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

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Verdict from a smart home expert

Amazon Echo Dot Max
(Image credit: Future)
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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).

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Echo Dot (5th-gen): Pros and Cons

unboxing the echo dot gen 5

(Image credit: Future)

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.

Amazon Echo Dot
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Amazon Echo Dot: was $49.99 now $31.99 at Amazon

This is Amazon's best-selling model for a reason: it houses not only the Alexa smarts we know and love, but also a temperature sensor and great smart home connectivity.

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Amazon Echo Dot
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Amazon Echo Dot: was £54.99 now £29.99 at Amazon

For a more robust sound from one of Amazon's smaller speakers, the Echo Dot is your go-to, and one of the brand's best-selling devices. In addition to the full Alexa experience and decent audio specs, this model features a temperature sensor.

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If you've got a 4th- or even 3rd-gen Echo Dot, the 5th-generation model isn't a huge step forward; and while you gain a temperature sensor and tap controls, you lose the 3.5mm jack, which was removed in the latest model.

It's a small loss for many, but a lot of users rigged their older Echo Dot devices up to more powerful speaker systems and may miss this utility.

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.

Echo Dot Max: Pros and Cons

Amazon Echo Dot Max Hands On

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Amazon's Echo Dot Max was only very recently released, having been announced in September 2025 alongside the new Echo Studio (2nd-gen), Echo Show 8 (4th-gen), and Echo Show 11. It's a little larger than the base model and adds a new front-facing control panel.

Not only does this newer model sport a fresh redesign and Alexa+ Early Access out of the box, but it also packs some serious smarts under the hood. Amazon's new AZ3 chip will power these Agentic AI experiences, but even standard Alexa requests are noticeably fast.

Its audio capabilities surpass anything we've seen in an Echo Dot before, including Amazon's first two-way speaker system with a 0.8-inch tweeter and 2.5-inch woofer. Plus, with Lossless High Definition and Automatic Room Adaptation, these speakers can adapt to wherever you place them and play your tracks with greater fidelity.

Amazon Echo Dot Max
Amazon Echo Dot Max: was $99.99 now $89.99 at Amazon

Amazon's new Echo Dot Max is a capable little speaker. It's slightly larger than the base model Echo Dot to accommodate impressive audio smarts, including a two-way speaker system, Lossless High Definition, and Automatic Room Adaptation. Plus, it offers Alexa+ Early Access out of the box.

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Amazon Echo Dot Max
Amazon Echo Dot Max: was £99.99 now £89.99 at Amazon

Whether you want the smarter audio features like Lossless High Definition and Automatic Room Adaptation, or just love the idea of a more premium-looking speaker with faster Alexa responses, the Echo Dot Max is a great choice. It's just a shame we don't get access to the Alexa+ Early Access in the UK.

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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.

Which one is right for you?

To be clear, this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison; the Echo Dot is three years old, whereas the Echo Dot Max is barely three weeks old. The Dot Max is seeing its earliest, introductory offer, and in years to come, we might see far greater discounts of $/£30 or more.

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.

More Black Friday deals in the US

More Black Friday deals in the UK

Josephine Watson
Josephine Watson
Managing Editor, Lifestyle

Josephine Watson is TechRadar's Managing Editor - Lifestyle. Josephine is an award-winning journalist (PPA 30 under 30 2024), having previously written on a variety of topics, from pop culture to gaming and even the energy industry, joining TechRadar to support general site management. She is a smart home nerd, champion of TechRadar's sustainability efforts as well and an advocate for internet safety and education. She has used her position to fight for progressive approaches towards diversity and inclusion, mental health, and neurodiversity in corporate settings. Generally, you'll find her fiddling with her smart home setup, watching Disney movies, playing on her Switch, or rewatching the extended edition of Lord of the Rings... again.

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