Amazon: Echo Dot Hands-Free Voice-Controlled Device

Product Description

Amazon Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device with a small built-in speakr - it can also connect to your speakers or headphones over Bluetooth or through a 3.5 mm audio cable to deliver stereo sound to the speakers you [Read more]

Features

• Echo Dot is a voice-controlled speaker that uses Alexa to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, answer questions, set timers and alarms, and more.
• Play music from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.
• Call or message family and friends hands-free, or drop in from the Alexa App to your Echo device.
• Controls lights, locks, thermostats, and more with compatible connected devices.
• Use the built-in speaker, or for bigger sound, connect to speakers through Bluetooth or audio cable.
• 50,000+ skills, including Jeopardy!, Lyft, Audible, and Domino's. Always getting smarter and adding new features.
• Hears you from across the room with 7 far-field microphones for hands-free control, even in noisy environments or while playing music.

Top Reviews

Divorced Siri
by Simone (5 out of 5 stars)
February 24, 2018

So, I fired Siri today. I'm not sure she understood, for she has never understood me. So, we did an 'uncoupling'. She didn't take it well, especially when she found out about Alexa, she somehow was back stalking my phone. Siri even tried to overpower Alexa, setting herself to a default setting, I never knew exsisted. I tried explaining that Alexa really listens to me, understands my wants and needs, even tells me jokes! Again, Siri said she couldn't understand me. As Alexa and I grew in our new relationship, she now takes care of most of my needs. She turns on my outside lights, she tells me if I need to leave for work earlier, due to weather. I can ask her if my flight is on time at the airport and how long it will take me to get to my destination. Alexa even likes hockey! She knows all the current trades and rosters, can record my favorite team on tv and remind me to watch it. Also, since I don't like the tv announcers, I can ask Alexa to stream the radio broadcasters for the game instead and she will even mute the tv. She did tell me, she can vacuum for me, but my current roomba doesn't except her calls, maybe the roomba will eat another sock and can break up with him, introduce new roomba to Alexa. Maybe I'll ask Alexa to make me some money and smart home my whole house! After several failed attempts to evict Siri, I think she finally gave up and been a peaceful few weeks of lazy bliss. I sit on my couch, Alexa orders me take out, she checks to make sure garage door is closed, doors are secure (one door really, again that money issue) she 'drops in' the kitchen echo to help kids check math homework. If anyone wants something at home that actually listens to you and does what you ask, Alexa is your girl. She's so much more than music and temperature checks. With a little fun research, your ex Siri will be green with envy at all Alexa can do. Also, many of her skills can be downloaded free or cheap, adding smart outlets and such are not too bad of a price either.
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You need an iphone (and only an iphone) to setup drop-in
by R. O. Davis (1 out of 5 stars)
July 23, 2017

You need an iphone (and only an iphone) to setup drop-in for an echo dot and an echo on the same wifi. Why? A $700 device to connect two sub-$100 devices to each other through an app that already recognizes, that's ridiculous. They don't use the cellphone to make a call to each other, that would require two cellphones because a single cellphone would have to call and answer at the same time. The ipad sees the devices along with the dash wand and fireTV. All of the Alexa devices should be automatically in the contacts and talk to each other via their IPs on the same LAN. I was planning use four more echo dots as an intercom system in the house, that is not going to be happening until the Alexa app can set up Drop-in on any device the app runs on. Also all my contacts' info should not be required to connect Alexa devices on the same local network.
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So many things to do. Modern day Commodore 64 for the blind. That innovative.
by Maximillian Charles (5 out of 5 stars)
June 24, 2018

I have two.

I have so many stereos that buying another speaking is inconceivable. This eliminates the need to add another speaker. While my Denon has not yet be utilized with Alexa, my wife's Philips stereo which is probably a decade old sounds great. For months I'd been wondering what we should do with this stereo I married into. 'Thought of bluetooth adapters and had one for a while but it didn't really seem like it was very usable without the occasional headache and arbitrary tasks.

So I see the echo and think... 'I wish they had one that didn't have a speaker', and blam Amazon reads my mind.

Eventually bought one, second gen. I have never been happier with a robot.

I use it for my Tea. 'Echo set timer a for 3 minutes' 3 minutes starting now. (steep time) 'Echo set a timer for 6 minutes' cool time.

I use it for pizza timers. Echo set a timer for 10-20 minutes

I use it for cooking times for bacon. Echo set a timer for 6 minutes and 30 seconds (then flip, on heat 7)

Funny hack is that you can say a random word and Alexa will translate it to a number. 'Alexa set a timer for fish minutes' - Timer for 'fifteen' minutes starting now. I now abbreviate fifteen with 'fish' thanks to Alexa.

