All-New Echo Dot (2nd Generation)

Amazon Echo is a great device (I was one of the first to have one and waiting for months for my first Echo to ship as Amazon vastly underestimated the demand for a device like this) and the Echo Dot (2nd generation) is fantastic in its size and capability (I bought a six pack to get one free). There is no volume ring on the 2nd gen Dot like there is on the original Echo and the 1st gen Echo Dot but it's no big deal as there are volume buttons now and the cost of the volume ring wasn't worth it if you ask me (it was nice, but for most people not worth the money). Most of the time you'll want to adjust the volume by voice anyway (like "Alexa volume 5"). The 2nd gen Echo Dot is also available in white but I'm sticking with black. UPDATE: I actually prefer the cheaper volume buttons on the Dot 2 to the volume ring now.

The fact that you can just talk from across the room and it can hear you (most of the time) really sets this apart. If you think you already have an Echo because you have Siri, Cortana, or Google, then know that it's just not the same.

Things I do: set timers, set alarms, get weather info, ask basic questions, listen to music (like Prime Music, Prime Stations, songs I bought, etc), listen to radio, ask for jokes, turn things on and off, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. The Echo really excels at playing music. I love it than I can ask for a song I want to hear and it will play it (most of the time anyway). At night I often listen to a local radio station and I just say "Alexa stop" without having to get out of bed when I want to stop listening.

When I listen to Prime Station I can tell it "thumbs up" if I like the song or "thumbs down" if I don't... and when I listen to the station again it won't play the songs that I've thumbed down.

Using the built-in speaker, the sound quality is decent for voice. For music you'll want to connect it to a speaker system because the Dot's small internal speaker is weak. I do wish I could AirPlay to a device from the Echo when I'm playing music and want the best sound quality, however Bluetooth is pretty impressive when it uses the near-CD quality codecs. Click here to buy now.

Positives:

* The new feature that Amazon added (ESP - Echo Spatial Perception) so that the nearest Echo responds is fantastic. I was also very happy to hear that the first generation Echoes will also support this in the next firmware update (I think devices are updating now). From my research, if the Echo app shows that you have a device software version greater than 4008 then you should have the update with ESP support. Unfortunately there does seem to be a minor downside: the Echo's response can sometimes be slightly delayed while multiple Echoes figure out which Echo is closest and should respond.

* It seems to hear better when playing music than the first gen. It was annoying when you would try to talk to it while it was playing but it couldn't hear you. The new Dot hears better during music playback but it's still not "Star Trek quality" hearing; sometimes you may still need to raise your voice.

* It's relatively cheap and well worth the asking price.

* It has a 3.5mm stereo audio jack, which I use with two of my Dots to connect to the line-in on one of my computers and another to the line-in on an old compact stereo/CD player. Sound quality should be good enough for anyone except audiophiles. * Some people complain of connection issues, but all of my Echoes stay connected without issue to my Asus RT-AC68U router.

* If you want to 'Wikipedia' something then you can say 'Alexa, Wikipedia '. She'll read a little from Wikipedia. If you want her to read more after she stops then just say 'Alexa, tell me more'. This can be useful sometimes. Click here to buy now.

Negatives :

* Warranty is only 90 days. I think it should be 1 year. Of course they will sell you a SquareTrade 1, 2, or 3 year warranty for $5/year if you want. Perhaps another cost-cutting move.

* The shiny (glossy) black surface can be a fingerprint magnet but you probably won't be touching it often. The previous generation wasn't glossy.

* I had trouble configured my 2nd Echo Dot (the first one went fine). The Alexa app (on Android) gave me the cryptic message "Authorization expired. Please reconnect your phone to the internet, log out from the app and retry". Got it several times. I resolved it by signing out of the Alexa app and then signing back in, having to re-enter my email and password.... annoying... and I wonder why I didn't have this issue setting up my first Echo Dot just minutes prior???? Oh well. UPDATE: This just happened again on another day when setting up two more Echo Dots. This first Echo Dot setup went fine, but on the second one I got the "Authorization expired." message again. Beware of this issue if setting up more than one Echo Dot. Click here to buy now.

* The Android Amazon Alexa app can be slow and frustrating sometimes. For example, when launching it sometimes just sits there on the intro screen and spins forever until you shut down the app and restart it again.

* Doesn't hear well in a noisy environment, or when other people (including on TV) are talking at the same time.

Home Automation:

* I use several Belkin WeMo switches to control some lights and fans. They work pretty well although not always perfectly. Fortunately they work better now after all the firmware updates.

* I recently set it up to turn on and off certain activities with a Logitech Smart Hub. For example, I can say "Alexa, turn on TiVo" and it will turn on the TV and my receiver and set the TV and receiver inputs correctly. I can then use the remote which is synced... and turn it all off with "Alexa turn off TiVo". There were some annoyances getting it all setup but I think it's pretty "cool" even though you can only start and stop activities with Alexa so you still need the remote to do other things (change channel, adjust volume, mute, pause, etc).

* I think I've only really scratched the surface of what is possible with home automation. I have not tried IFTTT ("if this then that") recipes yet but I hear it is quite powerful and hope to try it out when I have more time to "play".

Wishes:

* High-quality digital audio output that is better than Bluetooth. If it had this then you could really get high quality audio output from it, but most people probably don't really care that much as analog out is "good enough".

* Smarter. After 2 years I wish the Echo was smarter. Yes, it has definitely improved over time but Google can still answer more questions than Alexa. It's going to be hard to beat Google in answering general questions.

* Weather alerts. I suggested this a long time ago and they still haven't added it... perhaps due to legal reasons? If would be great if it would sound some sort of alarm or notification for severe weather.

* Built-in support for notifying others that you might need help. This would be good for the elderly. There is a "Ask My Buddy" skill however, but the verbiage is a little awkward ("Alexa, Ask My Buddy to Send Help") and it's free so if the developer decides to stop support then that might leave a lot of people without service at an inopportune time. Click here to buy now.

Other:

* It doesn't come with a 3.5mm audio cable but I can understand why as many people would probably not use it and Amazon wants to get the cost as low as possible so this isn't a big deal.

* The USB power cable is about 5 feet.

* The 1st gen Echo Dot was almost double the price. I feel a little disappointed that they now have a 2nd gen that is overall better for much less money... and that it came out very shortly after the 1st gen Echo Dots.

* You don't need any other Echo units to use the Dot... some people might think you do but this is just like the "big Echo", only without the "big" sound. Instead a little speaker is included.

* It's USB powered and comes with a USB power adapter and USB cable. NOTE: If you use a USB power connection other than from the included power adapter then there could be power and/or sound quality issues. I had some sound quality issues (background noises) and eliminated them by switching to the included USB power adapter.

* About 10 or 15 minutes after setting it up, it said something like "your Echo received an important update and must restart". So if you are having issues with it then you may want to give it awhile so it can update if needed.

* For better understanding of what you say, go to the Alexa app and Settings->Voice Training.

* I bought some of these powered bookshelf speakers, hooked them to the Echo Dot, and have been impressed with what you get for the money: Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers

While not perfect, I really like the Amazon Echo. I think the technology and potential is still in its infancy but the Echo is already really useful and excels at home automation, playing music, podcasts, and radio so I'm rating the Amazon Echo Dot 2nd gen at 4.5 stars and rounding up to 5. Highly recommended, especially for the price. Click here to buy now.