A comparison of all of Amazon’s Echo speakers and smart displays
Amazon’s Echo range is extensive, and it’s grown rapidly over the years. The first Echo speaker arrived way back in 2014, and it was a key device in transforming the way we interact with technology, bringing voice control and smart home integration into our daily lives.
From the compact Echo Pop and powerful Echo Studio, to the small-screened Echo Show 5 and the huge Echo Show 21, the Echo lineup offers a device for every need. The problem is, the range is so vast, it’s difficult to figure out what you need and which Echo speaker or smart display will work best in your home.
Don’t worry though, that’s where we come in. This feature explores all of the Amazon Echo devices currently available. We’ve delved into their key features, sound quality, smart home compatibility, and unique selling points. So whether you’re a tech enthusiast looking for the ultimate Echo smart speaker or display, or a casual user seeking a simple voice assistant, this is how Amazon’s Echo speakers and displays compare.
Best Amazon Echo speakers: Echo Pop vs Echo Dot vs Echo vs Echo Studio
We will start with the Echo speakers because while it’s possible you could make use of both a speaker and a smart display, they are different devices and they are useful for different reasons.
Amazon Echo Pop
- Dimensions: 99 x 83 x 91mm, 196g
- Smart home features: Eero built in, Matter
- Colours: Glacier White, Charcoal, Lavender Bloom, Midnight Teal
- Released: 2023
- Price: $39.99 / £44.99
The Amazon Echo Pop is the cheapest and most compact speaker in the Echo line up. It offers a 49.5mm front-firing speaker and it is designed to be an affordable way of bringing Alexa into your home. The sound performance isn’t as good as other Echo speakers, but it’s a great option for small spaces, allowing you to listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks easily.
As you would expect, you can use the Echo Pop to control smart home devices, as well as ask Alexa to help with everyday tasks like setting timers, checking the weather, and making calls. The Echo Pop can also extend Wi-Fi capabilities in your home if you have an Eero Wi-Fi system, and it is a Matter controller too.
Overall, the Echo Pop is a great choice for those looking to add smart home convenience to their lives without breaking the bank, though remember that the Echo Dot is only a little more expensive with better audio quality.
Read more on the Echo Pop: Amazon Echo Pop review | Amazon Echo Pop vs Echo Dot | Amazon Echo Spot vs Echo Pop
Amazon Echo Spot
- Dimensions: 113 mm x 103 mm x 111mm, 405g
- Smart home features: Matter
- Colours: Black, Glacier White, Ocean Blue
- Released: 2024
- Price: $79.99 / £79.99
The Amazon Echo Spot isn’t too dissimilar to the Echo Pop in terms of design, but it adds a 2.83-inch touchscreen display to the front, resulting in a smart speaker that also has a small visual interface to make it more useful for features like alarms, showing album art and displaying weather forecasts.
As with all Echo devices, Alexa is built-in so you can control smart home devices, set alarms, check the weather, and access a wide range of information with voice commands. The Echo Spot is perfect as a bedside companion though. It can gently wake you with your favorite music, the display can be customized with various clock faces and colors, and it can also be used to make drop in calls to other Echo devices if there are other family members who need a nudge in the morning.
The Echo Spot’s audio capabilities aren’t as powerful as larger Echo devices (though not bad for its size), it’s not the cheapest and it can’t be used as an Eero Wi-Fi extender. If you’re after a visually appealing smart speaker with a couple of extra features thanks to the small display however, the Echo Spot is a great option.
Read more on Echo Spot: Amazon Echo Pop review | Amazon Echo Spot vs Echo Dot
Amazon Echo Dot
- Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 89mm, 340g
- Smart home features: Eero built-in, works with Fire TV
- Colours: Deep Sea Blue, Charcoal, Glacier White
- Released: 2022
- Price: $49.99 / £54.99
The Amazon Echo Dot is one of the champions in the smart speaker world and the entire Echo range. It is a budget-friendly entry point to Alexa with a small, spherical design (think slightly larger than a baseball) with a fabric casing allows it to fit neatly anywhere in your home.
The 5th generation (which launched in 2022), keeps the core functionality of the Echo Dot range strong and while it doesn’t boast many groundbreaking changes to previous generations, the sound quality remains decent. It won’t cut it for audiophiles but the Echo Dot’s 1.73-inch driver delivers clear vocals and good enough sound for casual listening.
