Hello friends and welcome back to the CM Advantage! Today we are going to be talking about the Amazon Echo Dot. There are a few different versions floating around out there and for this one we are going to be talking about the latest two version the 3rd gen and the 4th gen. Without further ado let’s get into it.
The echo dot is a voice activated speaker that integrates with your home and Amazon to control a variety of functions using the Amazon Alexa. You can integrate with SiriusXm, Amazon music, Apple music, Spotify and more for entertainment. You can link to your phone and make hands free phone calls. If you have multiple dots you can also broadcast to all your dots to use it as an in-home PA system (helpful for parents and multilevel homes). You can even tell it to make a list for mundane tasks like grocery shopping. There is a great deal you can do with the dot and it makes tasks easier with its voice controls. You can also, if you have a surround sound receiver like we do, run it into that to play through multiple speakers.
The older generation, the gen 3, is a flat round disk shape. It is a 1.6in speaker with a 3.5mm line out. There is even a version with an LED clock if that strikes your fancy. On the top you can find a few buttons to control the dot. Volume up and down, action, and a microphone off button. Let’s take a moment to talk about that microphone off button. There are many who are concerned about their privacy and some say “it is a risk because the dot is always listening”, that concern is solved with the mute mic button. With this button the microphone is muted, and the dot cannot process what you are talking about.
The physical dimensions are small. The size is 3.9” x 3.9” x 1.7” or 99 mm x 99 mm x 43 mm depending on which measurement system you are using. The weight is approximately 10oz or 300 grams. Now this may shift a bit but is approximately the size of it. It has Bluetooth capabilities using Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support. A limitation however that it is not supported by Mac OS X devices. The echo dot comes ready to connect to your Wi-Fi. The Alexa App is compatible with Fire OS, Android, and iOS devices and also accessible via your web browser. Pretty nice when you consider the price for this piece of tech is only $18.99 on Amazon.
The 4th gen dot is a little bit different. The Echo Dot has a circular shape with a flat bottom for design appearance changes. Also, while the speaker is still a 1.6, it is a front firing speaker for directed sound rather that blasting in all directions. The buttons on the top of the speaker remain the same though they are built in rather than the circular button appearance. The size is 3.9” x 3.9” x 3.5” of 100 x 100 x 89 mm. The weight is a bit heavier but not a significant amount, 12 oz or 341.3 grams. All in all new design and a little different on the speaker but most of the same as the 3rd gen dot. The current price for this on Amazon is $28.99.
Summary is that there is not a significant difference in the two. They both have the limitations of supporting the Mac OS X. The design is different, and the speaker is a pit different. There is a version for kids that has the skin of a tiger and does provide some interesting options for parental controls. You can find out more about that by clicking here. Hope you enjoyed the review and found it useful. Until the net time take care and good luck to you!