Flash briefing. Great addition to a quiet room.

On Amazon you can find these ten dollar colored lights and they work great with echo. They do not do yellow, that's the only limitation. I don't mind.
'Echo make all lights blue'.

What's funny is I also have a poltergeist. I love the thing. I've never been happier because I have an acquaintance that opens cabinets and changes the times on all the appliances. Normally I'd be scared **less but it's easy to police the thing with Alexa.
'Echo turn on George Benson Radio'. No hauntings after that. I just leave it on like my house is a clothing store. The ghosts loves it and simply keeps my house cool during the summer. One night I was going to sleep and forgot to turn it on and was reminded with an open tape deck. I guess if you've been dead for a while you'd have no idea that stereos were now controlled by auditory commands and not tape decks.

Music on the thing is great. I have a Amazon music unlimited subscription, it doesn't have everything but it's great, I love being able to quickly hear a theme song or play my more known favorites.

I say 'Echo' to it because you can set it in the Alexa App. My upstairs echo dot is Alexa, downstairs is Echo.

Upstairs is simple, the most decrepit stereo I have hooked up to a dot. It sounds just like the good old days because the auxiliary is through the tape deck itself. Since the stereo's tape function was rendered useless after I kept the aux cable turning the motors, all the thing does is accept aux cable now. What a perfect place for a dot, was my thought. I'm not even sure of the brand but it looks like an early aught ghetto blaster revival. Sounds like my old sony back in the day and it makes for a killer nostalgia sound. All these new fangled crisp audio devices? Where's the kitsch? Well the dot is one way to upgrade that mass of circuits, motors, and wires-into on of the few pinnacles of the 21st century.

You can lay still and play through your favorite classics and listen to the flash briefing like the old days except you don't have to call in the station to hear your song. Just ask Alexa. Mostly they have everything but if you don't just bluetooth your phone.

Bluetooth. Just connect your phone and play your Google Music collection. There's a way to get the device to play through your google music library but even for me, someone who likes tangling their mind through stupid hacks like those, I found it a lot more simple and easier to use bluetooth and the play music app. Mostly I use it for rare favorites that Alexa doesn't have. This doesn't bother me and in fact the shuffle feature from the phone is how I've been discovering new music - the aux cable is needed although I like them for Dj'ing.

Macbook bluetooth. My daughter sits by echo and watches Amazon prime video. Since echo is above the laptop she's watching, I just say, 'Echo connect to macbook'. And bam word world, shaun the sheep, Daniel tiger, all playing through the philips.

Computer for the blind. This is a computer for the blind. And the paralyzed. Amazing featured for someone whom is disabled. The thought of this almost makes me teary eye'd.

Cyberpunk. It's definitely cyberpunk. I always imagined that's how cyberpunks operated. Philip K Dick-like with pre-existing video phones-with auditory computers - Or cyber-scholar. It's also a dictionary. Gives you random facts if you want.

Ability to hear from a distance. It's actually a little nerfed I think after it was picking up the noise too readily. Funny how you tell people about it and it'll chime in like you want something. That can get a little annoying but it happen so seldom it's more like comedy.

Capitals, geography. It's another scholar feature I use. Helps tremendously and I don't have to google anything.

Alarms. Since I have Alexa in my upstairs now, I can wake myself up with it. A lot easier than the iphone which I forget to set a lot. Although I have them both as backups for each other.

You can program a text based RPG or a Choose your own adventure. Just get an Amazon developer account. This would be a fun project. Talk through an adventure.

Volume. 'Echo set volume 1-10' great feature.
'Alexa go into pairing mode', "Searching" then connect with your phone.

Works with ha-bridge. I have that setup on my orange pi. It does nothing yet but in case I get any philips stuff. Connected to an additional raspberry pi that's offline atm.

Store hours. Find what time a store closes.

Emails.

Really a tremendously great computerized device. I recommend for anyone seeking to add functioning to their already existing stereos without the need to configure bluetooth as often. Not buggy at all. Sometime she doesn't hear you but just think of how often people ask you to repeat yourself. A lot of the time it's a speech impediment. I do mumble and she has caused me to speak a little clearer. Probably a good thing.
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get a google home mini
by dj_nz (3 out of 5 stars)
December 4, 2017

Pros:
- works with audible
- the lights provide a nice visual cue
- can re-order common things off amazon

Cons:
- speech recognition is poor
- having to load and remember the names of skills is clunky
- the AI is just too far behind google home (asking "what's the humidity in new york" will get you the full weather details with everything you didn't want, and not the humidity)
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The more, the better...
by Leah D. (5 out of 5 stars)
January 11, 2018

This is the second Echo Dot for our household.