It can be used as an Eero extender like the Echo Pop, and there’s a built-in temperature sensor, allowing for more seamless smart home routines like adjusting your thermostat based on the room temperature. You can of course also control music streaming services, get news updates, or make calls like other Echo speakers, and it can be paired up with a Fire TV for an Alexa Theater System.
Some might miss the 3.5mm jack that got removed with this generation, but the Echo Dot is a well-designed and versatile Echo speaker, offering a good balance between features and price.
Read more on Echo Dot: Amazon Echo Dot review | Amazon Echo Dot vs Echo Spot
Amazon Echo Dot Kids
- Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 89mm, 340g
- Smart home features: Works with Fire TV
- Colours: Dragon, Owl
- Released: 2022
- Price: $59.99 / £64.99
The Amazon Echo Dot Kids is the Echo Dot but packaged up in a cute animal design to make it more appealing to younger users. It’s a fun and safe way to introduce children to the world of Alexa, with not only a child-friendly version of Alexa built-in, but a range of features tailored for kids, including access to age-appropriate content, educational skills, and bedtime stories through Amazon Kids+.
Parents can set time limits and filter content through the Parent Dashboard, ensuring a safe and controlled experience, and the Echo Dot Kids can also be used for streaming age-appropriate music, audiobooks and podcasts too.
It doesn’t have the same level of audio quality as higher-end Echo devices but it still offers clear vocals and decent bass for music and audiobooks. It also functions as a smart alarm clock, which is one of its best features, allowing kids to set their own alarms with fun sound effects.
If you’re after a great smart speaker for kids that will tie in with other Echo devices you might already have, the Echo Dot Kids provides a solid introduction to smart technology for children, offering entertainment, education, and convenience in a kid-friendly package.
Read more about Alexa for kids: Amazon Alexa for Kids: Skills, commands and parental controls explained
Amazon Echo (4th Gen)
- Dimensions: 144 x 144 x 133mm, 970g
- Smart home features: Eero built in, Matter, Zigbee and Thread
- Colours: Charcoal, Twilight Blue
- Released: 2020
- Price: $99.99 / £109.99
The 4th generation Amazon Echo is a great smart home speaker that offers decent improvements compared to its processor, a modern spherical design and it packs a surprising punch for its size.
The key with this Echo speaker lies in the Zigbee support, which transforms the Echo into a capable smart home hub, allowing for smoother integration and control of various compatible smart home devices. The audio quality is good too, with rich and clear sound that fills the room and while it might not match that of speakers like the Sonos Era 100, it excels at casual listening.
Voice commands reign supreme, allowing you to control music streaming, adjust smart home settings, make calls, and access information through Alexa, and there’s a 3.5mm jack that provides an option for wired connections to external speakers.
Overall, the Amazon Echo offers an impressive value proposition. It’s not the cheapest smart speaker around – nor the cheapest Echo speaker, but its combination of good sound quality, Zigbee hub capabilities, and user-friendly design make it a very good smart speaker.
Read more about the Amazon Echo: Amazon Echo review | Amazon Echo vs Echo Dot
Amazon Echo Studio
- Dimensions: 206 x 175mm, 3.5 kg
- Smart home features: Zigbee and Matter
- Colours: Charcoal, Glacier
- Released: 2022
- Price: $199.99 / £219.99
The Amazon Echo Studio is the largest and most powerful smart speaker in the Echo range, offering spacious sound that’s significantly better than the other Echo speakers. It won’t wow you with bass, but your music will sound superb, and you might even be able to pick out details you hadn’t heard before.
One of the standout features of the Echo Studio compared to the rest of the Echo range is spatial audio, which offers a more immersive listening experience when playing compatible tracks. You of course get all the rest of the Alexa features that come with other Echo speakers too, however, including the ability to set alarms, find out weather information, control smart home devices and use Alexa Drop In and Alexa Calling.
The Amazon Echo Studio also has Zigbee built in and it can be paired up with a Fire TV for Alexa Home Cinema. Overall, the Echo Studio is a good option for audiophiles who are looking for a powerful smart speaker with good sound quality. It’s big and expensive so it may not be the best choice for everyone, but it is the best for sound quality.
