Amazon Echo Dot

Amazing – this echo dot is such a useful device because i can make recipes, play music and a ton more with even storytime for kids.

The best thing here is the drop in – The best thing here that I still can’t do on our google home is drop in. So when anyone in the house isn’t answering the phone. You can just drop in and then speak to them.

Impressive & more than a toy! – We have now bought several of these third generation Echo Dots as the older ones were somewhat outdated. They may be considered a novelty but in real life they are fast becoming an essential thing with their wide range of uses, such as timers, scheduled announcements, weather & your phone calendar entries. They can do multiple timers or alarms &… Read more

the settings are wide ranging. One little known fact is that you can change the "wake" word from "Alexa" to several others (Echo, Computer, etc.), we used "Ziggy", also there is a male voice option which we prefer. To see these options you need to change your language settings to US which makes no real differences in the operation. A great device with so many uses!!!

Crippled and geo-blocked for high quality music – In Australia, you cannot use the assistant with high quality online music sources. Amazon Music HD is geoblocked and only the low quality version is allowed in Australia - other countries have had it for a while now so it's unlikely to ever be released here. Tidal is geoblocked - available in the US only and it's been that way for years. Deezer… Read more

Hifi is blocked universally while the low quality Deezer version is allowed. I've never seen something so crippled in this way.

It's also nowhere near as good as Google Home. Don't waste your money unless you're happy paying more for less.

Given Amazon's policies, I've discontinued Amazon Music and will be discontinuing Prime as well.

Great little device for the house – This device has been quite helpful in answering any questions i might have throughout the day. It does everything from weather, time, purchasing products from amazon, connecting to smart devices for a streamlined home. It is neat, discrete and looks great in any room. microphones work quite well, it is able to pick up most commands regardless of volume and even works in noisy environments. Great buy! will consider buying more Show details

Good Quality speaker with amazing assistant features from Alexa – Easy to setup with Alexa app, also can connect to mobile using bluetooth and use it as a speaker for playing music, has lot of features and supporting functions/skills which can be used. I normally use it for recurring alarms and listening music while going to sleep. Can control lights, tv and other things if supporting smart devices are setup in… Read more

your home wifi. I got it in offer so price was ok for me.

Couple of disadvantages are - 1. doesn't support controlling google chomecast 2. should be connected to power in order to use. doesnt have a battery support

Cheap and effective – Great little unit, sound is also impressive. Alexa Understands you well and you don’t have to be near the unit for it to pick up your voice. A great cheap way to get into the ‘smart home’ market. Show details

Amazon Echo Dot vs Google Home Mini on sound quality – I have had an Amazon Echo Dot for about 2 weeks and it just went on sale shaving $20 off from the $55 RRP price tag, the price I paid for mine. Echo Dot (gen 3) is cheaper than the Echo Input at $49. As much as I love the small size of the Echo Input and how it blended so well with my decor because of its minimalistic design. For the extra LEDs,… Read more

speakers, volume control, amp inside and possibility to write a review on Amazon Echo Dot, I decided to try and swap over the Echo Input with Echo Dot. Thank you to the local store for being so accommodating and made it happen! Thank you!

You would find my review of the Echo Input at the bottom. Given how similar Echo Input is to the Echo Dot, I won't repeat a lot of stuff here. Echo Dot is much more comparable with the Google Home Mini. The big improvement from gen 2 to gen 3 is the speaker and 4 mics over 1 mic and new cloth grille. I don't have a gen 2 Echo Dot so no comments there. It still has difficulty hearing me when I am playing music. May be it is better than gen 2, but comparable with Google Home Mini, however many mics that is in the GH Mini.

In terms of sound quality. Echo Dot will be well received by the majority of consumers imho. The first thing that struck me is that it has a somewhat Sony or Sennheiser sound, as opposed to Shure or Audio Technica sound. This is a massive generalisation of course because Sennheiser for example has budget friendly headphones as well as really expensive audiophile grade headphones. Likewise for Sony, the undisputed reference / benchmark headphone is Sony MDR-7506 which has a really flat frequency response, unlike most other Sony products. The Echo Dot sound is relatively rich meaning more bass at the cost of clarity in the treble. It is louder than Google Home Mini and it actually has some bass unlike Google Home Mini which barely has any bass. That said, you do lose clarity at the top end. This is a common consumer audio sound signature hence why I believe majority of casual music listener would be happy with it, happier than they would with the Google Home Mini. BTW, Echo Dot has a 3-bands equaliser for adjusting treble, mid and bass while Google Home Mini has 2-bands but I can barely hear the difference Google Home's equaliser makes. +1 for Echo Dot.

