ALEXASPEAKERS
90 AUGUST 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 378
AMAZONHASLONGbeen cheerfully
ignoring the old maxim of ‘if it ain’t broke,
don’t fix it’.The original Kindle still works
perfectly well, but Amazon has honed the
e-reader format intoboth the first and last
words in the industry.And that’s what it’s
doing now with the compact smart speaker,
one device at atime.
Equally,the Echo Dot didn’t really need
fixing, but Amazon did it anyway–twice now,
in fact. This is the only Echo device to be on
its third iteration, and the newest Echo Dot is
amasterclass in making everything better
without aprice hike.
The Echo Dot costs £50 –the same as its
predecessor –and that means that in terms of
competition, there’s only one game in town:
the Google Home Mini. This, however,lacks
an audio output jack, unlike the Echo Dot,
which has a3.5mm auxiliary output. As a
result, it’s in the peculiar position of being
both Amazon’s entry-level smart speaker and
adevice that can connect to any other sound
system, whether it costs £100 or £10,000.
SMALLTIME
The original Echo Dot looked like someone
had sawn off the topbit of the original Echo,
but Amazon has thankfully refined the design
over the 2nd and 3rd generations (which are
outwardly identical). It’s still apuck, but it’s a
bigger puck: both taller and wider,with
dimensions of 99x99x43mm, compared to
the previous generation’s 84x84x32mm.
It’s also nearly twice as heavy,coming in at
achunky300g to the original’s 163g.
AMAZON EchoDot
3rdGeneration
★★★★★
£50•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Better,louderaudiowiththesamegreat
design–thelatestversionofAmazon’s
dinkyspeakerisanotherwinner
But added heftisn’t the only change: gone
is the cheap-looking plastic casing of the
original, replaced with curved fabric around
the outside.The topisstill plastic, but it’s
curved, and feels almost rubbery to the touch.
It’s also lost the ostentatious Amazon logo,
which helps too.
The big change is on the inside: gone is the
2nd-gen Echo Dot’s 1.1in speaker,replaced by
a1.6in speaker that fires sound in 360°. It
maintains the four buttons on top–volume
up,volume down, abutton to trigger Alexa,
and abutton to mutethe mic forprivacy –as
well as the blue ring that lights up when it
hears the wake word. Flip it around, and you’ll
still find an area cut out foranaudio
connector and the power source (the Echo
Dot uses the same kind of power connector
you get with the larger Echo devices).
In other words, the Echo Dot looks
appreciably slick, but it’s the internal speaker
upgrade that’s most exciting here.You could
use the original Echo Dot as astandalone
speaker,but that wasn’t Amazon’s intent.
The 0.6in tweeter inside was only really good
forvoice,with areedy output just about
sufficient foraudiobooks and podcasts. That
was fine: it was designed to be connected to
other speakers, either via Bluetooth or audio
cable.The second-generation model
moved more towards standalone sound
with its much larger speaker,but still
struggled with volume and clarity.
EASY LISTENING
The good news is that the third
and latest Echo Dot makes asolid
little speaker in its own right,
thanks to that 1.6in speaker
packed within. The reedy,
prone-to-distortion audio of the
original is gone completely,and the
overall sound feels more bassy,
warm and generally richer.Italso
goes an awful lot louder than the previous
generation, although you won’t want to push
this toofar: it’s still just a1.6in speaker,not a
club-grade sound system.
That’s not to overstatethe quality,
because it’s likely that any dedicated sound
system you own will be better than the latest
Echo Dot’s output, and you should make
pairing it with another system apriority if
you have one.It’s also not remotely as
capable amusic device as the Echo Plus; it’s
not as if Amazon has undercut itself.
Regardless, it’s amajor improvement on
previous Echo Dots, which sounded more
akin to aradio alarm clock than aspeaker.
The Echo Dot 3rd Generation provides
sound that’s definitely listenable,and on apar
with an average £30–£40 Bluetooth speaker.
It’s more than adequatefor asmall room
where you just want to have Alexa on tap
without needing to splash out.
DOTMATRIX
One thing that hasn’t changed from older
Echo Dots is that if you’re after smart
speaker functionality rather than audio
quality,the new model is just as much a
bargain, as it essentially has all the Alexa
features of its more expensive brethren.
It’s also perfect forbuying in multiples
and spreading them throughout your home
to createanetwork of voice-activated
smart home controllers.
This means that if you already own a
Dot or two,there’s not much reason to
upgrade; you might as well just buy a
better-sounding speaker.If, however,you
haven’t already tried asmart speaker,then
this is your best entry-level bet. Previous Echo
Dots were also the wisest choice fordipping a
toeinthe world of smart speakers, thanks to
Google cheaping out on an audio port on the
Home Mini, but now it’s even better and costs
no more than before.
The newest Echo Dot is amasterclass in making
everything better without apricehike
