If you're looking for something eye-catching for casual music listening, and you aren't looking for a clock or full-bodied sound, the Echo Pop is a fun choice. Even if you don't use it often, you'll enjoy looking at it more than other affordable smart speakers.
Our editors hand-pick these products using a variety of criteria: they might be direct competitors targeting the same market segment, or they could be devices that are similar in size, performance, or feature sets.
A fun new form factor, a great selection of colorways, and a decently rounded sound for its size – the Amazon Echo Pop is a fun addition to any room. However, although it’s positioned as the most basic, bottom-of-the-line speaker, it’s a little too pricey for its specs.
A cool-looking smart speaker, the Amazon Echo Pop is the new entry-level Alexa speaker. It comes in a wider range of colours, and has option sleeves to mix things up further. If you’re after a basic smart speaker for general requests and smart home control, this speaker could work; however, the better-sounding Echo Dot (5th Generation) costs just $10/£10 more and has a temperature and ultrasound occupancy sensor, making it a better choice overall.
The Amazon Echo Pop isn’t much smaller or more budget-friendly than the Echo Dot, yet it sounds worse, does less, and feels cheap. Our advice: get a Dot instead.
The Echo (4th Gen) is still my top recommendation for an Echo speaker, and it’s been on sale for as low as $50. If it’s a choice between a fourth-gen Echo and an Echo Pop — there’s no contest. While the Echo (4th Gen) still doesn’t have Amazon’s latest processor, it is an excellent smart speaker and a more useful smart home hub. It does everything the Dot can, plus adds Zigbee compatibility as well as Thread, and it sounds really good.
If you're looking for something eye-catching for casual music listening, and you aren't looking for a clock or full-bodied sound, the Echo Pop is a fun choice. Even if you don't use it often, you'll enjoy looking at it more than other affordable smart speakers.
The main thing most Amazon products have going for them is the price point at which they are sold. If we're comparing prices, the Echo Pop is around $10 cheaper than a standard Fifth-Gen Echo Dot. If you were to purchase this device on Amazon right now, $40 for a Matter-enabled smart speaker and Wi-Fi extender combo isn't really that bad. But let's be honest, very few people will be paying that.