Black Friday 2017: Here are four great smart speaker deals you should check out

If you’re in need of some help from a virtual assistant, one of the better routes to go down is by picking up smart speakers. Not only are they perfect items for budding cord-cutters, but with Black Friday coming up fast, they look to be great stocking-stuffers for those wanting a little extra functionality out of their speakers.

Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up a handful of what we believe are great deals for smart speakers. If you are looking for other sorts of technology deals, make sure to check out our Black Friday round-up, where we collected the best technology deals we could find just in time for the busiest shopping day of the holiday season.

For the rest of you, let’s see what smart speaker deals we have lined up, though keep in mind that these are upcoming deals.

Amazon Echo (2nd Generation)

This might not be the Echo Plus and its fancy built-in smart home hub, but the regular Echo is arguably a better choice for those who want a more home-y smart speaker. That’s partially thanks to the use of a fabric-colored shell, which is removable and can be replaced with other shells that feature different material choices.

Regardless of the shell choice, the Echo is an all-around solid smart speaker that is smaller and more affordable than the original, yet is just as functional. In other words, while you can use the Echo on its own and summon Alexa to respond to a variety of queries, you can have the Echo communicate with other smart home devices to turn off the lights or lock the doors, for example.

Typically going for just under $100, you can pick up the Echo for $80 at the links below.

Amazon Echo Dot

As good as the Echo may be, it might also be overkill for someone looking to dip their toes into the world of smart speakers. Whether it’s because of that, or because you want to save as much scratch as you can, the Echo Dot could be for you.

For the most part, the Echo Dot accomplishes as much as its larger cousin in a much smaller package. This means that sound output will not be nearly as nice, and the design makes the Echo Dot look more like a hockey puck than something inviting. Even so, you still have an array of microphones that can pick up your voice from across the room, and you still have Alexa, which lets you do everything from ordering a pizza to turning the lights off.

The Echo Dot’s normal $50 price tag was already impressive, but even more impressive is its $30 price tag through Amazon, Best Buy, and Target at the links below.

Google Home

Google Home may be the company’s first foray into the world of smart speakers, but it has gained a significant number of features since its debut last year. Even better, it has seen a significant price cut just in time for Black Friday.

Since launching in November 2016, Google Home lets you make hands-free phone calls, cast different shows and movies, find your smartphone, and plenty more. As with Amazon’s Echo products, you can have your Google Home act as a conduit for your various other smart home products. Coupled with the presence of Google Assistant and a decent speaker setup, and you can see why the Google Home would be the top choice for someone who lives and breathes Google.

If you consider yourself such a person, then you might be licking your chops at the Google Home’s $79 price tag through Google, Best Buy, Target, and Kohl’s, with Costco netting you a $50 discount if you pick up two Google Home units. Whichever retailer you pick, we have links for you below.

Google Home Mini

Just because the Google Home is large and in charge doesn’t mean you should ignore the smaller Google Home Mini. The smart speaker might be smaller in stature when compared to its larger cousin, but its feature set is almost identical to the regular Google Home’s, even down to the touch-sensitive mesh on the top.

That being said, you need to tap that mesh if you want to bring up Google Assistant — Google disabled the ability to say “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google” due to a bug that kept recording sounds in the home and sending the recordings to Google. Also, the Google Home Mini will not sound as nice as the regular Google Home, so if your intention is to listen to music and not much more, look elsewhere.

Then again, it’s easy to forgive those sticking points given the $50 price tag, which keeps it competitive with the Echo Dot. Even better, that price has effectively been knocked down to $19, given the gift cards you get with your purchase. You can check out the links for the discounts below.

So there you have it. There are certainly other smart speaker deals to be had for Black Friday, so as a reminder, make sure to visit the round-up to take a look at those deals and plenty more. Let us know in the comments if you plan on picking up any of the smart speakers we picked out for yourself or for someone else!