This opinion rides on huge assumptions and conditions. It depends on the kind of music you listen to, If your fav music is Jazz or vocal with a lot of strings at moderate volume, you might prefer Google Home Mini because you get a more articulate high frequency or vocal frequency range. But if you listen to pop with beats, Echo Dot is the way to go. That said, some audiophiles (someone's going to hit me putting the word audiophile in a review about these smart little speakers) who dig for details might prefer Google Home Mini because of treble clarity.

I reckon the Google Home Mini might pair better with subwoofers because it really doesn't try hard in the bass department. Good result may be possible if subwoofer crossover frequency is properly set to complement the GH Mini. Otoh, Echo Dot gives it a decent attempt on bass production in a small unit, including the use of rigid metal structure inside (thus the heavier weight). Bass on the Google Home Mini is more like dok dok dok (and tik tik tik at low volumes) rather than a dom dom dom like it is with Echo Dot. Because of physical limitations, Echo Dot's sound quickly turn nasally if you drive it pass level 4 or 5, when the casing starts reverberating. One has to understand both are packed with compromises, a bit less with the Echo Dot. I wonder why Echo Dot designer didn't choose to use a bigger driver or add a piezo speaker.

This is my subjective opinion because everyone have different taste and preference. Feel free to weigh in on your opinion. I am very happy with this swap over. I do wish Echo Dot would respond to voice command using its built-in speaker rather than the sound system it is paired with, like Google Home would. Happy to report there is no crackling noise yet with bluetooth paired speakers. :)

Improvement Area If Amazon is serious about making Echo an audio product, then the built-in speaker should continue to function after pairing with bluetooth or wired to receiver via the 3.5mm stereo jack, just like the Google Home would. This way, the Echo Dot can remain as a commander. Walking up to speakers metres away from the Echo Dot giving it commands because Alexa is speaking to me from my speaker, while intuitive, is NOT going to work! If Alexa must use the paired speaker, then Alexa's voice should be configurable in terms of volume. Otherwise, she sounds either annoyingly loud or really bad. I am very torn because of this limitation, a clear sign of lack of UX testing imho.

Time to enjoy some music!

Echo Input review: https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/957fcbbc-5048-4b07-895f-c62c83ea5734

Has transformed our home! – This little (cheap!) box has seamlessly tied together all of our cloud connected smart home devices. And it’s brilliant (once you get to know it a little better) It connects to our ring video doorbell, LIFX smart globes, Philips Hue lighting, Logitech harmony tv remote, Nest smoke alarms, the list goes on. All consideration should be given to… Read more

the fact that the echo dot is a well priced piece of tech. The ability to hear you from the other side of the room is near flawless (when it’s quiet) But it’s functionality is much much greater when you own other smart home devices you would otherwise control from a phone app.

Consideration: You can’t expect Alexa to understand you very well, if the TV is full volume in the background or your hosting house party with loud conversation present.

In a normal quite household this device is brilliant. We now use (them) to turn on and off all of our lights, turn on and off the TV, change channels you name it. We play music around home more then we ever did (using Spotify). You can create music groups and operate all the amazon speakers in sync, if you want whole house music.

With a new-born in the house a spare pair or hands to switch or dim lights, set timers or ask traffic questions, “drop in” on other rooms, make announcements like “dinner time” or “I need a hand upstairs” are a truely valuable tool.

If your after music quality. The 2nd gen DOT is not the way to go (there are other amazon echo options for sound quality). However it DOES have an aux out which can be plugged into an amplifier, or JBL kind speaker if you want to utilise one you already own. This makes a very cost effective “smart” speaker.

