The Amazon Echo Dot is one of the most affordable and smart speakers that money can buy. Despite the small size, the speaker packs a 1.73-inch front-firing speaker and weighs just 340g. It has Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and Bluetooth Low Energy to connect to the device wirelessly.

The Echo Dot is powered by a 15W adaptor, and it supports Amazon Alexa, which can speak in many different languages, including English, Germany, French, Italian, and Spanish. It can stream your favorite songs from the most popular streaming services, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, and Audible.

If you’re in the process of making your home smarter, you’ll be glad to find out that Echo products support most popular brands, enabling you to control your smart lights, get alarms, change the thermostat, fan settings, smart plugs and more. Sadly, it lacks support for Zigbee, but it’s still compatible with many devices.

There’s also another Echo Dot with clock available, which packs a clock, allowing you to see the time without asking for it.

The Google Nest Mini is often the most affordable and cheapest smart speakers on the market. Google often discounts this speaker, and often gives it away for free for Google One, Spotify, YouTube Music, and YouTube Premium subscribers. Despite the low price, it’s one of the best-rated speakers on the market, and it offers decent audio quality through it’s 40mm drivers.

It’s powered by Google Assistant, which lets you control all of your smart home products, including lights, thermostats, locks, and other Nest-branded devices. Three far-field microphones can pick up your voice anywhere, even in larger rooms, and it’s available in four different colors.

The speaker itself is compact, and can even hang from the wall. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and it’s powered by a 15W power adapter. If you’re after something small, smart, and a decent audio experience, the Google Nest Mini is a great choice, especially if you prefer Google’s voice assistant over other technologies.

The HomePod Mini is one of the best and most compact devices. It’s excellent for Apple users who are already in the ecosystem, and it integrates flawlessly with iPhones. It’s also one of the best-sounding compact smart speakers on the market, but it’s also one of the most expensive one.

It has great support for first-party Apple services, and users can also connect multiple to create a surround sound speaker setup, which is excellent for watching movies via Apple TV, or creating a concert in your home. The HomePod Mini also supports AirPlay and has four far-field Siri microphones. Apple has also recently unveiled the new HomePod (2nd Generation), which features a few improvements over it's discontinued predecessor, such as design, audio, and features.

The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 is one of the most popular devices equipped with a display, supporting Google Assistant. It’s small and portable, and its stylish design can fit in any home and room. It works with Arlo, Google Assistant, Hue, Nest, Wink devices, and it can also stream content via Chromecast (audio-only).

The Smart Clock 2 is available in blue and grey colors, and it’s often discounted by major retailers, including BestBuy. It has a large 4-inch touch-enabled display, which can show you the time, weather information, upcoming events, reminders, and alarms. You can even set up to show the weather, alongside the date and time. Gone are the days of taking your phones out to see the weather outside.

If you’re after a Google Nest Mini on steroids, something that’s just as portable and has a display without a camera, then this might be the perfect smart speaker you’ve been looking for.

Standard Amazon Echo Dot speakers are already friendly, and the company offers parental controls to manage smart speakers and the other Amazon-made devices. However, for those who want something more family-friendly, the Echo Dot Kids smart speaker might be the perfect solution.

It’s available in several different cute animals, and it’s perfectly suitable for bedside tables and bedrooms. There are different animals that children and their parents can choose from, including one with a tiger, panda, and owl. It’s certainly more unique and friendly looking that a charcoal-colored sphere.

The Echo Dot Kids come with one year of Amazon Kids+, which curated content for the younger audience. This often includes educational audiobooks, interactive games and more. Parents also get a choice through the dashboard, which allows them to stay on top of the content, and control the speaker.

The Echo Dot Kids is excellent for the younger audience, and while it might cost slightly more than a traditional Echo Dot, it could be beneficial in many ways. Parents can set up approved contacts. In general, it has the same front-firing speaker setup, ports, and technology inside as the standard Echo Dot.

The Sonos One 2nd generation is a premium smart speaker, and it features a tweeter and a woofer for a more immersive experience and great audio quality. It’s available in black color, and it’s fairly portable and small, given how many speakers are packed in such a small space.

The speaker supports popular streaming services, including Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, and it features Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as its voice assistants. There are beamforming microphones that can pick up your voice from the other side of the room, and the audio quality is one of the best at this higher price range that you can buy today.

