Early Prime Day 2020 deal — get Echo Dot for 50% off

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition — (Image credit: Amazon)

The Echo Dot Kids Edition was already cheap, but you can currently buy it for $34.99, which is half its list price of $70.

This is based on the Echo Dot 3rd Gen, which just got a successor in the new spherical Amazon Echo Dot and 2nd Gen Amazon Echo Dot Kids. While the shape is the older style, there's little difference in terms of what the speaker actually does.

The Echo Dot Kids Edition behaves a lot like the normal Echo Dot, one of our picks for the best smart speaker around. The differences between the two are minor: the Kids Edition comes with parental controls automatically enabled, a free 12 months of Amazon Kids Plus and a more colorful design in either "Kids Blue" or "Kids Rainbow."

So if you like, you can use the Echo Dot Kids Edition to do all the normal tasks you'd use an Echo for — setting timers, checking the news and weather or searching the web for answers to your questions. It also features the same microphone off switch, letting you talk without worrying if Alexa is listening in.

Thanks to Alexa's voice recognition abilities, the Echo can tell the difference between you and your child, meaning you can access certain functions that your kid can't. You can filter explicit content, set time limits and check account activity from the browser-based Parent Dashboard to help promote responsible usage of the speaker, with the option to tailor these for each of your family members.

The free year of Amazon Kids Plus, which you can renew for $2.99 a month after that expires, begins when you activate the speaker. This service includes books, songs, games and skills sourced from kid-friendly brands like Disney and others.

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.