Echo Dot (Newest gen) | Bluetooth smart speaker with big vibrant sound and Wi-Fi | Deep Sea Blue, with Alexa+ Early Access

Absolutely amazing, bought it to replace a bedside radio. Much better than the radio and does so much more. I have since bought smart lightbulbs for my flat and can voice activate them through Alexa. The device is tiny, yet the sound is really good. It has a temperature sensor in it which I find really useful. I can easily see myself buying more of this range.

I have history with the Amazon Echo speaker. The tall white series one that stands on my bedside table dates back to August 2017 and is still in daily use and works perfectly. Its ability to capture a weak WiFi signal is still unsurpassed, in my experience. I have latterly gone through skipping some of the iterations but have always been delighted with the practicality, voice assistance and sound quality of the speakers I have invested in. So, on to this newest generation Echo dot. I have 1st and 2nd gen units knocking about or loaned out with my Daughters. The first thing that strikes me about all of the latest speakers and speakers with screens is how easy it is to set them up. I have an Amazon account and I have set up these speakers before but it is really, for me, very easy indeed. Once switched on and recognised by the app the set up mostly goes off an does itself. It is wise to watch it all through but there were really not issues at all. It even stores and uses your WiFi credentials for you. So no need to enter complicated codes or indeed find/remember the code in the first place. I was interested in the sound quality and the ability to act as an Eero mesh network extender. I brought a special bundle comprising two Echo dots and a Tapo bulb, I then added a second bulb to the order. Incidentally, the bulbs are a great buy two and equally simple to set up, if you already use the Tapo app. These speakers are quite small at about 4" round. They still produce a really good performance for their size and I was also able to try, my two, as a stereo pair. For their cost there is little to complain about with their sound quality. They easily beat an old JBL Go 2 that I have, for bass, spaciousness and clarity while they are not far off the quality of a pair of UE Boom 2 speakers, again paired in stereo. They would have set me back around £150 for the pair of them. They seem to pick up commands well enough and respond quickly. They cope slightly less well with weak WiFi than my old Series 1 but I have good , fast coverage and didn't find I had many drop outs or issues. They work well as mesh extenders, I say they but so far I have only needed to set one up in this configuration. It is in our guest bedroom and just ensures that all visitors have good coverage. This for me is a much more socket friendly way to provide Alexa, a smart speaker and a wider mesh network. I am a big fan of Amazon speakers, is it that obvious! My advise would be buy one now, while you still can. They are great value for money and paired up do a great job as a compact sounds streaming system. Just add Amazon music. Although, please leave a few for me. In case I need any more. They are currently, simply a great buy that is very easy to recommend.

Having been investing in Alexa Dots for some years saw this newer version on a prime deal so added it to my collection . I normally replace an old version and find somewhere new to place the older one. My house is now pretty much covered with Alexa Dots now. As always with Alexa products this unit is easy to setup and install straight out of the box. As a veteran Alexa user I already have the app set up and used the Amazon preconfigured option selected at checkout .. If you are new to Alexa you will have to download and setup the Alexa app, which is also intuitive and easy to set up. Now to the Dot itself , it looks identical to the 4th generation dot so be a little careful when buying one and make sure you buy the generation you want . There should be better pricing and deals on the 4th Gen but the reason I purchased this one is due to some additional tech inside the unit and supposedly better sound quality. The sound is very good, not HI-FI quality but more than good enough for day to day use . ( I have paired 2 x Dots together in my main room to utilise the stereo options on the device. Apparently the 5th gen has a larger speaker/woofer and after comparing the 4th and the 5th gen together I can confirm the sound quailty is slightly better with particularly a better bass ) the difference in quality is NOT a huge jump from the gen 4 but still noticeably better , and is massively better than the 3rd gen Dot. An issue I have with both the 5th and 4th Gen Alexa Dot is the light bar is on the bottom of the unit. I use the light bar quite a lot to see if Alexa is responding in a noisy Enviroment or for notifications and as with most of my dots I buy 3rd party wall mounts for them to keep the cables nice and tidy and off a flat surface.the problem with this as most of these mounts place the light ring at the back and therefore close to the wall and makes the light bar hard to view. ( it’s a minor niggle not a deal breaker ) The additional tech that grabbed my attention was the inclusion of a temperature and motion sensor. Both these would be ideal to add to my smart Home system to enable routines for heating and lighting etc so was eager to test these out. The temperature sensor: This is a great addition works very well and responds quickly to voice commands. I tested the accuracy by putting another smart temp sensor in the same room with an additional stand alone temperature sensor. The accuracy of the Alexa sensor was accurate and comparable to the two other sensors tested in the same room .. it is so easy to add it to routines in the Alexa app and works well. The Motion Sensor: I was eager to try this out as well as I wanted to make use of it Alexa routines such as if someone walked in the room the lights switched on and if there was no motion for a set time the lights would switch off. This is a fairly simple routine in the smart home . Unfortunately the motion sensor in the Alexa Dot 5th gen is pretty much useless and simply doesn’t work. It uses a slightly different way by detecting motion using ultrasonic technology. I realise this technology wouldn’t be the best as any noise in the room, such as TV , people speaking etc would diminish the accuracy of the sensor .. however having tested it many times in a completely silent room it simply doesn’t work , and on the odd occasion it does actually work it’s usually from an unknown source and not actually from someone entering the room. Conclusion: if you want good Alexa integration , a more than adequate sound for every day use , and a temp sensor buy this with no qualms that you will be getting a good quality product that works well straight from the box. If you are buying this for the motion sensor tech , don’t bother it’s useless and you would be much better off buying a separate smart motion sensor . The Echo Dot version is unreliable and just going to give you many headaches

Great smart home assistant. Plays my podcasts and music really well and has amazing sound quality for such a low price point. Looks sleak and fits well with most rooms with different colours options available to suit needs. Timers work well but I find it sometimes struggles to understand what I say even though I have a neutral English accent. I really love the built in thermometer I use that all the time just to see if I need to nock up the heat and inch or whether it's just in my mind. Really nice and I do recommend

So easy to set up loving it so far Alexa app is so easy to use too

This is my third echo dot & as you can see I am very pleased with their performance

Unless you are willing to subscribe to Amazon music etc this isn’t worth it, I have YouTube music and I am perfectly happy with it, also it’s not great with audible you need extra things so i wouldn’t recommend

Nothing bad to say about it Has very nice sound Is easy to set up And I use it almost everyday GOOD PRODUCT

Love it, amazing little thing