The newest Echo Dot comes in an updated spherical design, but aside from that, there wasn't too much that set it apart from previous models. That makes it an ideal "wait-for-a-sale" gadget, and right now, for Prime Day, you can pick one up for $20, which is about as inexpensive as current-gen Echo devices ever get. You can even sweeten the deal by adding in a free six-month subscription to Amazon Music, or, for an extra $5, an Amazon Smart Plug.

Don't care so much about the sphere, and just want the lowest possible price on a new Echo device? The puck-shaped, 3rd-gen Echo Dot from 2018 is still an excellent little smart speaker, and it's currently marked down to just $18, which is a buck cheaper than the all-time low.

Read the CNET review of the 3rd-gen Echo Dot smart speaker.

Arlo's well-reviewed lineup of outdoor-ready security cameras are some of our favorites in the category, and the Arlo Essential Spotlight Cameras are among the company's most affordable. Now, for Prime Day, a 3-pack is marked down to $250, saving you $100 off the retail price.

The Arlo Essential cameras come with most of the same features we like about the more expensive Arlo Pro cameras -- namely, high-quality livestreams of whatever you're pointing them at, plus customizable alert notifications, color night vision, and other advanced features via the optional Arlo Smart cloud service, plus compatibility with Alexa and the Google Assistant, or with Apple HomeKit provided you've got a compatible Base Station or SmartHub. Just about the only thing we didn't like about these cameras when we tested them out was that Arlo stripped out the removable battery-pack design -- that means you'll need to take the whole camera inside when it's time to give it a charge (and the micro-USB charge cable Arlo provides is comically short).

That's a fair tradeoff at this price -- the Arlo Essential three-pack rarely drops below $280, and at $250, you're getting three cameras for less than you'd usually pay for two. Single cameras are marked down to $100 each, as well, and if you'd like a longer battery life, the Essential XL Cameras are on sale at a slight discount, too. Among all of the Arlo discounts, however, this Essential Camera three-pack looks like the best deal of the bunch. 

Read the CNET review of the Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera.

It's not the new Ecobee Premium model released this year, but the previous-gen Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Voice Control offers the same native support for built-in Alexa access, or built-in Siri access if you pair it with an Apple HomePod or HomePod Mini, and it'll integrate into Google Assistant-powered smart homes, too. It also offers most of the same impressive Ecobee features for intelligent management of your home's heating and cooling needs, plus a remote temperature sensor to help the system track temperatures throughout your house.

All of that made the Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Voice Control an Editors' Choice-winner back when we first reviewed it in 2019. The price has already come down from $250 to $220 since then, and now, for Prime Day, it's all the way down to $179 on Amazon. That's lower than any Amazon price we've ever seen it selling for, and a great deal if you want one of the most sophisticated smart thermostats on the market.

Read the CNET review of the Ecobee Smart Thermostat with Voice Control.

Eero Pro 6E is the Amazon-owned home networking brand's first mesh router with support for Wi-Fi 6E, which means it can connect with other Wi-Fi 6E devices over the newly-opened, ultra-wide 6GHz band. It's the fastest, fanciest Eero system to date, and one that performed quite well when I put it through multiple rounds of tests. Plus, it supports speeds faster than a gigabit thanks to a multi-gig Ethernet WAN port, a nice piece of future-proofing.

Even at full price, I already recommend the Eero Pro 6E as an upgrade pick for homes that want to take advantage of fast, gigabit-level internet connections -- now, for Prime Day, Amazon has multiple Eero Pro 6E setups listed for hundreds off. Larger, multi-story homes might want to consider stepping up to the three-pack, which usually costs $699 but is currently on sale for $419 -- but I think that the two-pack would be more than enough for most homes (and you can always add another device later if you need it). At $299 -- or $200 off the normal price of $499 -- it's one of Prime Day's best discounts.

Read the CNET review of the Eero Pro 6E mesh router.

The best bet for good Wi-Fi in large, multistory homes is to go with a mesh router -- and preferably one that comes with more than one satellite extender. This three-piece Eero 6 Plus system gets you there, and it's marked down to just $194 for Prime Day, saving you $105. 

The Eero 6 Plus doesn't feature Wi-Fi 6E support or a tri-band design like the Eero Pro 6E does, but it's still an excellent and capable system that makes great use of Wi-Fi 6 and a well-developed mesh to deliver fast speeds at range. You can read more about how the two systems stack up in my full rundown, but if you've got a lot of ground for your home's Wi-Fi network to cover, you're going to want to give this deal some thought. 

Read the CNET review of the Eero 6 Plus mesh router.

At $180, the battery-powered Nest Doorbell was already less expensive than key competitors like the Ring Video Doorbell 4 and the Arlo Wire-Free, and it was already marked down to $130 ahead of Prime Day. Now, through July 17, it's down even lower, to $120. That's a total of $60 off of the retail price, and one of the best prices we've seen it listed at all year.

For the money, you're getting a sophisticated smart doorbell with an attractive design, multiple color options, two-way talk, high-def resolution, a 145-degree field of view with a 3:4 aspect ratio, smart alerts, and more. During our tests, we were particularly impressed with the low latency of the video feed, which helps keeps the conversation snappy during two-way talk. You'll need to pay $6 a month for a Nest Aware subscription if you want to unlock facial recognition and a full 30 days of video storage, but you can skip that and still enjoy person detection, vehicle-, package- or animal-specific notifications, and up to three hours of free video storage.

As a Google device, the Nest Doorbell is best suited for smart homes centered around other Nest gadgets and the Google Assistant. For instance, you can sync your Nest speakers with the doorbell to sound the chime whenever someone's at the door, or call up the doorbell's video feed on your Nest Hub smart displays. The Nest Doorbell doesn't offer native support for Apple HomeKit, but it does work with Alexa, so Amazon-powered smart homes can connect the doorbell with their Echo smart speakers and smart displays, too.

Read CNET's review of the Nest Doorbell (battery-powered).

The second generation Ring Alarm home security system is pretty budget-friendly to begin with, but now, you can score that simple DIY starter kit for $120, which saves you $80. 

For the money, you're getting the Ring Alarm base station, a keypad for punching in your code, a motion sensor, a contact sensor for monitoring a door or window, and a range extender. Ring bills it as a good setup for an apartment or condo, but if your space is a little bigger, you can always add additional sensors and devices to your setup a la carte style.

Admittedly, we still have some qualms with Ring about its partnerships with police organizations, but that's more of a concern for the company's video doorbells and its other camera gadgets (and it's worth giving Ring some credit for recent moves to increase transparency about police requests for public footage in the Neighbors app). You'll want to read up on those concerns before adding any of Ring's cameras to your setup (and yep, they'll all sync up with this system as well as you'd expect), but if you're just looking for a simple and affordable layer of security for a small home or apartment, this deal is worth a look.

Read the CNET review of the Ring Alarm home security system.