The flood of newly announced Amazon Echo products might be a little too much to process for people who haven’t used Echo before. If you want Alexa in your home, the most affordable and easiest way is to get Echo Dot or Echo Input.
The 3rd generation Echo Dot is the mini version of the Alexa-enabled smart speaker (the standard Amazon Echo or the bigger Echo Plus). Stream music, news, or podcasts from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, Audible, NPR, and more. Ask for information on the web, like showtimes, trivia, recipes, or traffic. Control the temperature in your home, turn lights on and off, and even turn on your coffee machine. All this and more, all through your voice.
Don’t want to buy another speaker? You can connect Alexa to your own speaker with Echo Input via Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio cable. Echo Input is the standard Echo smart speaker, without the speaker portion. It has its own microphones to hear you, but speaks through your speakers.