Amazon Echo comes in many forms these days: the good old can-shaped Echo, the smaller and cuter Echo Dot, and the big-screen Echo Show. Which device you go for depends on your personal choice, your budget, and of course, the tasks that you want to manage using this home automation gadget.
What is Amazon Echo for?
In simple words, Amazon Echo is a gadget that performs various digital activities through voice command. Many call it a set of hands-free speakers. Some call it a personal assistant – especially the voice-controlled artificial intelligence software called Alexa. Some also use it and recommend it as a home automation gadget.
You ask it questions, and it gives you the answers. For example, if you ask, “Alexa, what’s the time?” It is going to tell you the time. If you tell her, “Alexa, play the song”, it is going to play the song you have mentioned. You tell it to set an alarm and it sets off the alarm at the designated time.
You can set a timer when cooking or doing exercise or studying, just say “Alexa set timer for 15 minutes”. You can set reminders. You can create or maintain shopping lists. You can listen to music stations. You can inquire about weather.
You ask a question, and if the answer exists in the cloud, Amazon Echo gives it to you. Although by default Amazon Echo responds to “Alexa” you can also change the wake-up name to “Echo”, “Computer” or, “Amazon”.
It also seamlessly connects to your mobile phone or computer via Bluetooth or whatever protocol is acceptable to your mobile phone/computer and Amazon Echo.
Once it is connected to your mobile phone, you can make and receive phone calls. You can simply tell, “Alexa call Jeremiah” and if Jeremiah’s contact exists on your mobile phone, Amazon Echo will call and you can use the speaker to talk to that person.
Don’t feel like calling? You can also send messages.
The echo also serves as a hub for your home automation system, once you have connected the devices and appliances (that can be connected) you can simply talk into your Amazon Echo speaker to control your devices such as, switching on your home security systems, asking your robot vacuum cleaner to clean your room, asking your camera to click a photograph or instructing your lighting system to dim the lights. You can also create a batch of multiple commands.
And shopping, of course.
You can do your shopping from the Amazon Echo. The device is attached to your Amazon account and enables you to make orders directly from amazon. So, if you want to order a pair of gloves you simply say, “Alexa, order gloves”. You will need to supply additional information, but shopping from Amazon is an integrated feature in Amazon Echo.
Hence, you can define Amazon Echo as a voice activated, Internet connected smart speaker that follows your instructions and also allows you to control your smart home devices, through a built-in Virtual Assistant called Alexa.
All the information that it gives you exists in the cloud (internet). When it understands your command, it converts your voice into text, sends the text to the cloud, searches for the answer, finds the answer, downloads it, converts the answer into voice, and then relays it to you. The entire sequence of communication is encrypted. Depending on your connection, the entire operation happens in just a second.
All the interactions are saved in the cloud for reference – you can check the history of all the commands that you have given to Alexa. You can also delete all the commands. Every command that you give to Alexa is a called a “skill”. Amazon has opened up the system and now people can write their own “skills” that can be downloaded for free, using the Amazon Echo mobile app.
How many types of Amazon Echo devices are there?
Lots of.
There are also other variants like Amazon Echo Spot, Amazon Echo Plus, Amazon Echo Connect, Amazon Echo Look and Amazon Tap manual but they are basically the same as the ones reviewed in this post, plus-minus a few features. Let’s quickly go through some features and specifications of these individual Amazon Echo devices.
Amazon Echo second-generation
The second-generation Amazon Echo is better looking compared to its previous version, and it also costs less, ranging between $ 70-$ 100 depending on where you buy it from and what extra bells and whistles you get with that.
Another good thing is that now Amazon Echo comes with different interchangeable “shells”. This way, your Amazon Echo doesn’t have to look the way it is shipped in a grey fabric shell; you can get sandstone, charcoal or heather.
Although, it is branded as a speaker, the sound does not come out like high fidelity speakers in the current version of Amazon Echo. The sound is strong enough to fill a room, but the quality leaves a lot to desire. The volume ring that was present in the original Amazon Echo is gone and has been replaced by a cheaper-looking volume button, though, you may not miss it because most of the time you will be controlling the volume by voice commands.
The Amazon echo second generation, seems to try and strike a balance between the price (affordability) and sound quality. After all, the original Echo cost $ 180 and the 2nd generation costs around $ 100.
It has got 7 microphones embedded into it and coupled with beamforming technology and noise cancellation, Amazon Echo can hear you from all directions even when music is playing.
Being a speaker, you can connect it to your music player or mobile phone via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm auxiliary cable, which is an improvement from the previous version in which this option was not available.
It seamlessly connects with Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM and many more.
