Best Amazon Prime Day 2019 smart home deals: Echo Show 5 for $50, the Google Home Max for $249 and more on sale now – 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 $22, it’s an absolute steal and this is the lowest price we’ve seen in awhile. This is a good time to jump. 

If you want a bundle, you can also get three for $60 total. 

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This is our favorite smart display with Alexa. The Echo Show 5 is pretty new, so it’s a surprise to see it on sale already, but this deal is awesome. The Show 5 has a 5.5-inch touchscreen. You can talk to Alexa and it can wake you up with a nifty sunrise animation. 

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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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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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Right now, you can snag the Ring Video Doorbell Pro for the nice price of $169. 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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$50 is the lowest price we’ve seen for the second-gen Amazon Echo. If you want an Alexa smart speaker with slightly more sound quality than the Dot, grab this now. 

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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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Sonos One is one of our favorite smart speakers. It sounds great when playing music and costs significantly less than other premium smart speakers like the Google Home Max or the Apple HomePod. Even better, you don’t have to commit to one platform when buying it as it works with both Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. The $180 price on the second-gen model is a great deal if you want a platform agnostic smart speaker with awesome sound quality. 

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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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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. 

Even better, the deal now includes a free Echo Dot and a Philips Hue smart bulb for nothing extra. That’s a great bundle. 

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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.

Amazon is now bundling in an Amazon Smart Plug for no extra cost as a Prime Day exclusive. The Plus and the Plug make a great smart home starter kit. 

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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 $139 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. 

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SimpliSafe is our favorite DIY security system and this 10-piece kit is more than enough to get you up and running. SimpliSafe works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. It combines affordable monitoring with reliable performance. 

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A great alternative to SimpliSafe, abode’s starter kit is on sale today too. Unlike SimpliSafe, abode lets you monitor your own system with an app without a monthly fee. Abode’s more expansive iota system is also on sale today. 

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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. 

Update, 1:23 p.m. PT: This deal is currently out of stock.  

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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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. 

D-Link has it’s mesh system on sale today as well with a great price on a two pack meant to cover up to 6,000 square feet. 

Today you can save almost 50% on this gaming router from Netgear. 

Save over $100 on this mesh Wi-Fi system from Netgear as well. 

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This smart lock fits onto your existing deadbolt, works with Wi-Fi thanks to the Connect module, and is compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant. It’s a great smart lock at a great price today. 

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You can control Amazon’s simple microwave with a voice command if you have a smart speaker like the Amazon Echo Dot. Fortunately, for Prime Day, you can buy the Microwave at its normal $60 price, and it comes with a free Dot. Say the word and get your popcorn cooking. 

If you want a fancy, smart ceiling fan, the Haiku series is tough to beat as far as functionality. Normally, our hesitation in recommending the series is the price, but today’s sale on the L Series makes the buy in much easier to stomach. 

Make your garage door smart with this hub that attaches to door and connects it to Wi-Fi. You’ll then be able to open and close it with a voice command to Alexa or Google Assistant. MyQ also has an app so you can close the garage with a tap when you’re out and about and wondering if you’ve left it open. 

This is a great price on four connected lights if you want to add smart lighting to your garden or your patio. 

Check out the rest of our favorite smart lighting deals. 

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Sonos also makes a sound bar with Alexa and Google Assistant built in. That’s on sale today too for a big chunk off of its normal list price. 

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Lots of smart bulbs from Sengled will be on sale on Prime Day. The best deal available now is this four-pack of soft white bulbs plus the necessary hub. With the smart home coupon, the bulbs are only $40 at checkout, which is a whopping 50% off and a great way to get started with smarter lights in your home.