Amazon is doing that thing again. The one where it paints the entire digital storefront in shades of orange, sends out a flurry of push notifications, and makes you feel like you might miss out on the deal of the season if you don’t act within the next few hours. This is Prime Big Deal Days, Amazon’s fall answer to the summer Prime Day event, and it’s scheduled for October 6 and 7. But the deals are already showing up early, and they’re landing with a bit of a thud. If you’ve been thinking about adding an Alexa-powered device to your home, you’re probably seeing a lot of tempting price tags right now. But there’s a catch, and it’s a frustrating one. At the end of August, Amazon quietly raised prices across its device categories. The same speakers and tablets you were considering a few weeks ago now cost more at their baseline, which means every “sale” you see is built on top of a newer, higher price. A $40 discount sounds great until you remember that the device was $20 cheaper before Amazon raised the price. That means the real discount is closer to $20, and the whole exercise starts to feel less like a genuine sale and more like a mind game. I’ve been testing Amazon Alexa speakers for years, and I’m also WIRED’s resident Kindle tester, so I’ve watched Amazon play these pricing games from a very close distance. There’s also the bigger question you have to ask yourself before you buy anything: do you actually want Alexa in your house? That’s not a trick question. Alexa can be genuinely helpful, but it lives in an ecosystem that is constantly trying to sell you more stuff. And now, on top of all that, you have to decide whether the discounts are real, or just cleverly repackaged marketing. The honest answer is that some are, and some aren’t. Let’s sort through what’s actually worth buying.
Right now, before Prime Big Deal Days even officially begins, Amazon has already put a bunch of devices on sale. The Echo speakers and Fire TV sticks are currently discounted, which is not surprising. Those are the devices that drive people into the Alexa ecosystem, so Amazon likes to lead with them. But the price increases from August mean the deals aren’t as deep as they used to be. The device lineup is the same, but the price story around it has gotten worse. It’s not the same deal you would have gotten last year. It’s not even the same deal you would have gotten before the price hike. As for Kindles, most of them aren’t on sale yet. The one exception is the Kindle Kids lineup: the Kindle Kids, the Kindle Paperwhite Kids, and the Kindle Colorsoft Kids are all already discounted. That’s an interesting move, especially because Amazon just announced new versions of these Kindles today. So you have a choice to make if you’re shopping for a kid (or for yourself, honestly). You can grab the current model while it’s on sale, or you can preorder the new model and wait. If you were hoping to grab a Kindle Paperwhite or a Kindle Scribe, those aren’t on sale yet as of this writing, and neither are Eero routers. But I expect that to change once the event actually kicks off. The pattern with Amazon is pretty consistent. The company wants to get you in the door with a few early deals, then roll out more discounts once the frenzy begins. Both Kindle and Eero devices also saw price hikes at the end of August, which means you should definitely wait for them to go on sale before buying. That’s the rule now. Buy them only on sale, and even then, know that the sale price is based on a higher starting point than before.
So what’s actually worth buying in these early deals? In my opinion, the best one is the Echo Spot. The second-generation Echo Spot was revived in 2024, and it’s a little bit of a strange device, but it’s also charming. It’s a smart speaker with a small circular screen, and it’s designed to sit on your nightstand or desk. Right now, it’s 50 percent off its new price, and even with the recent price hikes, it’s still a solid discount off its original price of $80. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with this device, and I genuinely like it. It works great as a bedside alarm clock. It shows you when your next alarm is set, so you don’t have to fumble through menus. You can ask Alexa to show the weather or display your calendar details, and it will happily do so. The best part is that you get the benefits of a screen without the creepiness of a camera. There’s no camera on the Echo Spot at all, which means you can put it in your bedroom without feeling like you’re being watched while you sleep. That’s a bigger selling point than it sounds like. In a world where so many smart devices are covered in lenses and microphones, having one that can sit inches from your pillow and do useful things without optical surveillance is refreshing. The screen is bright enough to read from across the room, the speaker is decent for a device this size, and the overall experience is surprisingly polished. At half price, it feels like a genuinely good value. If you’re looking for a compact Alexa companion that can serve as an alarm clock, a weather display, and a tiny entertainment center, this is the one to grab.
