With the affordable price tag and the features, it offers, Echo Dot is hard to argue about. In this post, we’ve shared a detailed review of the device. Read along to figure out whether it’s a good upgrade or should you stick to the previous one.
Startup and Packaging
Starting from the basic, the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd gen is very minimalistic in terms of packaging. Out of the box, you’ll get the speaker itself on top with some paperwork and a 15W power adapter at the bottom. There are different colors you can buy from Amazon depending on your preference.
Currently, Amazon only sells the black one and the pink one but in the past white and grey echo dot were also listed on their website. As for the setup process, it’s quite basic. Connect the wall adapter with the echo dot and download the Amazon Alexa app. It will walk you through all the sign-in, permissions required, and everything related to the setup.
Build and Design
The design of the echo dot remains quite futuristic as compared to the previous-gen device. And honestly, communicating with a little electronic box feels strange at first, but once you get a hold of it, you’ll enjoy talking with it.
The 3rd generation of echo dot is a bit cuddlier and chubbier, although featuring the same old size. Instead of going for plastic, now the speaker has a mesh fabric on each side of the device. Like the previous generation, the echo dot has a circular ring LED light at the top with 4 buttons; an action button, volume buttons, and a mic mute.
This elegant design makes the echo dot a fine exterior to place in your room, instead of something you hide under the shelf. It will surely add some aesthetics to your room.
Features and Connectivity
The Echo dot comes with a 3.5mm audio output and Bluetooth connectivity. This means that if you want more sound, you can easily connect it via cable or wirelessly with another speaker. Otherwise, the Echo dot is all about a small form factor and Alexa.
Speaking of Alexa, it’s a bit fall behind in terms of answering your queries. The speaker is compatible with more than 5.000 devices. However, some of the devices aren’t accessible with Alexa. Still, you can pretty much ask all the basic questions like play the music, what’s the weather, set the time, check the news, etc.
Alexa is even still ahead of Google Assistance in terms of smart home control. If you have Amazon’s own devices, like the Fire TV stick then you can fully benefit from the voice control feature.
Sound and Performance
Now the most important thing about the device, probably why you’re reading this review in the first place is; how good is the sound?
In a short sentence, it’s great and exceptionally better than the last year’s echo dot. The old one feels more like an abysmal 1980s transistor radio that can often get loud but there was no clarity. It was fine with Alexa’s voice control, but the music was terrible.
The new Echo Dot 3rd generation has a perfect balance of a mid-range speaker with a semblance of bass and a lot of sounder clarity. Despite similar dimensions, Amazon engineers have worked their magic this time and used a much-improved sound driver that clearly had a positive effect on the audience.
Comparing to other smart speakers in this genre, the Google Home Mini sounds a little less than the Dot. Playing music in the echo dot is 7dB louder than the old one and 2dB louder than the Home Mini. Now, this is just a standard speaker with a $50 price tag. If you want to cover a large area and require more bass then the standard $99 Echo can offer a noticeably better experience.
Voice Test Performance
We did a little bit of testing and ask some basic questions from Alexa to check how well it can manage them. Basic questions like “Alexa, set alarm for 6:00 AM”, “Alexa, what are the news headlines”, and “Alexa, what’s the weather in Chicago” all worked perfectly well.
There was one time when we asked Alexa regarding the direction update of our local store, Alexa didn’t give any transit transactions there. We’re sure you can find more commands in which Alexa can struggle, but overall, it gets the job done.
Final Verdict
The key three strands of checking the Echo dot performance are how great it sounds, how well it can hear you, and what more it can do. Amazon Echo dot is pretty impressive in terms of hearing commands, and we are happy with the sound performance as well.
Even when it’s playing music and you ask for a clear voice command, Alexa will hear you. The company’s main challenge right now seems to be in the cloud, not the hardware. It’s about how much it can offer in such a small form factor. Alexa still supports more home control devices than Siri or Google. It constantly adds new devices and features to the smart accessibility process.
So, to conclude this review, Amazon Echo Dot 3rd generation is the cheapest, easiest, and most convenient way to bring Alexa into your home. It can integrate with a handful of other devices and AV products that can surely add to your benefits.
In line with a better design, color options, noticeable sound quality improvements, it’s worth upgrading from a previous model. That said, if you plan on sitting at a large distance listening station then get 2 Echo dots and make a stereo sound.