Amazon Echo Dot - Review

Payday May 2017 I decided to "treat" myself to a new gadget; The Amazon Echo Dot. My stepdad has the full size Echo and I wanted in on this hype.

The Echo Dot retails at £49.99 and is available from Amazon as well as a lot of high street stores.

The Echo Dot is easy to blend into any room due to its small size and sleek look. The only design issue I would pick on is that the mains cable isn't colour coordinated...but that would be nit-picking!!

You can link additional speakers to the Echo Dot via Bluetooth or usual AUX cable. There are now bulbs and other home/electrical items that will be Echo controlled however they come at a hefty price!!

The Echo Dot connects to an App you need to install on your phone and is set up via this App. You can look back on what activity the Alexa has provided for you, read the lists and reminders it has made for you and its also handy to see what your little ones have been asking Alexa!! Set up for the Echo Dot is very straight forward and done within minutes.

My regret with buying this gadget is that I didn't look into it before I bought it. I'm an impulse buyer!!

My biggest bug bare with this device is that it doesn't understand all questions or doesn't have answers for a lot of questions a 5 year old could answer but apparently this is updated regularly. It also struggles to pick up words I'm saying and I don't have an accent.

Alexa picks up voices from your TV which is fairly annoying as it responds to anything that sounds remotely like 'Alexa'. Thankfully you can turn off the 'purchasing' option via the app so it doesn't purchase the items mentioned in the Echo TV advert!!

It can tell you the current time and weather pretty accurately though so I guess all Is not a waste. Its also a good alarm/timer for those who don't have a phone/clock handy.

Other things Alexa can do for you include, reading e-books aloud to you, telling you jokes, making lists and setting reminders, play trivial games with you and play radio stations.

Music is where this device is flawed. We've seen on the advert that all you have to say is "Alexa play ..." and it plays what ever song your heart desires. What Amazon hasn't advertised very well is that you have to sign up to an Amazon music subscription costing around £10 A month to access all music or have paid for a download of the song/album through Amazon Music. I have a number of albums purchased through Amazon music and although it should play, it either gives me a 'sample' 30 second of the song or picks another song with a similar title.

Ah ha! You can connect Spotify to your Echo, problem solved!! Wrong, you also have to pay around £10 a month for a premium account to be able to connect to the Echo.

The speaker quality is fairly poor. I was very impressed with the speakers on the full size Echo and although I didn't expect the Dot to be as good, I thought it would be much better than it is. Sound becomes very distorted when turned up to a higher volume and generally sounds quite muffled.

Unlike the Echo, the Dot has volume buttons instead of the twist top to increase/decrease the volume. There is a button to turn of the microphone so it will not respond to you, although I'm not sure why this feature is necessary.

So unless you bought this gadget for the soul purpose of a talking clock or wanted something to tell you the weather, you really need to spend a large amount of money on top of the large amount of money you've already spent on this product. If you're looking into purchasing this item for 'knowledge', you're probably better waiting off until Alexa is taught how to answer simple questions.

Overall I love the concept and its in line with how the modern day world is heading. I just wish it didn't need expensive subscriptions, all the features worked smoothly and the updates on knowledge and voice recognition come quicker.