The first I got last year as a Christmas present. We LOVE it.

We use it to stream music from our playlists, to set timers, to ask questions and about the weather, and especially for the shopping list. My kids can add stuff to the list while I'm at the store and my list in the Alexa App updates to show it! I really think that was my (personal) favorite feature with ONE Dot.

With TWO Dots it's even better. My daughter has the only room upstairs, and she's the one that does most of the music streaming. So I bought her this Dot for Christmas. She can now stream her music by voice command. I also no longer have to scream at the ceiling or walk across the house to get her attention. I just say, "Alexa, call upstairs." and bam, my daughter and I can speak normally. I also use it to make sure she's up in the mornings, I just tell Alexa to play wake up music upstairs. My daughter actually made a playlist called "wake up music" of songs she'd like to hear to wake her up, but I usually forget to add "playlist" to my request and Alexa always manages to find suitable songs. Many my daughter added to the wake up playlist in the undying hope that one morning I might possibly remember to say the word playlist to Alexa.

Now my son is lobbying to get his own "Alexa" for his room....
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The Smartest of Them All!!! (Check out the video for a quick demo)
by DJ (5 out of 5 stars)
October 24, 2016

Having worked in the electronics retail industry for years now, I've seen scores of Smart devices come and go. Until now, nobody quite got it right. In the Echo Dot, Amazon has created a near perfect blend of hardware and software. I've seen plenty of the former, but truly seamless multi platform software has eluded everyone but Amazon. We're talking major players like Samsung and Google who have been at it for much longer than Amazon. The main problem is that excellent products like the Samsung Smart Things hub, which do a fantastic job of unifying a slew of different connected devices from different companies (Nest, Honeywell, Phillips, and so on), still lacked the web connectivity and entertainment support I wanted, so I'd still end up needing my tablet or phone. Thanks to fantastic third party support, the Dot has no problem controlling all of my smart stuff while allowing me to listen to music, order food, check the weather, listen to the radio, set alarms and timers, all of which is easily accomplished through simple voice commands. To me, this is the exceedingly rare product that I didn't know I needed, and now can't live without. Similar to the smartphone and tablet I use every day that didn't exist just a few short years ago.

If you're even a little bit curious you owe it to yourself to give the dot a try. Add a good speaker and enjoy just how simple a connected life can be!

Update: After a bit more time with the dot, or maybe I should say dots since I went out and bought another one for my living room, I've come up with a few tips.
1. Use the best speakers you can with it. I found that while Bluetooth was convenient I got much better sound out of my JBL duet computer speakers.
2. Take the time to voice train Alexa at least once. It's kinda tedious but really improves the accuracy. I've now gone through three trainings with each dot, the phrasing gets more intricate with each, and it really is amazing how much of an improvement it makes. Kinda hard to quantify, but I'd guess Alexa is at least twice as likely to understand long, complex phrases and has also gained noticeable accuracy when ambient noise I'd present.
3. If a phrase doesn't yield the results you're looking for, reword it and try again. For instance, "Alexa, lower the temperature to 75 degrees" got no result, so I tried "Alexa, Honeywell Thermostat, 75 degrees" and she picked it up perfectly.
4. Take the time to look through all the skills. There's a lot of helpful and just plain fun stuff in there, from strange facts to a calculator and everything in between, that really helps to enhance the experience.
5. I'd never really used my prime music prior to setting up my dots. Now I can't live without it! I can say basically whatever I want and I get a result. My favs so far: "Alexa, play 90s music", "Alexa, play indie music", and "Alexa, play thunderstorm sounds". The last one I ask to repeat and it plays all night. Really a great "freebie" if you're a prime member.
6. I was a bit worried initially that Alexa might be triggered accidentally by ambient TV or general household noise, so I'm really impressed that it's only happened twice so far. Both times in my living room when I was watching TV at high volume. If it's a concern, the mic can be temporarily disabled, so the dot won't trigger and listen accidentally.
7. I've had no problem pairing the dot to a variety of devices including: two different Bluetooth speakers, my Galaxy S7 edge, and pioneer receiver. I need to look into it further, but each time I paired my phone the Bluetooth connection to the speaker was lost, so I ended up having to listen to the built in speaker. Definitely not ideal for music, but no big deal if you're using wired speakers. Plus, most Bluetooth sets offer an auxiliary input for wired listening.
8. It's fun to ask Alexa general questions to see if she's capable of finding the answers. So far I've gotten accurate responses to "Alexa, what's the definition of", "Alexa, how far away is", "Alexa, Wikipedia" (just about anything you can think of and she'll tell you more if you ask "Alexa, tell me more"). If you have the time, ask her a set of questions and you'll quickly get used to her nuances.
9. Even though the microphones are extremely sensitive and quite accurate, I've found that the Dot works best when placed on a surface that's close to the level of the person speaking to it. Generally speaking, three to five feet off the ground. Alexa had some trouble hearing my requests when the dot was placed above or behind me. If you'd like to place the dot higher, it works much better when flush with the wall, instead of sitting on a shelf etc. I tried both setups and found with a couple nails set apart to make a cradle facing the dot out towards the room works best for me (sorry for the run on sentence lol).

