Echo Dot (4th Gen, 2020 release) | Smart speaker with Alexa | Charcoal

All-round, its practical, good quality, truly streamling home living/automation and tons of fun.

Alexa services are interesting, but made truly great with the echo dot. On the technical side, the sound quality is not b&o grading, but good for its purpose and the microphone is near perfect. In fact, phone calls via echo are better quality that via my phone.

The true value comes from how is changes a families life for the better. Having bought two, there have been some unexpected benefits as well. The normal features for playing music does its job, with almost no challenges in it knowing what you want to listen too. It’s integrates with multiple music service providers, including apple music. Having setup a smart light dimmer, its also changed our night-time routines, but asking alexa to dim the lights to 10 %, max or turn off while walking in the room or sitting in the bed. We’ve also set-up a morning alarm, where it automatically turns the light on, sets the brightness to max and starts to play music. It is even possible to ask alexa to play music on other devices in the house, like the kids bedroom or kitchen. Nice way to get the kids up, turn volume up on their device and start music there 🙂

getting hold of the family is also far easier, especially with a large house and a wife that forgets her her in places. Whether i’m in the bedroom or at the office, i can call my family on any device. My kids have played with announcements, too each other in rooms and we’ve had music wars, where we contest for different songs, bringing tons of laughs.

It’s just great. I listen to several stations around thew country, mostly talk shows i can listen to live rather than delayed. I also listen to sunday and monday night football from wfan; i live in arizona. I listen to several phoenix stations, mostly local talk and sports, but we have an oldies music station on am (what’s that?) which is just great. I’m an oldie; i was playing this music on the air in the 60s through the 90s. The station plays 70s and 80s, and it’s n on stop. Try it; you’ll like it. 1440 am kazg

and on my echo screen in my bedroom, i watch railroad videos. I’m an frn, a freakin’ railroad nut. And interfacing with bluetooth, i can do calls with some friends.

Only complaint: i cannot get enough treble out of any of them. I have tried, even to the point of turning bass and mid-range all the way down. No luck . But hey, i’ll live with it.

Something that may occasionally bug you. If i am talking with someone on the phone and i mention alexa, from across the room she springs into action. I was talking with my girlfriend with the speaker turned on on my iphone 13, she mentioned alexa and a toto concert, and suddenly i was listening to ‘africa’. If you have to mention alexa on the phone, whisper.

I’m going to buy more.

One of the main features i’d like about alcohol over google is that they allow you to change the name you used to call them up. I don’t like seeing alexa or hey google, i’d like to be able to use my own word and in my case are used the word computer. Yes that sounds like i’m a geek but i like seeing computer and then stayed in my commands much better than alexa or hey google. That just makes me feel like one of the sheep in the herd.

It does seem to interface very well with all the devices i have but of course you will eventually find something that is difficult to pair it up with especially when you try to get different manufacturers to work together. Sometimes it can be as difficult as getting windows 95 to work online. That was a joke back then. Down side to heaven a customize name is when you use a name that is brought up in normal conversation it can activate for no reason. For instance, i have one in my living room not too far from the tv so when someone mentions the name computer once in a while it will activate but no big deal as it only happens some of the time. Just remember the echo dot is the smaller one.

I have had only one issue which is real easy to correct but i still have not figured out why it occasionally happens. Sometimes i look at it and i see a red lighted ring on the bottom lit up. That indicate someone turned off the listening capability so it is not listening or story what you say. For some people that is done deliberately when you don’t want it listening. In my case there are only two people in my house and no one is turning it off. There is a button on the top when you push it muted and turned the light red so correctly this means just pushing the button on the top to turn it back on. The only annoying thing is that i do not know why it turned off several times on me so far and i have not been able to related to any activity in the house so maybe there is a voice command and it is picking up the command from listening to the tv. It’s sort of like if you remember the old device sold a long time ago called the clipper, which would turn your lights on or off when you clip your hands. I often wonder what would happen if their device was near your tv and on the tv the audience was clapping , will the lights flash on and off in your house. Lol.

When my puck died, it became obvious that my dependence on this device was an essential. I was always perturbed having my responses in a fimale voice; there were no options. The new ball now responds in a very pleasing male voice and it makes all the difference; even if the name remains gender biased.

Overall this is a great upgrade in technology with a rich, hi-fidility sound that is amazing and remarkably contrasts the previous models.

I look forward to a time when there is more intelligence with this system; you should never have to load subroutines to get the responses you desire.

The voice recognition appears improved although there are still occasionally issues in understanding some requests.
What is important to note is that this is an evolving technology and improvements will continue to happen over time. It is however frustrating that these improvements don’t happen at a faster pase; such things are possible if you employ better programers with a vision that exceeds current ai limitations.

