Best Black Friday Amazon Echo deals 2022

Yes, while Amazon frequently puts its Echo smart speakers and smart displays on sale—during Prime Day, for instance—we’ve found legitimate good deals on almost every model this week.

No. While we like some models better than others, all of Amazon’s Echo devices are very high quality. The later generations of speakers produce better sound than the older ones, but if you’re primarily using a smart speaker to control your lights or ask for information, versus playing music, sound quality isn’t all that important anyway. Amazon’s Echo Show smart displays are differentiated primarily by screen size, so the bigger the display, the higher the price tag—with one exception: The sale price of the Echo Show 10 (10-inch display) is the same as the Echo Show 15 (15-inch display). The difference between those two models is that the Echo Show 10 is equipped with a motor that spins its display so that it’s always facing you. The Echo Show 15, meanwhile, is designed for wall mounting, unless you buy an accessory.

Amazon’s first Echo product was a speaker with a microphone array that you could use to summon Alexa, a cloud-based digital assistant. As time went on, Amazon built better and higher-quality speakers, but soon also expanded into smart displays. The latter offer all the same features as a speaker, but integrate a touchscreen display of varying sizes. You can use these displays to watch videos, follow recipes, and perform lots of other tasks. You can also use them to watch a live feed from compatible security cameras and video doorbells.

The Echo Dot with Clock is an in-between device: It has an LCD clock face to show the time–the most common task Echo users ask Alexa to perform–but that’s the extent of its display capabilities.

To our knowledge, none of the previous generations of any Echo speaker is entirely obsolete, they just don’t have all the features–or the audio performance–of the latest models. So, buying a previous-generation device is a great way to save a lot of money. That said, the Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock, and Echo Dot Kids Edition (5th Gen) are the latest versions of Amazon’s smallest Echo speakers; the Echo (4th Gen) is the latest version of its larger sibling; the Echo Show and Echo Show Kids Edition (2nd Gen) are the latest versions of Amazon’s 5-inch smart display; and the Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) is the latest–and so far only–model to have a motorized touchscreen. These Echo models are all first-generation products and have not been superseded: The Echo Show 15, Echo Studio, and Echo Sub.

Conventional wisdom is that retailers operate “in the red” (i.e., they’re not profitable) until the day after Thanksgiving, when huge sales enable them to finally turn a profit (i.e., they’re “in the black”). This year, Black Friday falls on November 25.

Unlike Amazon’s increasingly frequent Prime Day sales, you don’t need to subscribe to Amazon Prime to score any of these deals. But a Prime membership does come with other benefits, including free shipping. You also get subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Prime Gaming.

Amazon Prime costs $14.99 a month, or $139 per year, and you can sign up for a free 30-day Prime trial.