Which gadget wins in Amazon Echo (4th gen) vs Amazon Echo (3rd gen)?Īmazon Echo Dot (4th gen) review: setup and app.It's the same sort of compromise you make if you buy the Nest Mini from Google rather than the Nest Audio. The acoustics of the 4th gen version improve over the 3rd gen, so it's hard to quibble with Amazon too much on this point, because you know what you're getting when you invest in it. This has always been the role of the Echo Dot though – it's not really for playing music, though it will do if needed. Despite its diminutive size, the Echo Dot can reach a room-filling level of volume, even if the audio lacks the richness you would get from a more expensive speaker.
Echo dot with clock Bluetooth#
It also accepts Bluetooth connections, so you can really stream anything you like from your phone or tablet. The Echo Dot supports voice control for numerous music streaming services, including Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and of course Amazon Music. You can, if you want, set up two Echo Dots in a stereo pair – it only takes a couple of taps inside the app. Maybe we're audio snobs, but we'd say definitely go for the larger model or indeed the Echo Studio if you want good audio fidelity. There's a single 1.6-inch front-firing speaker inside, not the woofer and the tweeters combo of the bigger Echo. It's perfectly acceptable for podcasts and audiobooks, but it lacks depth and clarity when it comes to music, and we can't really recommend it as a jukebox unless you're using it really occasionally to play the odd tune. Amazon Echo (4th gen) vs Echo Dot (4th gen) head to headĪmazon Echo Dot (4th gen) review: sound qualityĬompared with the 3rd gen Echo Dot, the new model sounds better and crisper to our ears in terms of audio output, but the difference isn't massive – and it's not a speaker that'll match up to the bigger Echo, the Nest Audio, or anything made by Sonos.Alexa works with a host of third-party smart home devices these days too, so you can access your smart lights, plugs, thermostats and more through Alexa voice commands. On its own, it's hard to fault the Echo Dot (with or without the clock): Alexa is almost the perfect digital assistant, with a huge range of capabilities and a knack of being able to understand what you're saying no matter how garbled it is. If they've gone with Google or Apple instead, it makes more sense for you to follow suit – that's the way it goes when it comes to buying new gadgets in the interconnected smart home age.
Echo dot with clock software#
Buying a smart speaker nowadays isn't just about weighing up the speaker itself, it's about weighing up all the other hardware and software you're already invested in.įeatures like placing audio calls and being able to broadcast to other speakers in the home need other Echo devices, for example, so a new Echo Dot is going to be much more appealing if your siblings and parents have already got Amazon speakers set up in their own homes. The usual smart speaker caveats apply, in that these devices work best with the services made by the same company – in the case of Alexa, that's Amazon shopping, Amazon Music, Audible for audiobooks, and so on. We found the Echo Dot quick to respond and clear in its feedback, even when we were talking to it from the other side of the room. Amazon Echo Dot (4th gen) review: featuresĪlexa is better than ever at answering questions, playing music, reading out the news, checking your calendar, setting timers and reminders, and so on. You can adjust the brightness of the LED display or turn it off altogether if you don't want it blazing away all night. To our eyes the numbers look a bit old-fashioned, but your mileage may vary – they are at least very easy to see from across the room. The LED display on the Clock version uses some fairly uninspiring numbering that you can't customise (it just comes in white), and looks like it's been imported in from the 1980s. The little sphere measures 100x100x89mm (3.9x 3.9x3.5 inches), which makes it small enough to fit just about anywhere in your home (as with previous Echo Dots, that's one of the speaker's key advantages). There are some simple mic mute and volume controls on the top, and on the back of the speaker there are two connectors for power and a 3.5mm line out port if you want to connect another speaker.
The shades are well chosen: both the Echo Dot and the Echo Dot with Clock come in Glacier White or Twilight Blue, and the standard Echo Dot offers a Charcoal option as well (which is actually our personal favourite of the three). It's not a bad look, all fabric covered and discreetly coloured. As with the larger model, the idea is that the acoustics are improved and the sound output is pushed out more evenly into the room, but we do kind of miss the old shape (we preferred the status light being on the top, too).
Small squat pucks are out, round balls are in with the 4th gen Echo Dot – it's the biggest design change for the smaller Echo since the Dot was first introduced in 2016.
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