The Best Prime Day Amazon Echo, Fire, and Kindle Deals | Reviews by Wirecutter

2022-07-11 00:15:59 By : Ms. Rudy Zhang

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It’s almost Prime Day! For more deals on Wirecutter picks that are actually worth grabbing, check out our list of the best early Prime Day deals.

It’s not Amazon Prime Day without some major deals on Amazon-branded devices, which are generally the categories where we’ve seen some of the event’s biggest sales. We’re already seeing some pre-Prime Day discounts, and we'll keep this article updated with the best deals as we find them. It's worth noting: many of these deals are exclusive to Prime members.

Amazon Echo (4th Gen) Smart Speaker + Sengled Smart Bulb Deal price: $60; street price: $75

Nicely discounted, this is another good Amazon Prime exclusive deal for a 4th Generation Amazon Echo smart speaker that comes with a Sengled Bluetooth color smart light bulb. With Alexa, the Echo can play music, answer questions, control your smart-home devices, and buy stuff from Amazon, all at your voice command. The Echo is our pick for the best Alexa smart speaker, and although this Sengled bulb isn't one of our smart LED light bulb picks, we've recommended some of their bulbs in the past, and it's a solid add-on.

Read our review of the best Alexa speaker.

Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) Smart Speaker + Sengled Bluetooth Color Smart Bulb Deal price: $20; street price: $40

This is another good Amazon Prime exclusive deal on the Echo Dot, a smaller version of our top Alexa smart speaker pick, and the best Alexa speaker for people who don’t want to spend a lot. Our budget pick includes an audio-out port and Bluetooth, so you can connect the Dot to a Bluetooth speaker or to a larger audio system if you want better sound. Down to $20 as an early prime day deal, this is a new low price for the Echo Dot on its own, and the Sengled Bluetooth bulb is an added bonus. While we haven't tested that Sengled bulb, it's a simpler version of our former budget pick and it's free (usually $15).

Read our review of the best Alexa speaker.

Echo Dot Kids Edition Smart Speaker (4th Generation) Deal price: $25; street price: $50

The Echo Dot Kids Edition is the kids' version of the more affordable Echo speaker in our Alexa guide. The Dot sounds good enough to use as a nightstand speaker or even as a small kitchen speaker, and it includes all the standard Alexa features for about half the price. That includes asking Alexa to play music, read stories, and call approved friends and family. It also comes with a handy two-year replacement warranty. This deal price of $25 for Prime members is the lowest we've seen for the Kid Edition speaker that even features a cute child-friendly design (your choice of a tiger or panda printed on the fabric).

Read our review of the best Alexa speaker.

Amazon Echo Show 5 Smart Display (2nd Gen, 2021 Release) Deal price: $35; street price: $70

Part smart speaker and part tablet, smart displays combine both to offer more convenient functions than either device on its own. The compact Amazon Echo Show 5 is a perfect display for a nightstand or bathroom counter. Our smaller screen pick does everything the larger Show 8 can do, including play music, check the weather report, and trigger any smart-home routines, but doesn't take up as much space. It also has an auto-dimming screen when you turn out the lights, so it shouldn't keep you up at night. Down to $35 for Prime members, this is a solid deal on the pint-size Show 5.

Read our review of the best smart display for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Amazon Echo Show 8 Smart Display (1st Gen) Deal price: $55; street price: $80

A smart display is like a mashup of a speaker and a tablet, and if you're interested in one that's compatible with Alexa, this is a great deal for the 1st generation Echo Show 8. Matching the lowest we've seen as part of Amazon's early Prime Day sale, though there is a newer generation of Echo Show's available, this is still an excellent option if you're wanting to save a little extra on a smart display. Useful for video calls, recipe viewing, or even as a baby monitor, the Echo Show 8 combines a mid-sized touchscreen with nice speakers and a decent camera. Perfect for those who already use any Amazon's myriad of services, this is an excellent deal for a device that will integrate well into any household.

Read our review of the best smart display for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Amazon Echo Glow Night-Light Deal price: $17; street price: $28

Fret not if your little one can't sleep in complete darkness. Now you can use smart lighting to help your child sleep at night. The Amazon Echo glow, one of our smart night-light picks, has a range of 16 colors your kid will love that can be controlled with a tap or by an Alexa device. The Echo glow can also cue a regulated bedtime routine, an essential step for children to sleep better over time. Adjusting the brightness and color of lighting can also add character to your little one's bed space. The downside is that it has no physical controls; you need to control it via app. At $17, this is not the lowest we've seen for the smart lighting device, but it is still a solid discount as an early prime day deal.