The newest 3rd generation dot has a substantial improvement in sound and if budget limits you to not buying the taller echo this is a viable option for playing music directly from the device.

All in all, the echo dot is a cheap device that gets used many times daily. They have paid for themselves 10 fold. Build quality is solid and errors are far and few between. The occasional power cycle to fix bugs has been needed but no more then other devices like phones and laptops.

If your looking for an entry into a connected smart home, and you have a few smart home devices. This is 100% where to start. If your more interested in music (sound quality) buy the latest generation dot or the taller echos. (Which I also recommend)

Most importantly. Be patient, learn the lingo, learn its capabilities and speak clearly and slightly higher volume then you would a person. You will quickly realise you don’t want a house without a voice assistant!

For $40 this is a VERY compelling starting point to test the waters.

Owner Experience: 2 years of service. 5 x echo dots 2 x echos 1 x Amazon sub.

Great, apart from the apps – I love my Alexa, but you have to download apps to support everything. It has no search apart from Bol Bot which isn't very helpful. You have to tell her what she can do. Getting videos and TV's to work is hard because she only supports the newest models. I have an LG Web Os TV V 3.8 BUT it only supports V 4  Show details

Good for music lovers – I am so much in love with this device as I can ask Alexa to play the music I want, standing anywhere in the room. But this is only a basic model and can get improved sound performances with upgraded models having higher quality speakers. But for limited spaces, echo dot is just awesome and cute.

Great For Facts – I recently purchased the Amazon Echo Dot in June 2018 from the Good Guys for my teenage son. It was just to play with, not for anything serious. For that purpose, the Echo Dot proved quite a good little unit. The Echo Dot works well, responding to us when we say 'Alexa' most of the time. The voice recognition works pretty well, but it is best… Read more

to try and speak as clearly as possible, as sometimes we will say something and Alexa will start telling us about something different. But most of the time, we get an appropriate answer from the Echo Dot, except when it doesn't know how to process a request.

Thankfully, the basic functionality of the Echo Dot is able to be extended via enabling skills developed by 3rd-party programmers, skills which we have had much fun with. And with over 17,000 skills in the ever-growing skill store, the Echo Dot will be able to be taken to new heights of functionality and usefulness.

However, with all this said, there are a few issues that, if resolved, would make the Echo Dot receive a 5-star rating from me:

For example, we might ask the Echo Dot to "give me a recipe for scrambled eggs", and she will respond with "Sorry, I'm not sure". While I realise that this can be accomplished via the enabling of 3rd party skills, I believe that such functionality should be built-in to the system.

Also, it would be great if there was the ability to have skills which could be stored and used offline. Storage would probably have to be built into the Echo Dot, but it would be great to not have to have the Wi-Fi on in order to use the Echo Dot.

Another feature which would make the Echo Dot greater would be if it was able to run off a battery -- with the rising electricity bills in Australia, not having to have the Echo Dot constantly plugged in would be a great benefit. Battery power would also mean that the Echo Dot would be able to be placed anywhere in the house without annoying cables and cords lying in the way.

Finally, it seems that (in Australia at least) videos are unable to be played by the Echo Dot. While the Echo Dot may not have a display (like the Echo Spot does), it would at least be nice if it was able to play the audio from videos on websites like Youtube.

But if you are looking for a nice little appliance to assist with your life, then the Echo Dot is right for you.

Not that dissimilar tot he Google Home Mini – I purchased this to overcome the Alarm limitations of the Google Home Mini, hoping to awake to a specific song as my alarm as stored on a connected device to the Echo Dot... but no joy. I tried all the 'Spotify single song playlist' and similar workarounds suggested online without success.I'm hoping they will release functionality to allow this is a future software upgrade.  Show details

Great for home automation but lack of skills in Australia – I primarily use it to control IOT around the house. I can even control homebridge (ios homekit hack) using my voice. Then only problem I found was in Australia, we don't get the same amount of skills in comparison to the US. Things like the Plex skill and hundreds of others, are non existent in Australia. (At the time of writing the review, that… Read more

is). I found Alexa to be very quick and responsive with executing IOT commands. I just wish I could send sms's and answer calls with it, but you can't using an Apple iPhone. Also Alexa can not currently receive notifications from external sources like IFTTT, it can only send. I have heard that this will change in the near future, giving you the option to "Opt in/out" to Applications being able to speak through Alexa. But being in Australia, I am not going to hold my breath!

