Amazon Echo prices slashed in big sale ahead of Valentine’s Day
Big discounts on Echos, tablets, doorbells and security cameras
It’s nearly Valentines Day, and Amazon has used this as a pretty flimsy excuse for a sale. Not that we’re complaining – we love a sale, it’s just peculiar that Amazon would equate sales on security cameras with a romantic night in.
Anyway, the security cameras aren’t the main event here: it’s the Echo. Amazon’s Alexa-powered smart speakers are on sale in a number of forms. The main Echo, for example, is reduced from £89.99 to a far more wallet-friendly £69.99.
For that price, you get a very competent speaker that also happens to have Alexa built in, meaning you can ask it the weather, to play specific songs, to do various things around your smart home and even to tell jokes. If you want stronger sound, you can pair it with a £120 Echo Sub (not on sale, alas) but it’s pretty competent in its own right, for the price.
If you already have a speaker that you like very much, you could just buy the Echo Input. It’s a small disk that you plug into any speaker to instantly give any speaker Alexa capabilities through the 3.5mm analogue input. It’ll set you back £19.99 in the sales, rather than the usual £34.99.
If you prefer your Echo with a screen, then the Echo Spot is worth a look. It’s down from £119.99 to £99.99 and pairs rather neatly with Blink security cameras. When paired with the Alexa Blink skill, the Echo Spot can stream live footage from the cameras for peace of mind. I’ll be reviewing these for Expert Reviews very soon, but if you’re the kind of maverick that likes to buy without an expert opinion, you can get the indoor camera for £103.99 (down £26) or the outdoor Blink XT for £119.99 (down £30).
Perhaps your partner might be a little disappointed with the gift of connected home security, though. In that case, the all-new Kindle Paperwhite is a better buy, and it’s got a decent discount too: down to £99.99 from £119.99. If you prefer something with a colour screen, then consider the Fire HD tablet. The 10in version is down £40 to £109.99, while the lighter 8in model sheds £20 to hit £59.99. If you’re unsure whether a tablet is for you, the 7in version is properly in impulse-purchase territory, dropping £15 to a sale price of £34.99.
Whatever you decide to buy, you’ll want to act quickly. The sale ends on 13 February – or Valentine’s Day Eve as literally nobody calls it – at 9am GMT. Happy shopping!