Amazon’s Alexa is widely considered one of the most reliable virtual personal assistants on the market. And for good reason. The service comes with tens of thousands of skills, the opportunity to control your smart home and order pizza, among others, and much more.
But in order to take full advantage of Amazon’s Alexa and really boost your smart home game, you’ll want to pick up some hardware that’s compatible with it. The hardware, which ranges from smart light bulbs to video doorbells, will improve your smart home and give you far more control with your voice. And with any luck at all, you’ll be more productive throughout the day.
The best part, however, is that sometimes, you can get those devices on the cheap. In fact, in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some retailers are offering compelling sales on a variety of options.
So, to help you find the best deals on devices to connect your smart home, we’ve scoured sites to find the best options. The following devices all work with Amazon’s Alexa and give you far more power over the home than you might expect. And they’re now available on the cheap.
Check them out:
Philips Hue Wireless Starter Kit
Philips Hue Starter KitPhilips
If you’re planning to light up your home and want to control the lights while you do it, turning to the Philips Hue Wireless Starter Kit could be a good idea.
With the Starter Kit, you’ll find two light bulbs and a controller that will need to connect to your network to ensure you can control lights with your voice. The bulbs can be placed in just about any fixture and can be displayed in any color you want. Best of all, you can create moods and scenes and quickly turn those on to set the right atmosphere.
From Alexa, you can use voice commands to turn lights on and off or set them to be brighter or dimmer. You can also tell Alexa to turn on different scenes. Best of all, you can keep adding Philips Hue lights and controlling more of your house as you go without needing to buy additional equipment.
The Starter Kit typically goes for $70. But Best Buy is offering it at a 10% discount for $63.
Amazon Echo
It wouldn’t be an Alexa device deals roundup without including at least one Amazon Echo device. And depending on what you’re looking for to control the home, Amazon’s Echo might be tops.
With the Echo, you can turn on the many thousands of Alexa skills and control them from the device. You can also use the Echo Show as a hub to control thermostats, lights, and much more.
Best of all, the Echo comes with a design that makes it nice to put anywhere in your home. Indeed, its revamped design paves the way for it to be used anywhere you’d like and not detract from the space.
The Echo typically retails for $100. You can get it now on Amazon for $75.
Ring Video Doorbell Pro
Ring Video Doorbell ProRing
If you want to know who’s at your door and what they want, the Ring Video Doorbell Pro is a good place to start.
The Ring Video Doorbell Pro goes where your existing doorbell goes and chimes whenever people press the button. More importantly, it comes with a video camera built-in, as well as two-way communication, allowing you to talk to people outside your door in real time. You can even set greetings when people come to your door to automate the process.
Ring’s Video Doorbell Pro uses Alexa to announce when someone is at the door and can even chime when someone presses your doorbell button. If you have an Alexa device with a screen, like the Echo Show or Fire TV, you can also quickly see the video camera’s view from the device.
The Video Doorbell Pro costs $250. But if you head over to NewEgg, you can get it for $200.
Nest Learning Thermostat
Nest Learning ThermostatNest
It might seem odd that a device owned by Google, a major competitor to Amazon, would support Alexa, but the Nest Learning Thermostat is one of them. And it’s a great choice for anyone who wants to use the personal assistant to control temperatures in the home.
The Nest Learning Thermostat connects to your existing thermostat wires and learns your habits. Over time, it develops its own schedule that will adjust temperatures on the fly to ensure you achieve maximum comfort.
With Alexa’s help, you can call on the Nest thermostat to adjust temperatures and set it to be home, away, or off. Indeed, with Alexa’s help, you’ll never need to go to your thermostat.
Nest’s Learning Thermostat typically retails for $250, but it’s now available for $217.
TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Outlet
KASA Smart Home PlugTP-Link
While you can buy all types of smart home products to boost your smart home experience, there are also opportunities to turn your dumb products into smart products.
The easiest way to do that is with help from TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Plug Outlet. The outlet simply plugs into your existing outlet and can work with any light, radio, or any other product around the home. From there, you can name the outlet and inside Alexa, control it with the sound of your voice.
So, if you want to control a few lights in the room, you can simply plug them into the smart plug and ask Alexa to turn them on or off and it’ll do it. The feature is an outstanding way to control more products around the home with true ease and simplicity.
The Kasa Smart Plug Outlet is usually available for $40. But you can buy it now for just $17.
Source: “Amazon Products” – Google News