The 8 Best Amazon Alexa Devices of 2023

The third-gen Wyze Cam, like its earlier iterations, only costs around $30, but this smart home device is one of our favorite cameras overall, in part because of the low price. 

It comes with weatherproof housing, sharper night vision than its predecessor, a wider field of view, a loud siren and more -- including 14-day video clip storage and a built-in microSD card slot for local storage. If you have an Echo Show smart display, you can also throw the Wyze Cam's feed onto the screen with a simple voice command.

In Amazon's Echo Show 8, you get an 8-inch screen with the best resolution of any Echo Show yet, a camera shutter and all the smarts of previous Amazon smart displays. The Echo Show 8 has a built-in Alexa speaker. That means you can use this smart display to ask your Alexa digital assistant to do your bidding, whether that be asking it to play music, relay the weather or just tell you a joke. 

And, since it's a smart display, it also offers advanced compatibility with Alexa-enabled security cameras. Ask Alexa to "answer the front door" when someone rings your Ring Peephole Cam and you can see the live feed on your Show 8 -- and actually talk to the person, straight from the smart display.

August's Wi-Fi Smart Lock is a great smart lock. It retrofits to most standard deadbolts, so you don't have to deal with a complicated installation. The built-in Wi-Fi makes it possible to access and control your smart lock remotely via the Android or iOS app without needing an August Connect module. And, as its spot on this list might indicate, it's an Alexa-compatible device, too -- that means you can lock and unlock your door from an Alexa-enabled smart speaker using your voice.

The lock also comes with an open/close sensor -- called DoorSense -- that attaches to the door in question. That way, the app can not only tell you whether the door is locked or unlocked, but also if the door is open or closed. That's a nice touch of functionality from such a simple-to-use smart lock.

Amazon's $80 Smart Thermostat is hard to beat in terms of value, and that's at full price. For starters, the thermostat works as well with Alexa as you'd expect given that it's an Amazon product, so if you have an Echo speaker or Echo Show display, you should be in good shape to get the best value out of the device. 

Even for those who don't, the thermostat offers a simple, straightforward design that looks great on a wall and feels great to use, and it could even save you as much as $50 per year with its energy saving settings.

While other DIY home security systems work well with Alexa, the Ring Alarm Pro offers excellent performance with unique built-in Alexa integrations. In fact, with the higher-end Ring Protect Plus subscription, you even get Alexa's security feature -- Guard Plus -- packaged in for free. That means Alexa will listen for glass breaking or footsteps while you're away, and will alert you if it hears anything fishy.

Beyond its Alexa integrations, the Ring Alarm Plus offers fantastic features, like a built-in Wi-Fi 6 gateway, backup internet, local processing and storage (a first for Ring), cellular backup, professional monitoring and more. An eight-piece system costs $300, and subscriptions range from $3 per month to $20 per month -- the most expensive of which still undercuts some of the best competition. In short, this system is a fantastic value.