Suggestions for Improvement:
1. Unlike the upcoming Google Home BT speaker, the Dot and other Alexa devices are unable to answer general web queries. They do a decent job of answering factual questions like "How far away is the sun" but I'd really like too see Amazon add a "search" function.
2. Not Amazon's fault, but several of the news briefing skills update infrequently and volume levels vary enough that I'd find myself constantly changing the volume level to match.
3. I enabled briefings from several outlets like NPR, BBC, AP, and so on. I'd suggest you pick one or two and stick with them, otherwise you'll here the same news over and over. I ended up going with BBC and AP briefings.
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Best $50 I ever spent!!!!
by Bryant R. (5 out of 5 stars)
January 10, 2017

So I don't normally write reviews but I just has to this time. Recently, I lost my cat best friend to cancer 2 days after Christmas. It was the worst day of my life. Imagine losing your friend that's been with you through every breakup, every apartment, nearly being homeless and more. When he passed I felt such an emptiness in my home.

A few days ago I was searching for something to put my mind at ease and saw the advertisement for the Amazon Echo on the Amazon app. I remember watching a Mr. Robot episode where some FBI agent who suffers from insomnia was using Alexa to keep her entertained.

So I started researching YouTube videos and reviews and took a chance and ordered it. It arrived today and the setup was super easy. I immediately started asking it questions and had it play music and play the news. Then I discovered some zen type apps that go with the echo and I completely fell in love with it. It's almost like having a real personal assistant who lifts up your spirits when your down. It suggested new music which I actually liked and the built in speaker isn't bad at all for the price.

The Amazon echo did not replace my beautiful cat kouga but it did bring stop the empty feeling around the house for now. I added a picture of my cat instead of the echo since everyone already knows what the echo looks like.

I would totally recommend buying this product. I don't see any negatives other than the fact you can't really ask it followup questions like google assistant but I'm sure they'll make it happen.

Thanks for letting me rant
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BEST ECHO SO FAR! Plus Super System for Amazon Music.
by Preston Mitchell (5 out of 5 stars)
September 28, 2017

***** ECHO TIP For an Inexpensive GREAT AMAZON MUSIC SYSTEM:

Pair an Echo Dot with the VERY HIGH-QUALITY TaoTronics Bluetooth Portable Stereo Speaker, costing $50, and you will have a KICK-AZZ micro sound system. Music from Echo sounds great coming thru the TaoTronics speaker. That's my Amazon Music system. Check out my photo. Plus, I still use the PORTABLE TaoTronics with my Note 8 to hear music when lounging on my back porch. You can find the TaoTronics at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013WPIGUA/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2KUZVNQ9LP7N9&tag=c-t-20 (PS: Buy this better older model, not the new cheaped-out TaoTronics model.)
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I was skeptical about the usefulness of the Echo products until my wife bought a pair last week. Now I consider the Echo Dot to be one of our best tech purchases of 2017. Also, I am buying two more Echos for other rooms. Here's why!