Read more about the Amazon Echo Studio: Amazon Echo Studio review
Best Amazon Echo smart display: Echo Show 5 vs Show 8 vs Show 10 vs Show 15 vs Show 21 vs Echo Hub
If you’re looking for a smart speaker that offers extra features by having a display too, the Echo Show range is where you should be looking. We’ve compared all the Echo Shows below, as well as highlighted the Echo Hub too, which is the device you’ll want if you’re just after smart home control.
Amazon Echo Show 5
- Dimensions: 147 x 82 x 91mm, 456g
- Smart home features: N/A
- Colours: Charcoal, Cloud Blue, White
- Released: 2023
- Price: $89.99 / £89.99
The Amazon Echo Show 5 is a great small screen smart display, offering plenty despite its compact size. Like the Echo Pop and Echo Spot, it’s ideal for nightstands, kitchens, or anywhere needing a small visual Alexa companion.
The 5.5-inch display is good for video calls, watching recipes, or glancing at the weather, while built-in Alexa makes it easy to control music, smart home devices, or access information. Elsewhere, the Echo Show 5, like other Echo Show models, doubles as a digital photo frame, will show a live feed of any compatible cameras you have, and it works brilliantly as an alarm clock with a tap-to-snooze feature.
The sound quality is good enough for casual listening or news updates – with clear and crisp audio for its size, and the Echo Show 5 is affordable, making it a great first smart display.
Read more about the Echo Show 5: Amazon Echo Show 5 review | Amazon Echo Show 5 vs Echo Show 8
Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids
- Dimensions: 147 x 82 x 91mm, 456g
- Smart home features: N/A
- Colours: Charcoal, Cloud Blue, White
- Released: 2023
- Price: $99.99 / £99.99
The Amazon Echo Show 5 Kids is an Echo Show 5 but it has been designed with kids in mind, like the Echo Dot Kids, offering a compact smart display in a variety of colorful designs. It has a 5.5-inch display for watching videos, playing games, and video calling parent-approved contacts, while clear and crisp sound makes it good for kids to listen to music, audiobooks, and podcasts, all of which are also age-appropriate according to how you have set it up.
Parental controls mean parents can manage screen time, set bedtime routines, and filter content to ensure a safe and age-appropriate experience. The built-in Alexa meanwhile, is child friendly, and allows kids to ask questions, listen to stories, play games, and learn new things.
The Echo Dot Kids might be enough if you just want your kids to be able to play music or ask Alexa for help with homework, but if you want them to have a visual interface too, the Echo Show 5 Kids will entertain and educate within a safe digital world.
Amazon Echo Show 8
- Dimensions: 200 x 139 x 106mm, 1.34kg
- Smart home features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread
- Colours: Charcoal, Glacier White
- Released: 2023
- Price: $149.99 / £149.99
The Amazon Echo Show 8 is a great option for anyone looking for a top mid-size smart speaker with a display. It’s an 8-inch device that strikes a good balance between the compact Echo Show 5 and larger Echo Show models below, making it ideal for kitchens, living rooms, or home offices.
There are dual 2-inch speakers and a passive bass radiator, delivering rich sound for music, movies, or video calls, while the 13-megapixel camera offers good detail for video chats. As you’d expect, Alexa is at the core of the Echo Show 8, allowing voice control for music playback, smart home device management, and finding out information, and the Echo Show 8 supports Zigbee, Matter and Thread for easy connection with various devices.
The screen resolution could be sharper and the user interface would benefit from a smart home control mode like the Echo Hub, but overall, the Echo Show 8 is great as a central hub for entertainment, communication, and smart home control.
Read more about the Amazon Echo Show 8: Amazon Echo Show 8 review
Amazon Echo Show 10
- Dimensions: 251 x 230 x 172mm, 2.56kg
- Smart home features: Zigbee, Matter
- Colours: Charcoal, Glacier White
- Released: 2021
- Price: $249.99 / £259.99
The Amazon Echo Show 10 starts to creep up into the larger smart displays on offer from Amazon, but this one also offers a unique twist by having a rotating screen (no pun intended). It has a 10.1-inch display that automatically pans and tilts to keep you in frame during video calls, ensuring you’re always center stage, while the 13-megapixel wide-angle sensor offers good quality on video calls.
