Amazon Echo (4th gen) review
Our Verdict
The fourth-gen Amazon Echo is the about well-rounded smart speaker.
For
- Sleek spherical blueprint
- Good audio for price
- Great smart home skills
- Audio in/out port
Confronting
- I wish it had a clock
- Audio not every bit good as Sonos One
Tom's Guide Verdict
The 4th-gen Amazon Echo is the well-nigh well-rounded smart speaker.
Pros
- +
Sleek spherical design
- +
Good audio for price
- +
Great smart home skills
- +
Audio in/out port
Cons
- -
I wish it had a clock
- -
Audio non as expert as Sonos One
Amazon Echo (4th gen) review: Specs
Audio: One iii-inch woofer, 2 0.8-inch tweeters
Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.four and 5 GHz)
Wireless: Bluetooth, Zigbee, Sidewalk
Ports: Power, 3.5mm audio in/out
Size: 5.vii x 5.seven x 5.2 inches
Weight: 34.2 ounces
The fourth-generation Amazon Echo'south spherical design marks a serious visual redesign — long gone is the tall cylinder shape of previous models. Still, information technology's what inside the Echo that makes information technology one of the best smart speakers you can buy today.
Amazon has granted sound quality a noticeable upgrade, and that's just one of a host of other features that combine to make this one of the finest smart home devices of its kind. Is it worth adding to your own home? Go on reading our Amazon Echo review to find out.
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Amazon Echo review: Toll and availability
The Amazon Echo (4th gen) went on sale October 22 for $99. It's available in three colors: Charcoal, glacier white, and twilight blue.
You tin can option one upward from Best Buy or Amazon, the latter of which has more color options bachelor. These include Charcoal, Glacier White, (Product)Red and Twilight Blue.
Amazon Echo review: Design
For 2020, Amazon ditched the cylindrical design of its older Echo smart speakers for a spherical shape that is not simply more than interesting to look at, but immune the visitor to cram in an additional tweeter.
Looks-wise, the 4th-generation Echo is essentially a puffed-up Repeat Dot. Merely, where I wasn't as onboard with the spherical pattern of the Echo Dot, I retrieve it makes more sense with the total-size Echo, which is meant to exist seen in a more than prominent place.
When looking at the Echo from the front end, you run across its big fabric-covered grille, but as you turn it towards the back, a hard plastic shell takes over.
Just over the acme are four buttons for volume, turning off the Repeat'due south mic, and summoning Alexa. I only wish that Amazon had added a clock to the front end of the Repeat, a la the Repeat Dot with Clock. If you want to make a argument with your smart home speaker, you might as well make as big a statement equally possible — for example, the Acer Halo Google Assistant speaker has a brandish and even colored LED lights forth the bottom.
The Amazon Echo is the most well-rounded smart speaker, and I'm not just talking about its looks.
To that terminate, I likewise wish that there was a way to control the colors of the lights on the Echo. Now that they've been moved from the top to the lesser of the device, where they can reflect off a surface, it would be fun to accept them change colors to the beat of the music y'all're playing.
There is a third-party Nighttime Calorie-free skill that causes the lights to pulse blue, but that'south about it.
Measuring 5.seven inches in bore, the Echo is larger than the Echo Dot and the Apple HomePod Mini, both of which are 3.nine inches in diameter. Despite having double the power requirement xxx Watts vs. 15 Watts) the Repeat has the same size power brick as the smaller Dot.
Amazon Echo review: Audio operation and features
Inside the Echo is a three-inch woofer that faces upward and two 0.viii-inch tweeters that face forward. Similar the Echo Studio, the Echo uses its array of six microphones to make up one's mind the acoustic properties of the room information technology'south in, and suit the sound output accordingly. It'due south a feature that'due south as well establish on the Sonos 1 and the Apple HomePod, but not the HomePod mini.
I played a multifariousness of songs on the Echo, from JoJo Siwa's Boomerang (my child's asking) to Van Halen and the Hamilton soundtrack. Overall, the Repeat sounded very adept, with deep resonant bass and a full general warmth to the songs.