All totaled, i highly recommend this device as a useful addition to anyone who wants to increase productivity and entertainment enjoyment!

We have several echo devices in the house. We use them for all sorts of things like weather, news, adding to the our shopping lists, controlling smart-lighting devices and more. I had an old first-generation echo that while functionally fine, just kind of ‘stuck out’ on the counter where we had it. It was one of the older, kind of tall cylinder types. I saw this one and put it in my wish list. Lo and behold, i got an email telling me they were on sale. Pulled the trigger on the purchase right there and then. Got it the next day (we are prime). Set up took about a minute. Opened the alexa app, clicked ‘add device’ and the app took care of the rest. There were a few questions that i had to answer in the app to make sure the device was using the right location (for weather and directions, etc.) super simple, way smaller, way less conspicuous on the counter. Love it…wish i hadn’t waited so long. Get it, you won’t regret it…

What a way to show us now!! This is so great that if you happen to be on your phone, waiting on your friend to pick up. She does once you asked your other friend alexa, what’s the temperature, outside your door. You did not hear the temperature but now you can see it. Right down on alexa’s belly- button area. So if you happen to miss what she has said, by someone else’s answering, or maybe asking you something, or your so much not you !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$!!!!!!!!!!!,,,,,,,,,,
because you still can’t believe that day has really come.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$!!!!!!!!!!! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
that you could ask a softball size thing, any question that comes to your mine. Or the score of the late ball game, of the summer nights. Or anything you want it to remember for you !!
It does but the day really has come !!!
When she or he tells you,,,, your answer,,, by first saying your name,,,,,, that’s when you really do what i do is how alexa knows who she is talking to,,,,,, while you scratch your head and thinks how that she knows it’s me and not someone else,, that came up to my desk and have ask her,, but they also do the same as i do,, because they only wanted to know if they would have to split that nice looking strawberry pie,, just a chillen in the fridge, on the starting of this very nice warm day. And like i told you if some how it happen you could not heard her,,, or you were so shocked by hearing her by saying your name !!! Just look down,, and you may see of what the temperature is outside that very moment or where else that your heading.. So nice for us construction workers heading to our next town to be working in,, that cold day,, or even the next seven so you’ll know if you had packed your case,,, good enough for the weather or not ??

Thank you so much alexa !!! Thanks(:

The 4th generation echo dot has been more useful than i expected. We keep it in the kitchen and it plays the music of our choice while we cook. I also ask alexa for news and weather, or to set a timer for our cooking. Hands free is very nice to have when your hands are full of other things. The sound quality and volume can be adjusted just by asking alexa, ‘turn up the volume by 20%’, or ‘increase the midrange.’
i have my setup to recognize both my voice and my wife’s voice a and it does a great job, even when we don’t speak very clearly. We do need to be specific in our requests, though, because we have noticed that alexa doesn’t always interpret our desires accurately.

I’m loving being able to play my radio station on my echo dot as well as get answers to different questions that i have or my husband has. It’s great to be able to get the weather in different areas and towns or cities. The echo dot has fabulous voice recognition from more than one person and the sound quality is excellent! The integration of alexa’s commands in the echo dot is superb and typically without error! I’m overjoyed with how simple using the echo dot is as well as how useful it is to finally have alexa at my fingertips without having to use my phone! I’m extremely happy about my purchase and the features that are available on the dot! Recommend this purchase for anyone and everyone!!!

It’s a small ball! It’s cute! It’s small and invisible in my room. The sound is very good! I really like it, definitely worth the money. But i hope not must have to install alexa in order to connect, since it still using bluetooth. Have it connect and paired in the end but pairing takes time and when it’s’ saying not device to pair is a big headache. It’s not convenient and hope that there is button to turn system sound off.

I am totally impressed with the sound quality. The sound is very good i need to get the new echo now. To see how that sound is. I might have to a couple times call her twice but is pretty rare. My echo now is a gen 2 and it is more than likely you will have to call it 3-4 times. I have a couple dots 2 & 3 gens there is definitely a difference. One problem i see and it might just be me but it seems the older the platforms are they get slower and know less. Can a computer get dementia?

This is my first ever echo device, so my review is more of the whole system than of just this particular device – as i have nothing to compare it to.

The good is most everything. Sound quality is fine for me, as i keep it pretty quiet for the most part. It’s in my living room, so i don’t normally want it blaring in my face when i am playing music.

The voice recognition software seem to work very well. Alexa always recognizes her name, although to my credit i always speak to her clearly and plainly, at a volume slightly higher than my normal conversational one. A normal robot tone, in other words. So i can offer no input on how she does for the ‘less robotic’ speaker.

