The best Prime Day smart home deals: Echo Dot and Google Home Mini are $25 right now, plus a full list of Monday's deals – CNET

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The Echo Dot has long been one of our favorite smart speakers, and the third-gen version looks less industrial and sounds better than before. It’s a great purchase at its normal price of $50, given that you get all of the smarts of Amazon’s assistant Alexa for a reasonable splurge and you can plug it into your own sound system. At $25, it’s an absolute steal and this is the lowest price we’ve seen in awhile. This is a good time to jump. 

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Not to be left out, Google is offering big discounts on smart home products as well. The Google Home Mini is a great alternative to the Amazon Echo Dot. Like the Dot, it packs a lot of smarts into a small and affordable package. If you’d rather center your home around Google Assistant instead of Alexa, this is a great place to start and this is a great time to jump. The $25 price makes the Mini an easy splurge. Note that this deal and the following deals on Google Home products are currently the same at Best Buy and Walmart.

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Note that this sale is only for Amazon Prime members, with the discount applied at checkout. Right now, you can snag the Ring Video Doorbell Pro for the nice price of $170. The smart doorbell works with Alexa, and lets you check on your porch remotely with an app. You can even tell the delivery person to leave your package with your Amazon Echo Show 5 smart display. 

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While it’s not the lowest price we’ve seen, $79 for the Nest Hub is still a decent deal and the Nest Hub is still our favorite smart display, despite tough new competition. If you want a smart speaker with a touchscreen for extra visuals, this is the one to get. It’s particularly great as a family photo frame and as a kitchen assistant.

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I was hoping for this one. The Lenovo Smart Clock is a great alarm clock that’s a little too much at its normal $80 price. At $60, it makes a lot more sense. In addition to voice controls through Google Assistant, you can customize your alarm to control your smart home and wake you up gradually with a sunrise animation. 

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The Max was recently on sale for $212, so it could drop again, but $249 is still a bargain. Google’s premium smart speaker uses the same assistant as the rest, but soups up the sound quality so your music booms. It’s one of the better premium smart speakers out there — and this price is much easier to swallow than the original $400.

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Hold off on this one. The second-gen Echo is great and $70 is a reasonable price, but it will drop to $50 on Prime Day. 

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The original Google Home mixes smarts and sound quality well for a reasonable price. Google’s first smart speaker was designed to compete with the Amazon Echo, and it does so handily, with plenty of features thanks to the built-in Google Assistant. The $69 price is a good deal that mirrors Amazon’s similar one on the Echo.

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The second-gen Echo Show refined the design of the first model and offers better sound quality and a 10-inch HD screen. It combines the functionality of a smart speaker like the Echo Dot with a touchscreen you can use for video calls and controlling your smart home with a tap. We like the $90 Echo Show 5 a little better, but $160 for the full-size Show is a tempting offer. 

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This is our favorite smart speaker for controlling your smart home. The Echo Plus has the same Alexa capabilities as the rest, it sounds better than other Amazon Echo speakers, and it has a built-in Zigbee hub so it can talk directly to small smart home sensors. With the Plus, you can do away with bulky third party hubs, so the $110 sale price is pretty appealing.

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Facebook’s smart display doesn’t have as many features as the Echo Show, but you can still talk to Alexa and it’s specifically designed for video calls. The camera will pan and zoom to track you so you can move around the room while chatting and stay in frame. It’s perfect if you have out-of-town grandparents who want to keep up with the action of your little ones. Given Facebook’s recent privacy scandals, it’s a tough sell, but the huge discount is great if you don’t mind putting a Facebook device with a camera in your home. 

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Amazon has sales on all kinds of Ring products for Prime Day, which makes sense as Amazon owns the smart home brand. The outdoor Spotlight cam hangs on your porch and provides reliable lighting and monitoring for your yard. The Spotlight Cam is also easy to set up, making it one of our favorite outdoor cams. The $140 price makes it a steal. 

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The Stick Up Cam doesn’t stand out from the crowd as well as the Spotlight cam. It’s an indoor cam with a wired and wireless version. It’s a solid performer, but lacks some of the features of similar security cams. Still, at a discount, it’s worth considering. 

The original Ring doorbell is on sale on Prime Day, too, in addition to the newer Pro model. If you don’t need a slimmer design and 1080p streaming, go with the older Ring instead of the Pro to save yourself some money. 

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Ring’s simple, but reliable security system was already reasonably priced. The Prime Day sale makes it a great buy if you want a DIY system monitoring your home. 

The Blink XT2 is a weatherproof security camera with a battery that can supposedly last for two years. Getting a two-pack for $100 is a nice deal. 

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Our favorite smart thermostat has an Alexa speaker built-in and includes a temperature sensor so you can customize settings based on a specific room. The Ecobee SmartThermostat features better microphones and a sleeker finish than previous versions, and the sale brings the price into the range of less capable competition. 

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Lots of smart bulbs from Sengled will be on sale on Prime Day. Our favorite deal of the bunch is this two-pack of color changing bulbs plus the necessary hub. Given that color-changing smart bulbs can still be pretty expensive, getting two for roughly $20 a piece is a nice bargain. 

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Both the bundled system and Eero’s individual routers will be on sale on Monday. The mesh system in particular creates a seamless network capable of covering a large home. Our main issue with it is the price, which is dramatically less for Prime Day. If you want a mesh Wi-Fi system, this is a good time to grab one. 

Amazon Smart Plug and Amazon Echo Combo

Save $55

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Amazon is introducing a new bundle here and we’ll add the link once it’s live. The simple smart plug lets you add voice-controlled connectivity to dumb devices like lamps. Pairing it together with an Amazon Echo smart speaker makes for a compelling smart home starter kit. 

Lutron Caseta Smart Lighting Dimmer Switch

Save 28 percent

A couple Lutron Caseta lighting products will be on sale on Prime Day. We’re big fans of these highly capable and versatile in-wall dimmer switches. 

TP-Link Switch and Echo Dot bundle

Save 55 percent

If you’re looking for a smart plug, the TP-Link is one of our favorites. Weighing this one against the Amazon Plug and Echo bundle, TP-Link is a slightly better plug, but Amazon’s including the better speaker with its own set. 

Leviton Decora Lighting products

Save up to 25 percent

Leviton makes a wide variety of smart lighting products as well. Most will be on sale on Monday for 20 to 25 percent off, including smart plugs and a variety of smart dimmer switches.