Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has been battling it out for years with Google to land a place in UK homes, and right now you might be swayed towards the former as there’s a great deal running on one of the latest Amazon Echo smart speakers.

Right now, the latest generation Amazon Echo Dot is reduced to just £39.99 from the usual £54.99 – and buying it even gets you early free access to the brand new, more advanced Alexa+ smart assistant.

This great price won’t last long, though – Amazon says it’ll end on May 19 “while promotional stocks last”.

The Echo Dot is Amazon’s smallest and cheapest (now even cheaper!) smart speaker. These gadgets have changed how we interact with tech inside the home over the past decade, with the spherical speaker answering your spoken requests to play music, find a radio station, read the headlines, tell you the weather, or even tap into your personal calendar for the day.

That’s been standard for years, but Amazon is now offering Alexa+, a more advanced version of its voice assistant – and you get free access to it when you buy this Echo Dot.

That free access lasts until June 15, after which time you’ll have to be an Amazon Prime member to keep using it.

View the Amazon Echo Dot deal here

The main advantage to Alexa+ is it allows for continuous conversation, a bit like you might be used to with ChatGPT. This means the tech remembers the context of what you were talking about during a query, and can have a back and forth with you.

It might just make chatting with Alexa less US-focused too. According to Director of Alexa UK Meryem Tom, Alexa+ will understand “half-thoughts, colloquialisms and complex ideas”, as well as “regional expressions, British sports teams” and “homegrown music”.

Amazon also says Alexa+ will become “more useful” the more you chat to it, as it can better learn your preferences over time.

The speaker itself has decent audio with clearer vocals and richer bass compared to older models, according to Amazon, and can link to Amazon Music, Audible, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer and more to instantly play back music and audiobooks upon request.

If you have an Amazon-owned Eero Wi-Fi router, the £39.99 Echo can also act as a Wi-Fi extender, making it a very affordable way to stretch your home internet coverage.

You can opt for the speaker in three different colours.