Another early deal that holds up is the second-generation Echo Studio. This is the only new Alexa speaker that didn’t get hit with a price change, and that alone makes it worth talking about. The Echo Studio still sits at $220, which is not only the original price of this generation, but also the original price of the first-generation model. That’s a nice thing to see, and it’s increasingly rare in Amazon’s device lineup. The discount on the Echo Studio isn’t huge for Prime Big Deal Days, but it’s still $40 off, and it’s a much more meaningful $40 because the baseline didn’t get inflated. This is the speaker you want if you actually care about sound quality. The Echo Studio has powerful, room-filling audio that can extend across great rooms without getting muddy. It handles bass surprisingly well for a smart speaker, and it gets loud enough to fill an open living space without distortion. If you’re the kind of person who listens to a lot of music at home and you want a single speaker that doesn’t require a soundbar or a subwoofer, this is the one to buy. It also supports spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, which sounds more impressive than it is on a single speaker, but it’s still a nice bonus. The Echo Studio won’t replace a dedicated home theater system, but it will make your kitchen feel like a concert hall. For people who already live in the Alexa ecosystem, this is the least compromised recommendation you can make. It’s a genuinely honest discount on a genuinely capable device, and that’s becoming harder and harder to find in Amazon’s world.
But not every orange “deal” tag deserves your trust. Amazon’s pricing strategy has become increasingly convoluted, and this Prime Big Deal Days is a perfect example. The company raised prices across its device categories at the end of August, and then put many of those same devices on sale in October. That leaves us with the same product lineup but a worse case to recommend. The discounts are technically there, but they’re not as good as they used to be, and in some cases, they’re barely worth the spend. You have to look at the final price, not the percentage off, and you have to compare it to what the device cost a few months ago. For example, a Fire TV Stick might be on sale for $40 off, but if its list price was raised by $20 just before the sale, the actual savings are smaller than they appear. It’s still a better deal than buying it at full price, but it’s not the bargain Amazon wants you to think it is. The same goes for the Kindle kids models that are already on sale. They’re decent discounts, but Amazon just announced new versions, so you’re getting an older model at a sale price that’s still built on a higher baseline than before. If you’re fine with that, go for it. But if you were hoping for a truly great deal on an older Kindle, this isn’t it. And for the Eero routers, I would wait. They’ll almost certainly go on sale once the event begins, and the discounts might be slightly better than what you’ll see in the early access window. The general rule is this: don’t buy anything just because it has a discount. Buy it because you want the device and the price is reasonable. With Amazon, the price history is part of the story, and you have to read between the lines.
So should you buy anything during Prime Big Deal Days? If you already want an Alexa speaker in your home, the Echo Spot and the Echo Studio are both strong choices, and they’re the two devices that feel genuinely worth buying in the early wave of deals. The Echo Spot is a delightful little gadget that earns its place on your nightstand, and the Echo Studio is the best-sounding Alexa speaker you can buy without moving into home theater territory. If you’re on the fence about whether you want Alexa in your life at all, don’t let the urgency of a sale make that decision for you. Amazon has become very good at creating a sense of pressure around these events, but the truth is that these sales happen again and again. There will be another Prime Day, another Big Deal Days, another Black Friday, another Cyber Monday. The only thing worse than missing a deal is buying something because you thought you were getting a deal. Amazon’s recent price increases are a reminder that Prime Day isn’t really a physical event. It’s a pricing exercise. The company raises prices, then cuts them, and we’re supposed to feel grateful for the return to normal. The smartest thing you can do is to set a budget, know what you actually need, and compare the final price to what you would have paid last year. If it still feels fair, buy it. If not, wait. You’ll survive, and so will your wallet. This year, the best way to win Prime Big Deal Days is to treat it like a trip to a store, not a test of loyalty. Look at the price tag, think about the value, and only buy the things that make sense for your life.