Functionality-wise is where things can use improvement. Although there is still ‘good’ there. I like hearing the weather every morning. Although i can’t seem to get the news feed for my morning routine customized the way i like it. And the commands alexa recognizes seems to be a mixed bag. She knows and does some things i would expect her to, but not all. And if she mis-understands, she normally does what she thinks you are asking for. Which can get annoying.

The only other devices i have integrated into the system are my ring doorbells. So i have no input on how she controls lights, thermostat, etc. As for the rings, that has been a disappointment. The thing i do most often with my rings is to ‘silence’ motion alerts for periods of time when there are people outside in my yard doing activities. So my hope was that instead of going into the ring app and silencing all three of the devices, one at a time, that alexa could do all of them at once for me. That is not the case, unfortunately.

In summation, i am glad i got this… Since i got it on some crazy deal for $10. At the normal price, i would not buy one. Doesn’t do enough for me to make it worth the cost, beyond it being a novelty. Although i do use the bluetooth speaker functionality to play music a lot, so it has pretty-much replaced my living-room bluetooth speaker. It’s just easier to say ‘play music’ than it is to have to get up, walk over, and turn on my battery operated speaker. Although i do prefer to control the volume of that speaker though the app on my phone, which is easier than constantly saying ‘alexa, turn it up/down.’

Pros:
+ faster response than my older dots
+ better microphone than my older dots
+ sound quality as good or better than my older dots
+ i love using these for streaming music and control my kasa products
+ i like the available emergency features (more on this in my review)

cons:
– the lights on the bottom are hard to see from a distance
– amazon is starting to annoy me with new features i don’t want
– using these as intercoms has never worked for me. The sound quality (volume) has always been too low to be usable
– ‘dropping in’ has never worked well either due to poor audio quality
– i have never been able to create a group of these for multi-room audio because they can’t handle enterprise grade wifi (where more than one wap has the same ssid and uses multiple bands)
– privacy will always be a concern with these units. Who is listening?

Review:
i now have at least 15 dots. I have everything from the first generation to this latest 4th generation in use. I think for me, the 3rd gen devices are a better design. The lights on these 4th gen devices are on the bottom and are hard to see from across the room. On the 3rd gen the lights are on the top and much easier to see. Otherwise they are mostly the same at the moment. As time goes on the 3rd gen units will no doubt become slower by design just like my 1st and 2nd gen units are now.

My primary uses are control of my smart switches (kasa) and to listen to music (deadlive skill). I also like the integration with my weather station (ambient weather) and the ability to make announcements across all the devices (like when dinner is ready). I also find the unit in the kitchen gets used to set timers for everything all the time.

Another use that is not immediately obvious is the use of these units for elder care. Let me explain how i have used them. I have an elderly mother who lives by herself. I purchased a show and a dot for her apartment and connected them to my account. The show device is in her kitchen and the way i have it setup i can see the kitchen and her recliner from the built in camera. The dot is in her bathroom. If she is not answering the phone or emails i can use the app on my phone to ‘drop in’ on the show unit and view the camera to see if she is in the kitchen or watching tv with her headphones on. Of course she knows about this setup and is ok with it. I can talk to her via the show device or the dot using the app on my phone when i want to check to see if she is ok. Also, if she needs to contact me or 911 during an emergency she can do so with her devices. So if she were to slip in the bathroom or have a problem in the kitchen she can call 911 with the help of alexa. It should also be noted that you must correctly set the physical address of the devices in the alexa app if you want this to work as intended. I feel much better knowing that she has this system available to her. A friend of hers fell and broke a hip and was alone in her apartment for 3 days on the floor unable to get up before she finally remember she could call her daughter using the alexa device she had. Doing so saved her life. That’s what gave me the idea to set this up for my mom.

Aside from the above, there is the issue of the new features being introduced by amazon that are becoming more annoying. One example of this is the unit waking me up to ask me if i want to write a product review for something i purchased. That is just a terrible idea. If i want to write a review, i will do so on my own. I don’t need alexa waking me up on a saturday morning asking me about it. Work on that amazon.

