Plays all your music from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and more using just your voice
Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
Allows hands-free convenience with voice control
Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even in noisy environments or while playing music
Answers questions, reads audiobooks, reports news, traffic and weather, provides sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service
Controls lights, switches, thermostats and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, Nest, tado° and others
Always getting smarter - Alexa updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new features and skills
Top comments
BigBlueDot to jordni
14 Dec 165#7
You obviously have no idea. Battery!!?? Drop ???! It's not a portable.
All comments (38)
kevandsam
14 Dec 16#1
was tempted to get this, got 3 dots in the end as the volume / sound quality was good enough for what we wanted. does the echo warrant the price difference seeing as the only difference between a dot and an echo is the speaker?
plap to kevandsam
14 Dec 16#2
I had an Echo but returned it and using a Dot with external desktop Bluetooth speakers instead.
The sound quality of the Echo is good but my desktop Bluetooth speakers are better.
The Dot is using the internal speaker but when I switch on Bluetooth speakers it pairs automatically, works for me.
kevandsam
14 Dec 16#3
yeah that's what we do for one room where we want it louder. bought a 30 quid Bluetooth speaker. also prefer the look of the dot as it's so compact
ian18
14 Dec 16#4
Anyone know the difference between the UK and USA version - apart from the obvious voice?
damadgeruk to ian18
14 Dec 16#12
Only the power supply is different. I'm using my US sourced Echo with UK voice without issue.
For many, it's a gimmick (I'm certain lots of people said the same when TV remotes arrived) though with all the additional integration it's a useful system. YMMV.
jordni
14 Dec 16#5
tbh after seen the advert for the echo, it made me want one less, i can see its batteries dying 2-3 weeks after owning it, cba to charge it and then been in the cupboard for a further 5 years until a clear out where by i accidental drop it and smash it.
considering most people have an iphone or android phone you can do 95% of the stuff echo does on google now & siri.
why spend the extra £129.99
BigBlueDot to jordni
14 Dec 165#7
You obviously have no idea. Battery!!?? Drop ???! It's not a portable.
ashh150 to jordni
14 Dec 162#9
it's mains operated. I've had one since launch day. I've found that it recognizes my voice less and less each day, very strange. Sometimes i have to say echo 3/4 times just to get it to listen to me now. I'd personally wait till v2 or more firmware updates
Zycon
14 Dec 16#6
I had to return my Echo as it kept losing connection with my network making it useless; think I'll wait for the Echo V2 and hope connectivity is improved.
jordni
14 Dec 161#8
It looked it on the advert didnt see any wires;
also even less reason to want one if its not even portable
BigBlueDot
14 Dec 16#10
Hah, yeah, it recognise my wife's voice better than mine.
BigBlueDot
14 Dec 16#11
Yep, it's meant to be a home assistant, something to sit in a room and answer your queries/commands as needed. Out of the box it doesn't do much more than what Google Now and Siri will do, but the 3rd parties plugins make it much more. The IoT integrations are better than Google or Apple too.
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Opening post
Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
Allows hands-free convenience with voice control
Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even in noisy environments or while playing music
Answers questions, reads audiobooks, reports news, traffic and weather, provides sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service
Controls lights, switches, thermostats and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, Nest, tado° and others
Always getting smarter - Alexa updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new features and skills
Top comments
All comments (38)
The sound quality of the Echo is good but my desktop Bluetooth speakers are better.
The Dot is using the internal speaker but when I switch on Bluetooth speakers it pairs automatically, works for me.
For many, it's a gimmick (I'm certain lots of people said the same when TV remotes arrived) though with all the additional integration it's a useful system. YMMV.
considering most people have an iphone or android phone you can do 95% of the stuff echo does on google now & siri.
why spend the extra £129.99
also even less reason to want one if its not even portable