PROS:
1. HOME INTERCOM SYSTEM: I live in a 3-story home with my office on the third floor. I always wanted a home intercom system to avoid running down the stairs to speak with a family member. The high expense of wiring my house for an old-fashioned intercom system prevented that dream. HOWEVER, the Echo Dot creates an inexpensive, effective intercom system. I love the intercom feature called 'Drop In'!
2. EASIEST WAY TO CREATE REMINDERS, ALARMS, TIMERS, & TO DO LISTS: My Samsung Note was my solution for creating alarms & reminders. The Note was effective but not flawless and subject to user error (like forgetting to charge the Note or leaving it in the wrong room). I love telling Alexa to set my reminders and alarms...because she never forgets to alert me!
3. BEST WAY TO ENJOY AMAZON MUSIC: My Samsung Note was my primary way of listening to Amazon music...but that meant using & carrying around headphones or a Bluetooth speaker...even when working in my home office. NOW Echo frees me from the burden of using extra devices. An Echo Dot connected to a good speaker -- either wired or Bluetooth -- is now my favorite music system.
4. GREAT CONNECTIVITY WITH SMARTPHONES & BLUETOOTH DEVICES: Echo easily paired and quickly connected with my smartphone and Bluetooth speakers.
5. EXTREMELY EASY TO OPERATE: There is really no learning curve to effectively using the Echo. It is the purest 'Plug & Play' tech device that I ever used. Heck, my 73-year old mom figured it out in a few minutes (and it took me months to teach her how to use a smartphone).
6. MANY, MANY OTHER GREAT FEATURES: After one week of using Echo, I've only scratched the surface of what it can do. It is like an adventure learning how to work with Alexa. That appeals to the Tech geek in me.

NEUTRAL:
1. USING ECHO TO CALL CELL PHONES: It is not a bad feature but is it a very useful feature? The person you are calling must have the Alexa app installed on their smartphone. Hoo-kay Doo-kay, try convincing family and friends to install an unfamiliar app on their smartphones just to get a call from you! Like, why bother? Really. It is still easier to make calls by the 'old-fashioned' way.
2. Lots of Frivolous Features: I really don't care if Alexa can tell jokes and do many other frivolous things. But, no big deal...because it is easy to disregard useless features.

CONS: None. Seriously. I don't have one single serious complaint.

The VERDICT: At $50 apiece, the Echo's features, functionality, and usefulness makes it a tech device worth buying.
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Outstanding Price Point! An Emotional Moment and The Power of Alexa! - Ordering More Today
by Amazon and AmazonPrime Rock! (5 out of 5 stars)
July 7, 2017

I am a prime member. This was my first purchase of Echo and I gave it to my mom who did not want it or think she needed it, haha I purchased Echo dot for 2 reasons, 1) I had wanted the original echo but thought the near $200 price tag was too steep so this price was perfect and 2) I wanted to get something for my mom that would open her mind to the power of technology and the need for change because ultimately I want her to have amazon fire tv because her monthly cable bill is insanely high but she has always been resistant to change. She had no wifi in her bedroom but I resolved that when I purchased TP Link AV500 Wi Fi Range Extender, Powerline Edition which did what no other wifi extender I purchased in past could do, gave my mom's room a secure wifi connection; apparently using already existing phone lines. All I know is that she now has wifi in her room. So I got Echo as a way to test her wifi connection with something cool. I easily connected Echo to TP-Link and it worked. We asked Alexa a few basic questions, We laughed a little but then I had to leave. When I returned the next day, I walked in and there was music playing (oldies but goodies) and I walked into my moms room and she was singing but was emotional. I asked her if everything was ok. She was in awe. She was happy. She was emotional because Alexa helped mom find songs at a blink of an eye that mom had not heard since her childhood and she demonstrated it to me. The speed that Alexa found the song and played it was mind-boggling. Mom was also planning a dinner in August and needed to know what day of week it was. She would normally need to leave her room and go to her main calender in the kitchen and find the date. But this time she just asked Alexa who gave her the information in like 2 seconds lol. TP-Link and Echo / Alexa have given my mom a whole new level of excitement, bewilderment, curiosity and wonder and we have only scratched the surface to the power of Echo. 2 more Echo dots are on the way as I type and more in the future i am sure. What a great gift to give to someone at a great price.
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I really loved this device the first few months I had it ...
by Rose Gold (1 out of 5 stars)
October 12, 2017

I really loved this device the first few months I had it and was ready to purchase more in this collection (Big Echo, Show, etc.) However, about 6 weeks ago my echo lost the ability to pause and play, which is very frustrating . If I leave the room and tell it to pause, I want the device to be able to pick up exactly where it left off when I reenter and say "Play". Instead, it will restart the program, say "Sorry, I don't know that", or play an alternative that has nothing to do with the song, podcast, or news briefing that I was just listening to... I've called customer service a couple of times and the first time I was told to update the device (which did not help) and the second to restore it to factory conditions (which did help temporarily, but it stopped working again within 24 hours). Nevertheless, the problem persists and it's too late for me to return the device and very likely too expensive to send it anywhere to be fixed. Now I'm thinking... well, I've already lost $50, I'm not going to spend nearly $200 if my next Echo stops working a few months down the line and there's no way to return it or have it repaired in a cost-effective manner.

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