Amazon Echo Dot 0028
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Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen Review – Alexa, This Is Your Review

Hey Google, Hi Alexa, Hi Siri, Hi Cortana… We have a lot of smart assistants who claim to make our life easier. The Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen is a device, obviously, from Amazon and it is using their own AI Assistant. Currently, I’m using the Google Mini and the Google Home and I’m really happy with those two. Can Amazon compete with the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen?

Introduction & Specifications

Having a smart assistant is really handy in some cases. For example, I use the Google Assistant to turn on my lights, set reminders, set alarms, play music (Spotify/Radio), and ask for questions that I don’t know the answer too. Alexa can do the same of course, but who can do it better? Which has a better sound? Which reacts better to voice commands? The specifications, as seen below, look promising and the design and hardware are looking good as well. It is of personal preference if you like Google or Amazon better of course. Let’s have a look at the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen!

Specifications
Brand:Amazon
Model:Echo Dot 3rd Gen
Network Connectivity:802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz)
Bluetooth Connectivity:Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
Outputs:3.5mm
Power:15W
Weight:10.6 oz. (300 grams)
Dimensions:10.6 oz. (300 grams)

Unboxing

The box is busy! There is a lot of information on all sides of the box. On one side, there are commands, on the other side are supported apps, and on another side, there is even more information in different languages. On the front, we find the brand name and a picture of the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. The packaging is not the most beautiful and I feel that there is too much information in it.

Inside the box, we first see the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen and underneath the speaker, we find the charger and information papers.

Hardware & Design

The 4 holes you see on top of the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen are microphone. With those microphones, it doesn’t matter where you are in your house, the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen will always listen with the 4 microphones so it will capture your voice accurately. The speaker mash looks beautiful and it is stylish. You can easily place the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen in your living room without it being ugly or something. At the back, there is a 3.5mm jack and a power connector. All looks solid and the power adapter clicks in easily.

You can control it with your voice, but there are also buttons on top. They click easily and feel solid. Of course, this is kind of expected from a company like Amazon. I rather see them with a better or extra speaker instead of physical buttons. Maybe, touch control like the Google Home Mini would be a good suggestion for the next generation.

Ask anything you want to Alexa for instant answers! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS!

Software

There are A LOT of options in the Alexa app. I’m not going to list or show them all, just play around with the application and find out where things are. For this review, I will focus on the device settings of the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. In general, the application works well, but since there are so many connections to make, it sometimes slows down or reacts really laggy. I hope that improves in future versions. Also, sometimes it takes some time before I find what I’m looking for. The app could use some updates.

If you are on Android, CLICK HERE to download the Alexa app.
If you are on iOS, CLICK HERE to download the Alexa app.

How To Setup?

First of all, you need to download the app above, of course. From here, you register and log in with your Amazon account. Now, click on the three stripes on the left side and click on “Add Device”. Here you pick your product and follow the steps. When you selected your device, you have to put it in to set up mode, which is done by holding the action button by the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. When it is, click on continue and the Alexa app will start searching for your Amazon speaker. Easy! Follow the steps to register your device and you are good to go! Ask Alexa anything now.

Performance

How well does Alexa react? Is the sound quality good? Are the answers correct? Can you ask multiple things? There are a lot of things that are important for a smart speaker. I don’t like to repeat myself often or get a totally different answer. Can the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen surprise us and perform really well with the good sound quality? Let’s find out how the performance is!

“Alexa” Reaction

The Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen reacts really well to you saying “Alexa”. It doesn’t matter if you are on the other side of the room, the speaker will listen and give you the option to give you commands or ask your question. With a loud and clear response, you don’t have to repeat yourself several times. With Alexa, it just works.

Ask anything you want to Alexa for instant answers! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS!

Sound Quality

Playing music on Spotify sometimes is hard. It is unable to find songs or plays something different, besides that, the quality is not that good too. We can not expect too much from a small speaker like the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. On the other hand, you can change the settings of the music in the Alexa app. Here you can change the bass, midrange, and treble. Here you can play around with the settings to make it better for the genre you are listening too.

