Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen, 2022) Review - Review 2022

Me: "Alexa, are you my friend?" Alexa: "Sure. I'm e'er happy to make new friends." If you too want to make friends with Alexa, Amazon's handy vocalization assistant, the 2nd-generation Repeat Dot smart speaker ($49.99) is the all-time mode to add together easily-free Alexa access to whatever room. It works only fine on its own, merely yous can connect it to your favorite speaker if you really want to pump up the jams. It's the least expensive way to become into the world of voice assist, making information technology an easy recommendation, and an Editors' Choice.

This review is nearly the Echo Dot hardware, but the Echo Dot is mainly a gateway to Amazon's Alexa system. To learn about what Alexa can do, cheque out Amazon's highest-rated Alexa skills in every category. In cursory, Alexa can play Amazon media, perform web-based queries, control smart home devices, and perform a steadily expanding set of tasks programmed past tertiary parties including telling you when the next train is arriving and how to properly mix a Manhattan.

"Alexa, How Big is the Echo Dot?"

The Repeat Dot ( at Amazon) is a three.iii-inch cylinder that's ane.iii inches high and only 5.seven ounces, with a grippy prophylactic bottom. Information technology has a shiny, cogitating surface and is available in white or black. You'll save $20 when y'all buy ii—Amazon is clearly encouraging you to put i in every room of the business firm.

The offset-generation Dot had a rotating disc on tiptop to control volume, but this model has clearer volume buttons, every bit well equally a mute push button and a vocalisation-activation push button. On the back, there's a micro USB port for power and a 3.5mm line-out jack. The Echo Dot only works when plugged in, unlike the battery-powered Amazon Tap. A colored ring of lights around the border glows for alerts. They're mostly blue, when you've called for Alexa and she'due south waiting to tell y'all something.

Setting up the new Dot is like setting up any Echo device. You download the Repeat app to your Android or iOS telephone and information technology steps you through connecting the Dot to your Wi-Fi network. After that, the Dot works on its own, although y'all can employ your smartphone to review queries, alter settings, and look at the range of possible Alexa skills.

"Alexa, Volume 10"

The new Dot, like the one-time ane, is non a corking speaker. Information technology'due south ameliorate than the final ane, only information technology still sounds like a 1970s transistor radio, with an virtually complete lack of bass. This highlights the fact that the Repeat Dot isn't necessarily meant to part as a stand up-alone speaker—that's what the larger Echo and Echo Show are for (the Echo Prove even has a display for video chat and watching movies).

We compared the new Dot with the original and with a JBL Prune 2, an Editors' Choice for inexepensive Bluetooth speakers. The Clip 2 has a considerable corporeality of lower midrange presence, giving depth and richness to music that'due south completely missing from both Dots.

Amazon shipped our examination unit with a pricey UE Megaboom, and of course the difference in sound quality is well-nigh comical—in that location are vast chunks of sound the Megaboom plays that just aren't represented on the Repeat Dot. But you can connect the Dot to an additional speaker via a standard 3.5mm cable or Bluetooth.

That said, the new Dot is meliorate than the quondam one. Asking both to tell us the weather at top volume, the new Dot is 5dB louder at a 3-inch distance (although the JBL Clip is 7dB louder than that). The new Dot too sounds less distorted when playing at maximum volume.

It's all in the expectations, actually. If you're comparing the Dot with a cheap kitchen radio or a bedroom alarm clock, it's admittedly fine. But information technology isn't going to fill up your room with gorgeous sound or light up your party with hot jams. For that, y'all'll need to adhere an external speaker. And Dots won't synchronize music; they're not a multi-room music organisation, like the Alexa-compatible Sonos One.

"Alexa, What Else Can You Do?"

The Dot tin recognize its trigger word (Alexa by default, but y'all tin alter information technology) amend than the onetime one if it'southward playing music, or if information technology's connected to an adjacent speaker playing music. That's not foolproof, though; particularly with hip-hop playing through an fastened external speaker, information technology may hear the lyrics as spoken language and exist unable to figure out when a control ends. In a tranquillity room, both the old and new Dots have about a fifty-foot range for vocalisation commands.

The new Dot does evidence one irritating bug. While it supports dual-band Wi-Fi on the ii.4GHz and 5GHz bands, information technology couldn't recognize our Verizon Fios router's 5GHz network. It recognized the two.4GHz network, and it recognized 5GHz on three other routers, including a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900. The older Dot recognizes the Fios 5GHz network.

From left to right: New Repeat Dot, old Echo Dot

"Alexa, Should I Purchase the Echo Dot?"

The Repeat Dot isn't really about what it is, information technology'southward virtually who it is: Information technology'due south the easiest way to add together Alexa to whatever room of your dwelling house. At $50 it's a much better buy than the Amazon Echo, Echo Testify, or Tap if you're looking for a speaking warning clock, a vocalisation-controlled kitchen radio, or a smart dwelling house hub. The larger Echo's reward is that information technology includes a louder, higher-quality speaker for playing music, the Echo Show has a display, and you can take the battery-powered Tap anywhere. Merely y'all can also add any existing speaker you own to the Dot, making it a flexible, expandable solution. That makes the Repeat Dot an Editors' Choice, and the all-time way to bring Alexa into your abode on a budget.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/home-security-products/16427/amazon-echo-dot-2nd-gen-2017-review

Posted by: alexanderhaverm.blogspot.com

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