The speakers come with Dolby technology and they can play 360° audio. Nonetheless, considering that it is a speaker and Amazon admits that most of the people use it to listen to music, many standalone Bluetooth speakers like JBL and Sony sound much better. It allows you to control your TV, thermostat, security locks and security cameras, heating system, lighting system and all other fittings, appliances and gadgets that have “smart” capabilities.
Amazon Echo Dot
Amazon Echo Dot is in its 3rd generation now. This is a smaller device compared to other Amazon Echo models – looks like a well-rounded and smoother hockey puck.
Amazon has revealed that Amazon Echo Dot is its bestselling speaker of all time.
Despite its smaller size, it can make calls almost everywhere in the country, it helps you control your devices, appliances and fittings with a few commands, and it streams music from all the top music streaming services, including Amazon Music. According to the latest news, now even Apple Music is available on Amazon Echo devices.
The micro-USB port from previous versions is gone and instead, it comes with a small cylindrical DC power tip and a rounded wall plug.
Being a smaller device, it is packed with a single 1.6-inch speaker throwing music in 360° angles. The recent sound quality improvements make its sound better even when you max out the volume.
Oddly, the 3.5mm auxiliary cable is missing from the packaging and you may have to purchase it separately if you want to connect your Amazon Echo Dot to a bigger speaker. It basically performs all the functions that any other Amazon Echo device performs, in a miniaturized form factor.
Amazon Echo Dot, Kids Edition
Amazon Echo Dot kids edition carries the same functions as the main Echo Dot, but it comes with additional functions as parental control, the ability to tell stories, a bit more durable because kids will be handling it, and FreeTime Unlimited, a service that gives access to kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, audiobooks and games.
Amazon Echo Show
Amazon Echo Show 2018 gives you everything that a basic Amazon Echo gives, but with a touchscreen. It is like a small TV or a tablet that stands vertically on your table or counter, giving you audio-visual output instead of just audio. The final price may depend on from where you buy it, but it is somewhere around $ 225-$ 235.
The second-generation Amazon Echo show is much better than its first model because the screen-based interface in the first version couldn’t perform as well as its other counterparts when it came to responding to Alexa commands. It communicates seamlessly with other Echos if you have placed them at various corners of your home.
Right now, Amazon Prime is the only video streaming service that works the best on Amazon Echo Show.
The speakers in the first version was at the front, but this time, they are at the back, giving you almost 10-inches of touchscreen, with 1280 x 800 resolution LCD panel. Consequently, the entire front part of Amazon Echo Show consists of the screen. But then it also makes it 17mm thicker than the previous model. The inbuilt ambiance detector can notch the brightness up and down according to the brightness level of your surroundings.
There is a front camera at the top for video calls. Around the camera there are also 8 microphones.
8 microphones make it possible for you to interact with your Amazon Echo Show from far away. Although the screen is as cool as they come, the primary aim of every Amazon Echo is to encourage you to issue voice commands and this is what Amazon Echo Show also expects you to do.
It’s ability to connect and interact with Zigbee devices makes it a powerful Smart Home Hub. You will be able to get it hooked to all your smart devices such as lighting systems, window curtains, security systems, heating systems, home theater, so that you just issue commands to your Echo Show and these devices and appliances do your bidding. Otherwise, all the usual Echo functions described above are there.
Just like in phones these days, there is a pull down bar that gives you immediate access to your home screen, alarms and other functions. When left unused, it can show you trending stories or your family photographs – these customization’s can be easily made using its interface.
Being a multimedia device, unlike other smaller Amazon Echo devices, this one is heavy on bass.
All in all, a good device, provided you want to make it your main source of entertainment, information access and communication.
My Concluding Remarks
Google, Samsung, Sony and almost every major electronics company is coming up with its own voice assistant that can also be used as a functional home automation hub, but in the mainstream, the initial step was taken by Amazon through the introduction of Amazon Alexa and Echo.
Amazon Echo is a speaker with lots of other features. Alexa has been exclusively developed for the Echo range of products. There is an entire community of programmers and enthusiasts who are building “skills” by thousands, for Alexa. The good thing about these “skills” is that they can be used with any version of Amazon Echo, right from the first Amazon Echo that was launched back in November 2014 to the latest model.
Should you buy an Amazon Echo? Depends.
As you have read above, there are multiple models of the Amazon Echo. By its manufacturer, it is called a “smart speaker” – basically it is for voice-supported features such as asking questions and receiving answers. Due to its ability to communicate with other devices and appliances, Amazon Echo is also turning into a viable home automation hub, but it still hasn’t reached the sophistication and compatibility of say the Samsung SmartThings, if you are exclusively looking for a home automation hub. As an entertainment and information device, it is a great choice and at the time of this writing I would say the best choice.
Your family will be entertained because it can answer thousands of questions, it can play practically every piece of music existing in the world, it can help you prepare any recipe that is available in the cloud and it can certainly help you manage your life better.
