You don’t have to wait for Amazon Big Deal Days to save on the Amazon Echo Dot

You can get Amazon’s best-sounding Echo Dot yet for half price right now, and you don’t even have to wait for the next big sale day.

Marked down from $79.99 to $39.99, the Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen in Charcoal is now $40 or 50% off Amazon’s most popular smart speakerand one designed specifically for Alexa+.

Customers clearly agree with this popularity, with 4.8 stars from 2,836 reviews and 97% saying they’d recommend it to a friend, and the $40 you save can cover a smart bulb or plug to get you paired from day one.

Once the bulb is set up, built-in motion and temperature sensors allow the Echo Dot to start routines on its own, turning on the lights every morning when you enter the room or play music.

Music in these routines sounds fuller than any previous Echo Dot, with the 1.73-inch front-facing speaker delivering clearer vocals and deeper bass from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Audible and Pandora, or anything else via Bluetooth.

Stop music, end a call, or snooze your morning alarm with a single tap, while Alexa handles hands-free timers, weather reports, and quick answers to questions while your hands are busy in the kitchen.

Outside of the kitchen, Echo Dot connects with other compatible Echo speakers for music throughout the house, connects to Fire TV for Alexa home theater sound, and acts as a Matter controller with eero Built-in extended coverage on a compatible eero network.

Peace of mind is built in, too, with a microphone mute button, the ability to delete recordings by asking Alexa, and guaranteed software security updates for at least four years after the last Echo Dot 5th Gen is sold.

Whether you’re starting a smart home or just want richer sound on your nightstand, the half-price Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen leaves you with $40 for the bulbs and connectors that make it even more useful.