I've had my eye on the Amazon Echo Studio, the new flagship of the Echo lineup, for the past several months, but Amazon has stubbornly kept the price locked at $200. Even the holidays failed to yield a discount. Thankfully, there's finally a sale: For a limited time, you can get the Amazon Echo Studio smart speaker for $169.99. (Pro tip: Cash-back service TopCashback is currently offering an 8% rebate on Amazon devices, which would bring your net price down to around $156.)
Delivering "the biggest, best Echo sound yet" (according to CNET's Echo Studio review), Amazon's newest smart speaker offers such high-falutin' features as Dolby Atmos and stereo pairing with another Echo. Its chief rivals are the $300 Apple HomePod and $200 Sonos One.
The reason I've been eyeballing this is that my kitchen Echo gets a lot of use, especially for music, but it's a five-year-old first-gen model. I've often wished for a better-sounding speaker in that coveted spot.
Interestingly, Amazon's Echo trade-in program would net me another 25% off the Studio and a $25 Amazon gift card, should I decide to relinquish that old-timer. If you have an Echo you might like to trade in, it's worth seeing what you can get for it.
Prime Day is still a few months away, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Echo Studio dip to around $150 during that event. For now, however, this is the best deal yet.
Your thoughts?
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