Design: Looks and feels much better than the 2nd Gen
All of the newest generation of Echo smart speakers share the same general design guidelines: cylindric, fabric covered bodies, power port and 3.5mm audio port on the side with the controls located on top. The 3rd generation Dot is available in charcoal, heather gray, and sandstone white. We never actually used the physical buttons on the Echo Dot, aside from testing them. They have a nice feel when depressed and make a little click, the auditory and tactile feedback you want from such petite buttons, but we used the Dot entirely by voice or with a mobile device. Between the fabric body and top of the device is a light ring that’s used to indicate what the device is actively doing. The ring encircles the entire circumference, so no matter how you position the Echo Dot you will be able to see that it’s recognized your voice. The LED ring is bright and has a pleasant color palette with nice gradients. The Echo Dot comes with a 15W power adapter. The power adapter is slightly smaller than the Echo Plus and the same as the new Echo Show 5, but for such a tiny hub it feels a bit outsized.
Setup Process: Confusing, vexing, but eventually successful
The app is a challenge, and its user reviews confirm it (the version on the Apple store has a score of 2.6 out of 5, with the Google version coming in at 3.4 out of 5). The number of one star reviews is exceedingly high, and we agree with a lot of the complaints about the user interface, design, and missing functionality. After hours and days of frustration, we abandoned the Echo Dot for the night. The next day we opened the Alexa app, went to the Devices screen, chose the Echo Dot from the list, and it connected on the first try. We figured that meant the other devices could now be connected as well but found they still didn’t work, even though the Echo Dot had just connected successfully. We have absolutely no idea why there was such difficulty connecting all these devices but eventually we got all of them working. We can’t really offer any advice if you run into a similar problem because we don’t even know what the problem was in the first place. It took a few weeks of trying several times a day to finally get all the devices connected.
Software: Voice succeeds where the mobile app fails
We named our three groups Bedroom, Kitchen and Living Room. Creative right? Other smart devices can be added to groups, but when we tried connecting some Philips Hue light bulbs it took weeks to get them to connect. Again, we have no idea why. Okay, so the Alexa app kind of sucks and getting everything set up was really grueling. Alexa is all about voice commands though, that’s really the whole point. How did Alexa work for us? Great. We loved asking Alexa random questions, being able to control music, podcasts, and lights by voice and never having to open the Alexa app. The Echo Dot has a great microphone array and we rarely ran into any problems with voice recognition.
Audio Quality: Outdoes the competition
One of the most important aspects of any smart hub speaker device is audio quality, and the 3rd Gen Echo Dot is a huge improvement over the last generation. At 1.6 inches, the built-in speaker is half an inch larger than the previous generation and delivers surprisingly good audio quality for its size. We tested it with a variety of music and other audio and found the volume was plenty loud enough for us. We say “usable” audio volume because the audio quality degrades at around 80%. At that point, significant amounts of distortion become noticeable. In comparison with other devices of its size, it does a great job balancing low end with mids and treble without sounding too tinny. The bass isn’t very strong because the Echo Dot doesn’t have a subwoofer, but low frequencies sound pretty good regardless. The microphone array picked up our voice easily, even when we had music playing. Voice calls sounded good as well. Overall, we think most people will be very happy with the Echo Dot’s audio quality but if you’re looking for a higher quality speaker in your smart hub, we’d suggest the Echo Plus. The Echo Plus has a 3 inch woofer and 0.8 inch tweeter, making it much better suited for music.
Features: Use it like a walkie talkie
The Echo Dot also has two features that act kind of like walkie talkies. The Announce feature can be used to have Alexa make an announcement on any devices you choose, such as “Dinner is ready in 5 minutes!” The Drop In feature is more like a traditional walkie talkie—you talk into one Echo device and your voice comes out another. Most of the features available through a smart hub come by way of the devices you connect to them. Aside from Alexa, by itself the Dot is basically just a control center and audio player, though cool extra features like Announce and Drop In are nice perks. And Alexa also has tens of thousands of skills, with more being added all the time, so there’s a lot of functionality to explore. The Echo Dot is quite the versatile little device, and a great hands-free replacement for your phone, tablet, or PC in some scenarios.
Price: Surprisingly low price for the quality
While Alexa competes well with Google Assistant and Siri, the Alexa mobile app is definitely a weakness. That said, we still think the Echo Dot is a good value, especially if you want to see what all the voice assistant hype is about without dropping a bunch of cash. While the Echo Dot has a four microphone array, the Home Mini only has two microphones. Audio pickup for voice commands works well but quality on the receiving end of phone calls is lacking. On the digital assistant tip, Google Assistant can do almost anything Alexa can do, and both devices are compatible with almost all smart devices.
