Smart speakers: a buyer's guide

Price: £89.99Amazon's second-generation Echo is a revamped version of the device that invented the whole category of smart speakers in 2014. The new Echo is smaller, better sounding and better looking, in a choice of fabric or wood finishes. What makes the Echo great is Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa. A ring of seven microphones in the top listens out for your choice of wake word – the default is simply "Alexa" – before sending what you say to Amazon's servers for interpretation. Alexa can almost always hear you including over music noise as loud as an extractor fan and from pretty far away.