Rival to to Google Home... not as easy to set up but able to do more with Alexa's "Skills" – Received an Echo Dot as a present this week, even though already has Google Home Mini set up in home, was keen to give it a try. First out of the box, it's noticeable the control buttons are more visible + accessible compare to Google Mini, about the same size and weight, looks a lot like a puck. Upon setting up, it is more time consuming and… Read more

tedious compare to Google Mini.

Like Google Mini requires a google account, Echo Dot requires an Amazon account, do be mindful if your account is set in other countries than Australia, you have to change it in order to access some local "skills" and English(AU), otherwise everything will be based on USA.

Playing Music- Echo Dot isn't designed as a music speaker, do not expect the quality of sound as it would not be on par with Google Mini, this device is aimed to be paired with a designated speaker even tho it can be used as is. Echo Dot would only play music either via Amazon Music unlimited(which can be annoying as Alexa would keep asking you if want to sign up to it), Spotify Premium(Which Google Mini allows you to play spotify even with the basic free account), iHeart Radio or TuneIn.

However, Echo Dot is focused to a virtual assistant, you can add "skills" to Alexa which helps with you day to day tasks. Eg- you can order an Uber by speaking to Alexa, Call/Message a person who also has Amazon Echo, have her read news of the day, sports results, order Domnio's pizza, check your flight and status with Qantas, check your electricity usage with AGL....etc Alexa can tell you jokes or even play games with you.

Also, 1 skill i like the most is you can set up Alexa to find your iphone as well if its misplaced in the house. Life saver!!! lol

Also it can be paired with smart devices such as TV to lightings... that helps to turn on and off and any adjustments in between.

Video- Right now Echo Dot can only link streaming with Frontier, Optic HUB or Dish. Once again restricted to the Amazon ecosystem, just like Google Mini to the Google ecosystem.

Another exciting features is you do your shopping by talking to Alexa, guess that joke of Jeff Bezos told Alexa to buy Wholefoods is actually achievable lol. Once you enabled "skills" of stores you can tell Alexa to purchases goods without lifting a finger. Only down side is Echo Dot is still new in Australia, there yet to be many shops you can use this service with. Although doesn't have a problem with purchasing from Amazon.

Over all, Echo Dot takes longer and more tweaking to set up compare to Google Mini, the speaker quality isn't as good as google Mini, however, at the end of the day, the virtual assistant Alexa performs vast arrays of tasks which is expanding each day. Maybe that's the up side against Google Mini.

However, if you are set up with Apple ecosystem, both google and Amazon are both harder to set up and more limited for you. At the end of the day, I think if you area already set up more closely to Google then stick to google home or vice versa stick to Amazon. Both are great smart speakers.

Good for music, but add a Harmony Hub – Alex Echo Dot is currently only able to be bought in the US version but it works quite well in Australia. Voice recognition is very good with little issues with a non US accent. Fortunately lots of Ebay sellers that bring it in for about $100 delivered. You will need to google how to install the US setup app on an AUS phone. Android is… Read more

simply download the APK file, On iPhone you need to setup a US Pay Pal account and switch your iTunes account to the US. Alexa can only be setup using Apps - no OSX or PC based configuration available.

Music is easy, if you are prepared to pay for a full amazon prime account, there is almost an unlimited amount of everything available. But there are also lots of online streaming radio stations exposed that don't require a subscription. You don't need a prime subscriptions - but ...

By adding a Harmony Hub - all your activities can become voice skills that you can control. And your favourites become additional skills. So now I can walk into the room and say "Alexa turn on Rugby League" and the Echo will instruct the harmony Hub to the favourite station 502, and the harmony turns on the TV, Foxtel, Soundbar, and selects the channel. When I leave the room I say "Alexa, turn off the TV".

So if you want automation - buy an automation controller and get that working first. Then buy an Echo.

And when my cat is naughty, I now just say "Alexa, can you meow" and my cat instantly pays attention!