Besides it arriving 3 days later and my package alert stating that it was already here. I just found it frustrating that when i went to go file that i never got it. Amazon was late. Just call the cops. They’ll figure it out and i’m kind of like really. All in all after i finally received it days later after supposedly it was dropped off, i finally was able to go ahead set it up. The light bulb came a few days later because this was a package deal. It came with a smart led bulb for the house and the echo. I went ahead linked it up connected to the wi-fi connected to the light bulb and i’m not going to lie. This is convinced me to go ahead and convert the house into a smart home so it’s a lot better than expected. For what it is has better response time than expected and better microphone response then what i was expecting. Speakers are pretty loud. It’s nice to know you can control the volume by voice and you can do multiple different things. I did not know that this came with a home security feature and the bulb is pretty good. Also because paired with the alexa i can go ahead and turn the bedroom lights to whatever color i want or even tell them to turn off. Alexa recognizes them pretty well and also has a routine setups. So if you say good night to her, she will automatically turn off all the lights that are synced to her

The only thing i had a hard time with was connecting it to the internet. It could be just because i live in a dorm with built in wifi, but that took about 30 minutes to figure it out. I use it all the time to play music and especially to add items to my grocery list; it just makes life easier. The sound is quite clear and easy to hear. Which mine is plugged right next to the tv so sometimes i have to pause the tv so alexa can hear me. Its perfect for any apartment or home. I only wish i could connect it to turn on/off certain lights, which i could probably do if i had a house/apartment of my own; but its a dorm so i don’t have much flexibility there.

I finally broke down and bought some smart home products on prime day after i had some issues with home security. I bought this with the amazon music offer, some smart plugs to control lights and an echo show 5 with a ring doorbell. This dot has nice design and color, good integration with smart plugs, and decent sound for what i need. I’m still trying to figure out what she can do. Alexa does need some more voices to choose from, like google has, a little more humor (her delivery is lacking and she doesn’t get my dry sense of humor, apparently), and free stuff. The free apps have limited choices and all the add-ons cost money. I get more free apps on my google phone, like my sleep sounds that i can combine multiple sounds to make what i want. I have to upgrade to do that on the app i found on alexa. No thanks, i’ll stick with my phone. Same for alarm sounds. I chose to add a song on my phone. Can’t figure out how to add alarm sounds/songs to alexa. Maybe i just haven’t played with it enough. Would love my youtube playlists on alexa, too, but nope. I get they’re competing companies, but come on, apple is on here. So, i guess overall, smart integration is pretty good, so far, but app account integration, not so great. It’s working for what i need right now, but maybe i should have just stuck with google.‍

First off, unboxing it was very easy with minimal/simple packaging. In comparison to 3rd gen, the plug was smaller and lightweight, made of plastic that felt cheap and could perhaps crack easily with a hammer. It works though, so i’m not complaining.

Setup was almost smooth – there was a tiny setback with connecting to my wifi network, but once connected, the echo dot was up and running, starting with a little tutorial on what/how to command alexa. Funny thing was when the tutorial ended telling me to tell my new alexa to play music everywhere, music played only on my other echo dot (old 2nd gen) because my new one hadn’t been set up on my everywhere group in the alexa app yet, duh!

I felt better once i got music playing on the new echo dot – it’s best to listen to with the front of it facing at you, but overall definitely less muffled than 3rd gen and sounds better with that bass! I definitely recommend getting the 4th gen if you stream music often (and don’t want a regular echo).

I think it also can hear commands better too – being ~5 ft away and facing at a wall when i called out to it in my normal speaking voice that’s no louder than it playing music at a volume level of 2, it responded. I’ll need to interact with it more in my usual setup, but it’s nice not needing to yell out straight at it.

When amazon delivered it to me, the order packaging was their barely padded paper bag/envelope that had been ripped open at the bottom – i don’t think it fell out as i don’t see scratches or dirt on the box, only a little bend. If there’s anything wrong with it, amazon will be hearing from me.

Prior to the echo dot i owned google nest/hub and dot equipment. The google equipment (router and speaker) had better sound quality (sharper, not muddy) and could be shut off by a tap. The echo dot is a nice small size but has symbols on it (e.g., + -, and an off button), detracting from its look. That said, the ability to connect to the internet and get music or information is great. The only reason i bought the echo dot was that the wifi system in my building is not compatible with google. Echo does the job, but it is not as good as the google stuff, imho.

This is not my first echo device but i must say i use primarily google nest home devices.

I bought it because i now want to have both alexa and google home but this one at night makes a terrible noise. I will try to disable the ultrasound option to see if that is the problem but so far is annoying.

Regarding the sound of the speaker is good, the voice assistant is fast and accurate and the app is ok.

I really enjoy my blue echo 4th gen. It’s my first and the sound is so much better than i thought it would be. I mumble test it at first just to see if it would understand me(bored much) and 90% time it did. I use a smartplug to turn lamp across my room off.without exiting my bed. Sweet abracadabra! Also, i changed the name and gave it different voice. Nice

Echo dot as we know is very easy to use, and integrate very well with smart home lights and objects. Difficult to get exact hindi music and indian language requests completed by alexa as it’s a foreign product and some difficulty in connecting to phone and wifi. However, a must buy! Thank you for creating alexa