The voice, on the other hand, is loud and clear. It is pleasant to listen to and sound less like a robot if we compare it to the Google Home Mini. That is definitely a good thing.

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Features

An AI Assistant speaker is more than just a speaker. What can the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen do what others can’t? Is the sound quality better? Are there more platforms supported? Let’s have a look at some of Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen features and commands you can use.

Announcements

Man, I love this feature! Instead of calling or sending a message, you can send an announcement to your Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen via the Alexa app. How does it work? You type a short message, for example: “I’m on my way home! Be there in 5”. Now, this message is played on your Alexa speaker! If your kids are home alone, you can send them an announcement via the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen (that is a super high tech thing of course!). While sending a message to the family WhatsApp group, I like this feature more.

Follow Up

On my Google Home devices, I love this feature! Luckily, this is also available on the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. On default, this feature is turned off, so you have to turn it on via the Alexa app. By default, Alexa will stop listening after each question and you have to ask Alexa to listen every single time. With the Follow Up feature enabled, Alexa will listen after it has given you an answer so you can ask multiple questions without saying “Alexa” every time! Must-have on smart speakers if you ask me.

Ask anything you want to Alexa for instant answers! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS!

Connected Platforms

With the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen, you can connect a lot of different services. You can connect it to Ring, Apple Music, and Philips hue for example, but there are many, many more that you can connect with. You can also connect it to the less popular brands and apps like Smart Life (for BlitzWolf products for example), Ikea, Xiaomi Home, Tuya Smart, TP-Link, and eWeLink Smart Home. These are just a few examples of the different apps and there are many more options.

This makes it a great and valuable speaker to connect to your different smart home products.

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Different Example Commands

There are a lot of commands which Alexa will listen too. I’m not going to list them here, but you can find them HERE.

So, what are the commands I use the most?

  • Alexa, turn on the living room lights
  • Alexa, turn off the bedroom
  • Alexa, play xxx (artist name) on Spotify
  • Alexa, what is the weather for today/tomorrow/this week?
  • Alexa, let’s play a game
  • Alexa, set an alarm for xx minutes
  • Alexa, call xxx (name)
  • Alexa, add xxx (item) to my shopping list
  • Ask anything you want to Alexa for instant answers! CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS!

    You can see that there is a great variety of different commands that you can use, and these are just the ones I tend to use a lot. It is really handy to have such an AI Assistant available that you can just ask anything too.

    Conclusion

    Amazon is competing with the Google Home Mini with the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen. The looks are great, but I like the meshed top of the Google Home Mini better. You have the physical buttons on top, which might be handy in some cases. There are a lot of apps supported, like Ikea, Xiaomi Home, Tuya Smart, TP-Link, and eWeLink Smart Home. When asking Alexa something, the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen reacts snappy and quick.

    If you are listening to music, I would recommend a different, better speaker but you can listen to some songs if you want. The quality is not great, but not bad either. The bass is missing, like to listen to music? Upgrade to a better speaker.

    Overall, the quality of the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen is good, it really helps you out with the questions you have or automative tasks you want to do for your house. Turn on all the lights, turn off the lights or control the temperature, super easy! Definitely recommend this product, but it is not better than the Google Home Mini if you ask me, both are equally.

    Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen

    €45
    7.9

    Product Size/Design

    9.0/10

    Price/Quality

    8.5/10

    Features/Functions

    8.5/10

    Software/App

    7.0/10

    Sound Quality

    6.5/10

    Pros

    • Announcements is a great feature
    • Alexa responds quick, loud, and clear
    • Alexa listens really good!
    • Quality of the materials is great
    • Price/Quality ratio is good

    Cons

    • Pushing and promoting it's own software, like Amazon Music (annoying)
    • Sound quality could be better
    • Physical buttons? Why?
    • App is sometimes slow or unclear

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