The Echo Show 10 boasts strong audio credentials too, with a 2.1 speaker setup with tweeters and a woofer delivering room-filling sound. It means this smart display is actually a very good option for watching movies and videos whilst cooking, or listening to music, while the built-in Zigbee hub and Matter support make for simplified smart home control.
It’s not small and this smart display is quite chunky compared to the likes of the wall-mounted Echo Show 15, meaning it demands ample space and therefore won’t be for everyone or every house. The screen resolution isn’t super sharp either compared to some competitors. That said, the Echo Show 10 a compelling option for those seeking a feature-rich smart display with superior audio and a unique video calling experience.
Read more about the Amazon Echo Show 10: Amazon Echo Show 10 review | Amazon Echo Show 8 vs Echo Show 10
Amazon Echo Show 15
- Dimensions: 410 x 260 x 40mm , 2.2kg
- Smart home features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread, Fire TV built in
- Colours: Charcoal, Glacier White
- Released: 2024
- Price: $299.99 / £299.99
The Amazon Echo Show 15 is a large, versatile smart display designed to be a centerpiece in your home. Its 15.6-inch full HD screen is perfect for watching videos, following recipes, or controlling your smart home and it can be wall-mounted, which is the ideal, or used with a stand that is sold separately. There’s also Fire TV built in and it comes with an Alexa remote in the box so it’s perfect for watching content.
With Alexa voice control built-in like the other Echo devices, you can easily control your music, make video calls, check the news, or set reminders. The Echo Show 15 can also be used as a digital photo frame, displaying your favorite photos, and you can use it to see compatible smart home cameras, as well as your Ring Video Doorbell.
The Echo Show 15 can automatically switch between different views, such as a calendar, to-do list, or weather forecast, based on your activity, and you can also customize the home screen to display your favorite apps and information. The large size means it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for a wall-mounted smart display with some great features, the Echo Show 15 is a solid option to consider.
Read more about the Amazon Echo Show 15: Amazon Echo Show 15 vs Echo Show 10
Amazon Echo Show 21
- Dimensions: 540 x 340 x 38mm, 4.9kg
- Smart home features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread, Fire TV built in
- Colours: Charcoal, Glacier White
- Released: 2024
- Price: $399.99 / £399.99
The Amazon Echo Show 21 is the biggest Echo device available with a huge 21-inch display that provides a large canvas for video calls, watching movies, or browsing recipes. It offers better sound quality with richer audio and deeper bass compared to the older Echo Show 15, though the sound can be a little distorted at higher volumes and it’s not the best sounding Echo speaker despite being the most expensive.
Like the Echo Show 15, the Echo Show 21 can be wall-mounted (as it is designed to be) or table mounted with a separate stand, and it features Fire TV built in, making for easy watching of all your favorite streaming platforms.
There is an automatic panning camera, which keeps you in frame during video calls, even if you move around, and the Echo Show 21 also excels as a smart home hub, seamlessly integrating with various smart devices and offering Matter, Thread and Zigbee support for enhanced connectivity.
The screen resolution could be sharper, though it is still crisp, and the user interface can feel a bit cluttered at times. Otherwise though, this is an impressive package, and a compelling option for those looking for a large, versatile smart display that can serve as a central hub for entertainment, communication, and smart home control.
Read more about the Amazon Echo Show 21: Amazon Echo Show 21 review | Amazon Echo Show 21 vs Echo Show 15
Amazon Echo Hub
- Dimensions: 202 x 137 x 15mm, 365g
- Smart home features: Zigbee, Matter and Thread
- Colours: White
- Released: 2023
- Price: $179.99 / £169.99
The Amazon Echo Hub is a dedicated smart home control panel designed to simplify the management of your connected devices. It boasts an 8-inch touch screen that displays a customizable dashboard, allowing you to easily view and control various smart devices like cameras, lights, locks, thermostats, and more.
It supports Zigbee, Thread, and Matter protocols to ensure a seamless integration with your existing smart home setup and you can view live camera feeds, set up routines, and control your home with voice commands through Alexa.
The Echo Hub isn’t as versatile as a fully-fledged smart display, or the other Echo Show devices, but it’s great as a dedicated smart home control center, providing a convenient and visually appealing way to manage your connected devices.
