previous version, and the difference between the Echo Show 5 1st-gen vs. Echo Show 5 2nd-gen is minimal. That means if you already have a 1st-gen Echo Show 5, then it’s not worth picking up a 2nd-gen one. However, with great Prime Day Amazon Echo deals going on, you might be tempted to go for an extra one.
If you like the idea of the Echo Show 5 but feel like the screen is a little bit lackluster, then you’ll be right at home with the Echo Show 8 1st-gen, which sits quite nicely between the Show 5 and the Show 10 when it comes to screen size. Coming in at 8-inches and with a resolution of 1280 x 800, the touchscreen is surprisingly good when it comes to image quality, being slightly better than 720 and bounds better than the Show 5, as well as surprisingly better than the Show 10 1st-gen, since it has a bigger screen with the same resolution, making the image less sharp. Of course, Show 10 does follow turn on its base to follow you around, while Show 8 doesn’t, so that’s a different beast altogether.
As a smart device, it has a lot of similarities with the Show 5, as it runs on the same platform, although obviously, the bigger screen does make it a bit better. For example, the photo, date, and time features are much more visible on the bigger screen, making them easy to see from further away. You can also have a much better experience viewing videos off Prime Video since the resolution and image sharpness are way better than the Show 5 and even the Show 10. Video calls are about the same because even though the screen is bigger and better, the front-facing camera is a little worse at 1 megapixel, so again, this likely won’t be your main work-from-home solution, but like a supplement to your daily tasks around the house.
As for the audio, it’s much better than the Show 5, given that it comes with two 2-inch, 10watt speakers, making it surprisingly powerful for such a small device. The whole thing also looks sleeker overall, and while that’s mostly an aesthetic thing and doesn’t affect performance, it’s something we appreciate. Also, while we’re at it, you may stumble upon the Show 8 2nd-gen while you’re browsing the Prime Day Amazon Echo deals, and the truth is that it’s a bit better than the 1st gen, at least in terms of the front-facing camera and a better performance boost. You can compare the Echo Show 8 1st-gen and Echo Show 8 2nd-gen to see if the extra cost is worth it to you, though.
If you’re looking between this entry and the earlier 4th-gen echo dot, you may be feeling like you’re crazy since the products seem the same, but the Echo 4th-gen is actually the bigger-sized sibling of the Echo Dot and therefore has much more power under the hood making it a tempting proposition in the Prime Day Amazon Echo deals. Lying between the Echo Dot and the Echo studio in terms of audio quality, the Echo has powerful enough bass and fidelity to even please audiophiles, at least when looking at its pretty low price. It also has the same automatic room-adjusting tech as the Echo Studio, which is pretty sweet given how much more expensive it is. A lot of this audio quality is driven by the 3-inch woofer and two 0.8-inch tweakers, giving the Echo a much wider audio landscape to work with.
The Echo is also very much tied up with the entire Alexa ecosystem and is a big selling point if you’re considering buying one. In fact, the LED ring at the base of the device is even used to leverage this ecosystem, with it being able to do things like shine yellow when you have an Amazon package that’s just been delivered. That being said, you aren’t going to find a ton more functionality compared to other Alexa speakers; since it’s the same assistant across all of them, you can merely leverage the LED slightly better.
Even so, the Echo is a pretty powerful device, and if you don’t have an Alexa speaker, it’s a good first entry into the Amazon ecosystem, especially since it can function as part of Amazon’s Sidewalk system, which can be a hit or miss depending on how you feel about it. Of course, it also functions as a smart home hub with Bluetooth LE and ZigBee support, so even if you don’t use Amazon Sidewalk, it’s still an excellent purchase for your smart home system, especially if you want something you can control by a voice from nearly anywhere.
Right now, you’re probably feeling incredibly tempted to hit the buy button early. We get it, but we think you should wait. Sure, many Amazon Echo deals are already offering low prices right now but Amazon still tends to hold on until the big sales day to truly turn things cheap. You’ve only got a few hours to go until you can see how heavily discounted the Amazon Echo deals are going to be and we think it’s worth holding out.
However, we don’t blame you if you can’t resist. Whether you’re feeling a little stressed about waiting longer or you simply want to get on with purchasing, you can always buy now and cancel later. That’s because Amazon has a great cancellation policy. If you decide to buy today, you’ll easily be able to cancel your purchase tomorrow and buy it at the lower price. Just make sure that you’ve already ordered the lower price item first so you don’t miss out.
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