This Amazon Echo Input Deal Is The Price It Should've Launched At

Back in September, Amazon revealed the Echo Input during its packed-to-the-brim Alexa Day. Out of all of the new devices revealed that day, the Echo Input seemed to be one of the most useful, as it allows you to essentially add Alexa functionality to any speaker. For people with existing home audio setups, then, the Echo Input is a good way to get Alexa functionality without buying a collection of Echo speakers and potentially compromising on sound quality.

So, with that in mind, the Echo Input seems like a handy, if somewhat niche, device. Our review, however, found one problem with it: price. Amazon priced the Echo Input at $34.99, and while that certainly isn't expensive, it put Amazon in this weird position where the Echo Dot is often less expensive than the Input.

The Echo Dot is normally priced at $49.99, but Amazon runs enough promotions that it's fairly easy to get one for much less than that. The Echo Dot obviously doesn't offer stellar sound quality at that price, but just like the Echo Input, it can be connected to other speakers and grant them Alexa capabilities. At $34.99, the Echo Input becomes a difficult item to sell to people who know they can regularly buy an Echo Dot for less.

For the time being, however, Amazon has dropped the Echo Input down to what is probably the perfect price point for it. Amazon is currently running a promotion that shaves $15 off the cost of the Echo Input, bringing it down to $19.99. It's worth noting that the 3rd-generation Echo Dot is also on sale right now, but only for $29.99, meaning the Echo Input is still the less expensive of the two.

So, if you've got a sound system setup that could use some smarts, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take advantage of this Echo Input deal. There's no official word on how long it'll last, but Amazon's sales on its first-party devices tend to be brief (albeit frequent) affairs, so jump on it while you can.