Echo Dot Max vs. Echo Dot – which is the best Black Friday deal on Amazon’s small but mighty Echo speakers?

Black Friday is upon us, and if you’re weighing up some of Amazon’s Echo speaker deals, I’m here to help you choose between deals in both the UK and the US.

Right now in the US, the popular Amazon Echo Dot is just $31.99 (was $49.99) at Amazon, while the brand-new Echo Dot Max is $89.99 (was $99.99). In the UK, there’s a wider margin between the two deal prices; the Echo Dot is now £29.99 (was £54.99) while the Echo Dot Max is £89.99 (was £99.99).

• Shop Amazon’s full Prime Day sale

I’ve literally just finished reviewing the new Echo Dot Max, and the 5th-generation Echo Dot was one of the most-used devices in my smart home set-up for years before newer Echo devices edged it out of rotation. I’ve been testing smart home devices for years, but long before that, I was already a huge fan of some of the best smart speakers.

All that love and experience now fuels my furious deal-hunting and helps shoppers (hopefully, like you!) choose the best device for them. Black Friday deals season is the best time to stock up on these gadgets, and although the Echo Dot Max is very new and therefore only sees a slight discount, you might want to think twice before shopping purely based on deal value. Read on for my comparison.

(Not in the UK or US? See today’s best deals in your region below)

Neat and petite, the Echo Dot (5th-gen) is one of Amazon‘s best-selling Echo devices, offering a surprisingly well-rounded feature set in an annasuming wee form factor. It was released in 2022, so it’s still pretty capable of keeping up with Amazon’s more recent devices thanks to its AZ2 Neural Edge chipset.

Earning 4/5 stars in our Echo Dot (5th-gen) review, the speaker hits a lot of the right notes. Under the hood, there’s a powerful 1.73-inch front-firing speaker that offers surprisingly good sound for its size, plus easy compatibility with a wide range of music streaming services.

In addition to Alexa on board, there are plenty of other smart home features worth shouting about. The Echo Dot (5th-gen) offers great connectivity across Zigbee, Matter, Thread Border Router, and eero Built-in. Additionally, there’s a temperature sensor inside the speaker that can trigger automations. So, say you’ve got your Echo Dot (5th-gen) in a living room where your dog sleeps, and it gets a bit too chilly for your poor pup during the night, Alexa could trigger an automation to switch on the electric heater. Genius.

There’s also the fact that while the Echo Dot (5th-gen) is only three years old, Amazon tends to have a four to five-year product cycle, which means we could see a base model refresh in the next year or two. It’s hardly long in the tooth, offering Alexa+ compatibility, and the Echo Dot Max’s release may waylay (or even halt) the release of a newer base model, but it’s always worth considering when buying a new gadget how long it might see software and hardware support for.

It’s not all roses, as I highlight in my Echo Dot Max review. The audio performance is broadly clearer and brighter than the Echo Dot, but it’s not quite as powerful, and for some listeners, that might be a priority.

The design may also be divisive; I liken the Echo Dot Max to a Death Star in shape, but I do love its new 3D knitted mesh covering, which elevates the build quality significantly. It’s also twice the price, and that gulf has widened even further in this Black Friday deal.

But that doesn’t mean this relatively mediocre $/£10 saving isn’t worth considering. The Echo Dot Max is, without a doubt, one of the best Alexa speakers that Amazon has ever released, and especially if you’re considering investing in an Echo Studio to make use of Amazon’s new Home Theatre feature, it’s a no-brainer. Also, if you’re in the US and don’t yet have Early Access to Alexa+, this speaker comes with access out of the box, so it’s one of the easiest ways to try out Amazon’s new agentic AI.

That being said, the Echo Dot is a fantastic all-rounder and is probably the wiser purchase for the vast majority of shoppers this Black Friday. Its audio performance is commendable for its small size, the sensors and smart home connectivity are great ,and it’s seeing fantastic discounts; though it’s worth noting that in both the UK and the US it’s still a ways off its lowest-ever sale price.

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe’s: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• T-Mobile: up to $1,100 off latest iPhone 17
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor