Top 10 Best Amazon Alexa Smart Speakers – June 2018
Top 10 Best Amazon Alexa Smart Speakers – June 2018
Amazon Alexa is a pretty useful personal assistant, and it was actually something that Amazon stumbled on by accident. It was originally meant to be used in its Fire Phone and Fire Tablet lineup as a replacement for Google Now or Siri, since those ran Android but not Google's Android – a forked version of Android. But Amazon decided to put it in a speaker (the Echo), and the rest is history. Alexa quickly became one of the more popular personal assistants out there and became a hub for controlling your smart home products, now, you can find all sorts of things with Alexa inside. Whether it's a speaker, a set-top box, a thermostat or even a refrigerator. But we decided to stick with speakers, so we've rounded up the top 10 best speakers with Amazon Alexa inside.
One of our favorites on this list is definitely the Sonos One. Particularly because it is such a good speaker with great sound quality, and then you get Alexa thrown in on top of that. That makes this is a good option, and it's really not that expensive at $199. With the Sonos One, you can stream music over WiFi and talk to Alexa, by asking her questions, asking her to turn off the lights in your home and so much more. Another favorite is the Ultimate Ears BLAST. This is a favorite for two reasons. One being the fact that it is waterproof and the other is the fact that it is portable. So you can literally take Alexa anywhere you want.
Now, we also added in the Fire TV Cube with this list, and that's because it includes hands free Alexa, something a bit different. It's a pretty interesting product that Amazon just launched, and is a pretty cool option for most people. All of the Alexa speakers listed below are pretty good options for anyone looking to get into the world of Alexa. There are options that are as low as $30 and some that are much more.
This is the second-generation Amazon Echo, which is a bit smaller, but provides even better audio. It also has better smart home control, so it's a great upgrade over the original. Amazon is also selling this Echo in a variety of colors and fabrics on the outside of the Echo. Which gives it a rather unique look.
The Ultimate Ears BLAST is one of the few portable Alexa-powered speakers out there, and it does also provide some great audio here. The BLAST is a 360-degree speaker that is also waterproof, which makes it a great speaker to take out to the pool or the beach and have some fun this summer.
The Sonos One is heralded as one of the best sounding Alexa-enabled speakers out there. That shouldn't be a surprise given how good the audio is from Sonos speakers anyways. The Sonos One has Alexa built-in, and it works just like an Echo. So you can ask Alexa to do different things, including playing music, controlling your smart home products and much more.
The second generation Echo Dot is a great Alexa speaker to pick up as well, even though there's not much speaker inside. It is a pretty small speaker, but also pretty cheap, at under $50. This is going to allow you to bring Alexa into all of your rooms, which is really nice.
The Eufy Genie is made by Anker, and it's a smaller and cheaper Echo Dot. The audio from it isn't that great, but any speaker this size won't provide you with great audio anyways. This is more for putting Alexa into every room in your home, and the Eufy Genie can do that just fine. There's no Bluetooth here, so you can only stream over WiFi, and can't connect another speaker to it.
Now if you're looking for a really cool looking speaker, Harman Kardon has you covered with the Allure. This one does have Alexa built-in, and it's a rather big speaker. But that means that it's going to output a ton of sound. Since it's a Harman Kardon speaker, you can expect that signature Harman Kardon sound here.
808 Audio is another company that is pretty popular for having some great audio, and it has released the XL-V Alexa Smart Speaker as well. This one looks very similar to the Echo, but definitely has much better audio quality, which is always a good thing these days.
Technically this isn't a speaker, but it does have Alexa built-in and works like an Echo device. But it is actually a set-top box. So you can hook this up to your TV and watch all sorts of content, including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix and so much more.
Anker's audio brand, Zolo, has also made a new Alexa Speaker. This one is a bit more than an Echo Dot, but it is much better. It has a big microphone on the front that turns red when you have it turned off. Making it easy to see when the microphone is off. It does stream all of the same audio services as an Echo, though it's not quite as good sounding as an Echo, it's still close.
The Echo Plus is likely the best option if you do have smart home products at home. This has a built-in hub. So instead of needing to buy the Philips Hue Bridge to use its lights, you can just connect them to the Echo Plus and you're all set. In fact, the Echo Plus can automatically detect new products and go through the setup process for you.
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