However, when I played the aforementioned tracks on a Sonos 1, the Sonos' higher quality was immediately credible. Vocals were not almost as compressed, and everything but sounded crisper on the Sonos. That'southward not to say that the Echo was bad, but if you prioritize sound higher up all else, information technology's worth spending the bucks for the Sonos One.
A iii.5mm jack on the rear of the Echo acts as both a line in and line out, so you lot tin can not only connect the Echo to an external speaker, but you tin also connect sound sources directly to the Echo, just like with the Echo Studio. So, if you accept an old-school record collection, you can plug your turntable directly into the Repeat and jam out to your LPs. (You lot will demand a pre-amp). 1 deviation, though, is that in the Alexa app, you have to switch the Echo's aux from line-out to line-in; the Echo Studio tin do this automatically.
Also like the Studio, yous can use the Echo as an sound output for Fire TV devices, then if you use 1 of those streaming sticks, this could be a good cheap culling to purchasing a soundbar — peculiarly because that you can pair two Echos for stereo sound. However, the Echo lacks a TOS/optical line in.
More: Google Nest Sound vs. Amazon Echo (4th Gen)
Amazon Repeat review: Alexa and smart dwelling house skills
Amazon has retired the Repeat Plus, its smart speaker/smart home hub, and placed the Zigbee radio in that device into the new Echo. Zigbee allows y'all to connect uniform low-power smart domicile devices—recollect door and window sensors and lightbulbs—directly to the Echo, rather than needing a separate smart home hub. I connected a Zigbee door sensor to the Echo via the Alexa app in seconds.
Combined with Alexa Guard, this makes the Repeat an ad hoc home security organisation; you can program your lights to turn on if a window sensor is opened, or take Alexa transport you an warning if it hears your smoke detector or drinking glass breaking. It'll still be upwards to you to call the law or burn down section, unless you likewise get a DIY domicile security system, a few of which work with Alexa Guard.
I besides think that Alexa'southward routines are far more comprehensive than what y'all tin do with Google Assistant and HomePod. With Alexa, you can use the state of numerous 3rd-party smart home devices to control the behavior of other smart home gadgets. For example, I can create a routine to have a smart light plough on, music start playing, and take Alexa say something to me when the aforementioned door sensor is opened.
Another smart characteristic that volition be enabled later this yr is Amazon Sidewalk, a new long-range low-power, low-bandwidth protocol designed to create a more interconnected network throughout your entire neighborhood. So, if you forget your keys and Tile tracker at a friend's house ii blocks over, y'all'll be able to more easily find them. Sidewalk has been in virtually every Alexa smart speaker since the second-generation Repeat, and is in a few Band smart lights, too. We're curious to see how information technology works once it goes live.
A new low-power style will reduce the Echo's power consumption while it's idle, with some caveats. The Echo won't enter low-power way if yous linked a Spotify business relationship to your Alexa account, if Alexa Baby-sit is in Away mode, if in that location'south an active notification, if you accept an external speaker plugged into the Echo, or if a smart dwelling house device is connected straight to the Echo via Bluetooth.
Another feature that's merely arrived on the 4th gen Echo is motility sensing. This works similar to motion sensing on the Echo Show, simply while those devices rely on a camera, the Echo uses "inaudible ultrasound" to sense when there's someone nearby.
This characteristic tin be toggled on and off in the Alexa app, nether the Motion Sensing choice in your individual device's settings menu.
Once activated you'll exist able to gear up Alexa routines that activate or deactivate as you lot move around. It'due south similar to routines that already rely on motility sensors, but without the centre man.
Amazon Echo review: Verdict
The Amazon Echo is the near well-rounded smart speaker, and I'm not just talking nigh its looks. Yes, the spherical shape of the 4th-generation Amazon Echo makes it visually interesting, but the smart home networking tech and Amazon'south continual improvements to Alexa make the 2020 Echo i of the smart speakers for less than $100.
As I said earlier, if you want the best-sounding smart speaker, the Sonos One is the manner to go. Only if you're looking for a smart speaker that will not simply play tunes, only act equally a primal smart home hub, the 4th-generation Echo is an excellent selection.
- Next: How to set up the Amazon Echo
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/amazon-echo
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