Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation, 2018) Reviews & Reviews

The new Echo Dot from Amazon ($ 49) has a nice appearance. With a significantly improved sound, it is now an intelligent speaker far superior to that of Google Home. mini, and can replace the larger echo at $ 99 for the less difficult ones. This makes our choice of the editor for the entry-level smart speakers. If you already own an old Echo Dot and you use it to power a bigger and better speaker, there is no need to upgrade. But if you use your Echo Dot as the main speaker, you will want the new one.

A hugger point

The new Echo Dot is larger and more cuddly than the old model, although it is about the same size. Instead of being just hard plastic, the speaker is now covered with a fabric in one of three shades of gray. Choose wisely, because unlike the full echo, you can not change the packaging after buying the speaker.

Like the previous Echo Dots, the speaker has a colorful bright ring around the edge and four buttons at the top: volume buttons, a mute and an action button. I like Echo Dot volume buttons better than the slightly mysterious touch controls of the Home Mini, although you almost certainly control the volume with your voice. The speaker measures 3.9 inches in diameter by 1.7 inches high, and weighs 10.6 ounces. It is portable in the sense that it is easy to move and move from room to room, but it must be plugged in for power.

You connect Echo Dot to your Wi-Fi network with the Alexa app or via a web browser. The new Dot supports the 802.11ac standard, which significantly extends the device's Wi-Fi range over a 5 GHz network when it is used with an 802.11ac router.

From left to right: Amazon Echo, former Echo Dot, new Echo Dot

Best sound

The sound quality of the unique 1.6-inch driver is much better than that of the old Echo Dot. The old Echo Dot seemed abyssal, like a transistor radio from the 1960s. It was good for Alexa's voice, but the music was extremely metallic. The new Echo Dot has at least a semblance of low, and a much more rounded medium. Take two echo points and you can even train them into a stereo pair.

The Dot now sounds significantly better than the Google Home Mini. The Home Mini is not as painfully tiny as the old Dot, but it pushes the voices far ahead of any other sound when you play music. So it is fun to listen to your favorite singers, but you get a very wrong idea of ​​the background instrumentation. The new point brings things a little closer.

Now, it's still a small speaker of $ 50. The standard $ 99 echo offers bass with a lot more space and shape compared to the Dot, for a much better listening experience.

But I think this point ends up falling into the realm of "good enough" for many people, who do not necessarily read criticisms of dedicated speakers. For all others, the Echo Dot still has a 3.5mm jack on the back, as well as Bluetooth, to connect to other speakers and audio sources.

By playing music, the new point reaches a very remarkable 7dB stronger than the old one a, and about 2 dB higher than the Google Home Mini at six inches. Interestingly, the new point is only 2 dB quieter than the larger Echo. The most important echo is the shape and quality of the sound–Less compressed drums, and much better to attack and decompose with chains, for example.

The Dot had no trouble hearing me, or be heard, at a 30 feet tidy up in a quiet room. With music, you will have to talk.

Alexa vs Google Assistant

While we prefer Alexa to Google Assistant, Amazon is behind in its ability to respond to natural language queries. Regarding the main things that people use smart speakers for–timers, music, weather and new–Amazon and Google are doing well. Alexa still has a length ahead of Google when it comes to accessing calendars from Google Accounts because Google Assistant still can not handle G Suite calendars.

Alexa is also ahead of Google Assistant on Smart Home Control. While Google now boasts of being able to control 1,000 smart home brands, you can assume that any smart home device will work with Alexa. While voice control on your TV is important, Amazon's range of smart TVs, devices, and smart TVs is much more flexible than Google Chromecast's.

But ask two speakers about, for example, businesses or local directions, and Google is moving forward. Google Assistant knew the addresses of a local business I needed to get to Alexa. does not have, and m gave directions of transit there, which Alexa could not. Our experience is supported by a major study by the 360i advertising agency, which found that in the areas of travel, finance, automotive and retail, Google Assistant was much more apt to respond to arbitrary queries as Alexa.

Google also has superior multiuser features. Google's speakers are just recognizing the voices of diverse people in a family. It must be said to the speakers of Amazon to change account.

conclusions

The new Echo Dot is good enough to be the default Alexa speaker in most rooms of your home. It does not sound horribly tiny, and it's half the price of the bigger Echo. If you want a better sound, you can easily connect it to the larger speaker of your choice or match it to another stereo pair point. It's affordable, flexible and attractive and sounds a lot better than the Google Home Mini.

At present, the challenge of Amazon is in the cloud and not in its hardware. Alexa still reigns with regard to voice activation of a wide range of hardware from different manufacturers. It supports more smart home devices than Google or Siri, and the Fire TV family of devices, both smart TVs and add-ons, works well between Apple and Google options.

It's simply easier and more fun to talk to Google Assistant. That's why we recommend using Google rather than Amazon if you're starting out with smart speakers and you're not planning on directing yourself to a smart home. Google is more likely to understand what you are asking for and to give you good advice. Although you can improve Alexa with thousands of third-party skills, their syntax is considerably more complex than that of Google, making it a deep use of Alexa technology.

We awarded Editors' Choice Awards for smart speakers, more hardware based than on the ecosystem, because there are advantages and disadvantages with each platform. I am happy to call the new Echo Dot a choice of editors and the entry-level Alexa speaker to consider right now. It's good enough to be the backbone of any Alexa enabled home.