Read our review of how to use smart lights to help your kids get to bed (and stay asleep).

Echo Dot Kids Edition + Echo Glow Bundle Deal price: $36; street price: $65

If you're having a hard time getting your little one into a regular bedtime routine, Amazon's Echo Dot Kids and Echo Glow bundle, which features one of our smart nightlight picks, is back on sale and here to help. The Glow has a range of 16 colors and can cue a bedtime countdown controlled by another Amazon Echo device—in this case, the included Dot Kids, a kid-friendly version of the vaunted pint-sized smart speaker, available in tiger or panda print.

Read our review of how to use smart lights to help your kids get to bed (and stay asleep).

Echo Show 8 Smart Display (2nd Gen, 2021 release, Refurbished) Deal price: $70; street price: $115

The Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Generation) is simple to use thanks to its excellent on-screen menus and Alexa's always-impressive conversational chops. Its speaker also produces clear audio and is powerful enough to fill a room, so you can listen to tunes, finally perfect that Hollandaise, or perhaps even do both. Down to the lowest price we've seen for a refurbished model, this is a solid chance to pick up the latest Show 8 for less. Available in both black and white.

Read our review of the best smart display for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Amazon Music Unlimited 4 Months Free Deal price: $0; street price: $32

Right now, Prime members who have yet to try Amazon Music Unlimited can get four months free. Like it's competitors (Apple Music), Amazon Music now offers HD spatial audio, an improvement in the quality of sound, making your listening a lot more pleasant. Some other great features that come with an Amazon Music subscription are ad-free access to any song, unlimited skips, and hands-free listening with Alexa—perfect for Alexa smart speaker owners. Though this deal periodically crops up for about a month at a time, free is hard to beat, so it's still a nice chance to experiment with a new music streaming service if you've yet to try it. Be aware that after the free four-month subscription expires, you will be automatically charged $8.99/month.

Read our review of the best Alexa speaker.

Audible Premium Plus Subscription (3-Month) Deal price: $0; street price: $45

If you have a book lover in your life, or are one yourself, this is a great chance to try out an Audible subscription. Normally $15/month, the first three months of this subscription are available for free—so long as you are an existing Amazon Prime member. Each month you will be given 1 credit to purchase any premium selection title, and after the trial period is over, you will automatically be billed for the regular $15—so make sure to cancel if you aren't interested in continuing with the service.

Read our review of the best thoughtful instant gifts you can email right now.

The 2021 Paperwhite Kids edition is the Wirecutter pick over the standard 2021 Paperwhite. We like that the Kids Edition comes with a case, a two-year warranty (versus the standard’s one-year), and no ads, for only $20 more. Based on Black Friday prices and sales we've seen earlier in 2022, we think sales on the Kids Edition will land around $100 during Prime Day, with prices of the standard Paperwhite coming in at around $90.

We've recently seen some deals on refurbished Kindle Paperwhites, but they've been primarily for the 2018 model. At this point, we'd recommend forgoing the older models and waiting for Prime Day sales on the newest Paperwhites, which support USB-C charging.

We recommend the Amazon Fire HD8 (10th generation). in our guide to the best Android tablets. It will be almost certainly be on sale, and we expect it to be $45, which would match the best price we've seen so far this year.

The Ring Video Doorbell Wired is our budget pick for best smart doorbell camera. We expect it to be discounted to under $50 during Prime Day.

Prime Day is almost upon us. In the meantime, here are a few early deals to take advantage of before the big event.

Some Prime Day deals aren’t as great as they seem—like the five “bargains” that Wirecutter staffers plan to steer clear of this year.

Inflation has made nearly everything more expensive. Here’s how we think it will change the Prime Day 2022 outlook.

The pandemic has been tough on local businesses. Here’s how you can support them, even during Amazon’s biggest sale event.

We don't recommend any Amazon-branded Fire TVs. You can find the Wirecutter picks in our TV guides. From our guide: In 2021, Amazon released two budget-friendly options: the Fire TV Omni and Fire TV 4-Series, both available in several screen sizes. These TVs boast high appeal if you love Alexa or the Fire TV streaming experience, but testing showed them to be poor choices for HDR; the 4-Series is especially dim. The Omni is the better of the two, but we think our picks are worth the slight price hike if you want decent picture quality.

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