Amazon’s Echo speaker is, at the time of writing, the de facto king of the smart speaker space.

Granted, Amazon’s had a good 24 months run at the space with little competition, but the unit itself is a testament to Amazon’s heavy investment in AI during the past couple of years.

Google Home is now here, and Apple’s HomePod will land soon, so things are hotting up considerably in terms of competition and choice. But one area where Amazon keeps on beating out the competition is the price.

You can now, for instance, pick up an Amazon Echo for just £79.99 via Amazon – yes, it’s refurbished, but this shouldn’t put you off, as it will look and function as good as new.

Unsure what Amazon Echo is all about? Take a look at just some of things it can do for you right now:

• Plays all your music from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and more using just your voice
• Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio. Play music simultaneously across multiple Echo devices with multi-room music (Available for Amazon Music and TuneIn. Bluetooth not supported)
• Allows hands-free convenience with voice control
• Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even in noisy environments or while playing music
• Answers questions, reads audiobooks, reports news, traffic and weather, provides sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service
• Controls lights, switches, thermostats and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, Nest, tado° and others
• Always getting smarter - Alexa updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new features and skills

Alexa, the brain that powers the Echo, is always growing and learning as well, adding in new abilities and features every week.

The Amazon Echo has been receiving rave reviews since it first arrived, as you can see below. People love this device, and while I’m a Google Home man myself, I do really love the Echo, as it has TONS of utility compared to everything else available right now.

And now you can get one for just £79.99, which makes it a bloody steal! Hurry though, stocks of this reduced price unit won’t last long at that price.