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Unsurprisingly, the Pop sheds a few features found on pricier smart speakers to hit its bargain-level price point. It offers fewer sensors than the fifth-gen Echo Dot, for instance, and skips the physical Action button found on most other Echo models, which lets you prompt Alexa without saying a wake word. Nonetheless, the Pop is the cheapest Matter controller you can buy at the moment, rendering it as futureproof as it is colorful. What’s more, it features quick performance and plenty of Alexa-based smarts, making it a great option if you want to upgrade from an older Echo model or dip your toe into Amazon’s vast ecosystem of smart home devices.
The season for spring cleaning might be over, but there’s rarely been a better time than now to grab iRobot’s Roomba i3 Evo. Normally $349.99, the budget-friendly robot vacuum is on sale at Amazon right now for just $250, nearly matching its best price to date.
Several years after making its debut, the i3 Evo remains our favorite robovac for those working with a tighter budget. It lacks many of the premium bells and whistles associated with our top pick, the poop-dodging iRobot j7, yet it still offers the same suction power and a similar set of software features. It sports a physical spot-cleaning button for tackling quick jobs, along with smart mapping, letting you control which rooms you’d like it to clean. What it lacks is the j7’s bigger battery and AI obstacle avoidance — two features that are by no means a deal-breaker given the i3 Evo currently costs half the price without its optional auto-empty station.