Naturally, given that it’s a smart speaker, you can also control your smart home devices using your preferred voice assistants, and it can connect to W-Fi, and all operating systems and smartphones. Users can also connect multiple Sonos One speakers, creating a surround sound experience.

The Sonos Arc is technically a smart speaker, although it’s better described as a smart soundbar. It’s best suited with smart TVs, and it’s the most expensive device on this list. Despite the price, it’s one of the best and most popular devices. It syncs perfectly with other Sonos devices and supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to provide smart features.

Those smart features include music streaming, smart home control, TV remote features, touch control, Apple AirPlay 2, and even support for Sonos’ own application. It’s easy to set up, and it’s the best companion for living rooms, and bedrooms.

If you’re after a comprehensive all-in-one that offers all of the features you can imagine, enable you to enjoy movies, and control your smart light bulbs, then you’re in for a treat. The Sonos Arc might not be a cheap device, but it’s certainly the one that will enhance your experience and take you to the next level. If you’re after something smaller, the Sonos Roam and Sonos Move speakers may be excellent alternatives for less money.

The Amazon Echo Studio is the highest-end smart speaker from the company, and the most premium one. It supports Alexa and Zigbee-compatible devices that let you control your smart home devices, and it supports the most popular streaming services.

It supports Dolby Atmos and can intelligently fine-tune the audio experience in any room and location. The Echo Studio features three 51 mm midrange speakers, a 25 mm tweeter, a 133 mm woofer with bass aperture to maximise bass output. It has a peak output of 330W, 24-bit DAC. There’s also spatial and 3D audio that can further enhance your experience. If you’re after the best bang for your buck at this premium range, the Echo Studio will provide just that, no strings attached.

The Google Nest Audio is one of the best all-around smart speakers from the company, and one of the best-rated devices on the market today. It has a neat Google Assistant integration, and it can control your smart home products effortlessly, as well as your Nest devices.

Like all other smart speakers on this list, it supports most streaming provides, and it can easily fill up a big room with pleasant, and rich bass. It has an overall excellent sound quality, and it can easily adapt to background noise to ensure everything stays crisp and sound. We can easily recommend it to everyone who’s already in the Google ecosystem, but it’s worth noting that it works with all devices, and not just Pixel or Android phones.

One of the best things about the Nest Audio speaker is that it has Chromecast included by default, and that you can easily use the “Hey Google” hotword to trigger it to ask questions. If you’ve been thinking of a great all-rounder, the Google Nest Audio might be what you’re looking for.

The Amazon Echo Show 5 (2nd Generation) comes with a 5.5-inch touch screen. It’s small and portable, and weighs only just 410 grams. It has a full range 1.65-inch speaker, and it provides a decent audio experience for listening to music, watching movies, and your favorite shows. Additionally, it can also enable you to listen to audiobooks via Audible.

It has most of the same features as the rest of the Echo lineup, and it integrates well with smart home products that let you control your lights, smart locks and other devices. The device also lets you check on your pets and your home while you’re away, giving you peace of mind wherever you are.

The Google Nest Hub Max has been featured several times as one of the best smart displays and smart speakers. It has a massive, 10-inch HD display, and a 6.5MP camera with a wide field of view framing. It’s bigger and more powerful than its smaller sibling, the Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen).

The Nest Hub Max can act as a massive hub to control all of your smart home devices, and you can make calls, watch movies, listen to music, look up recipes, set reminders/alarms, and just about anything you can think of. It’s powerful, and has a great set of immersive speakers. It’s an excellent product, and if you’re after a great set of speakers, great integration, and a large display with a camera, this will make a great companion in any room at your home.

The Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) is one of the best and most affordable smart displays available today. While the Echo Show 8 might not be the most powerful speaker, it has a lot of power under the hood and many great features that make it an appealing smart speaker and smart display.

For starters, it has a 13MP camera with a built-in shutter that can be hidden for those privacy-conscious. Naturally, it’s powered by Amazon’s Alexa, and it can stream your favorite songs from the most popular music streaming providers and Audible. The display makes chatting with family members and friends easier, and you can also check on your cameras and front door using the Ring integration.

The Echo Show 8 is also an entertainment device, and it lets you watch your favorite shows using Netflix and Amazon, and you can set up a picture frame using your Amazon Photos when it’s not in use. Like other smart speakers, it lets you control smart home devices and is a great companion in kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms.