Amazon’s Trio of New Echo Dots Are Here — Here’s What We Think
Amazon's new Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock, and Echo Dot Kids Edition are shipping now.
Yes, Amazon’s continuing it’s tradition of dropping new Echo gadgets every fall. And while there are plenty to pick from in 2022, the trio of new Echo Dots are the most exciting … and the most anticipated.
There’s the $49.99 Echo Dot 5th Gen, the $59.99 Echo Dot with Clock, and the $59.99 Echo Dot Kids. All of which boast the same improved speaker setup, spherical designs with a glowing thin strip of LEDs, and instant access to Alexa.
And I’ve been using an Echo Dot since the original, and while this isn’t a giant leap in comparison to the 4th Gen, Amazon’s improving where it matters. Better yet, I’ve spent some time with all three of those, so let’s break em’ down.
Echo Dot Design: Spherical All-Around
So Amazon’s latest Echo Dots keep a working spherical design and they look like fruits. About the size of a plump orange and about the height of an orange. They stand as spherical globes with a flat bottom so they don’t roll away and come in a few colors depending on the model. IT’s still a woven fabric outter shell finish as well.
One of my favorite parts of the design is the glowing LED light strip which is on the bottom. It will glow blue when Alexa is listening, red when the microphone is muted, and yellow if you have a notification. A neat trick here is that it can reflect off of a surface since the light broadcasts directly onto it.
On the top you get a physical button to mute the microphone, along with a button to ask alexa, volume down and volume up. And given this has far-field microphones built-in, which allow you to ask Alexa anything, the physical button to mute the microphone is super appreciated. And new for this generation is that you tap, or smack, the front of the Echo Dot to pause or play music, as well as a few other use cases.
The standard Echo Dot comes in Charcoal, Glacier White, and a new Deep Sea Blue. Sadly, I didn’t get the latter, but rather Glacier White. It’s not a new shade, but fits in with most spaces just fine. The Dot with Clock on the other hand only comes in lighter shades — Glacier White or Cloud Blue — since the LED display on the front can only get so bright and is white.
Echo Dot Kids is a more fun design that comes in two flavors — a Dragon, complete with fire breathing, and an Owl. I personally miss the Tiger and Panda editions of the past year. But the Echo Dot Kids edition, aside from the different woven design, retains all the other features.
Better Audio and New Sensors
The biggest changes with the Echo Dots are all under the hood. Regardless of the model, the Echo Dots feature a single 1.73-inch speaker that fires out the front. It’s one directional and best to be listening front facing. Simply, it’s only front firing and there’s no audio from the back.
Coming from the previous-gen Echo Dot? That has a 1.6-inch speaker, so this is slightly larger and with some mixing tricks vocals come through clearer and it seems that bass has been raised. It’s still best to listen not at full volume and produce rich sound. The Echo Dot remains an affordable way to add music to a given room. Those coming from an older donut shaped third-gen Dot will notice a much bigger leap with audio, though.
The other internal addition is a new temperature sensor, which you guessed it can provide the temperature of wherever your Echo Dot is. With this, you could have it set to trigger a routine if, like if the temperature hits a low or a high, it can turn heating or cooling on via a smart thermostat.
And via a forthcoming update, later in October, you’ll be able to use an Echo Dot to extend your Wi-Fi network. There is a catch though — it needs to be an existing Eero mesh Wi-Fi system. I’ll be putting this to the test soon.
Dot with Clock Screen Improvements
This is a small one, but a biq quality of life improvement. The genius of the Echo dot with Clock has always been being able to say weather animations and, of course, the current time via the LED on the front.
With the newer generation of Dot with Clock, the LED dot matrix display gets brighter and Amazon is letting the display show more. It can list the track that is playing and developers will be able to take advantage of this and rollout new experiences.
From my testing so far, it’s definitely a lot easier to see the display from afar and is quite handy for using it on a nightstand.
Making a Small Smart Speaker Even Better
And that about wraps up the changes to the new Echo Dots — they’re all still excellent smart speakers, and these are the best Echo Dots yet.
If you’re new to the Alexa ecosystem or simply want to get an Echo Dot, the 5th generation standard or with clock delivers an excellent experience. There’s not an immediate need to run out and upgrade if you have the 4th Gen Dot, but if you’re after the new sensors it’s worth the upgrade. Similarly, if you want a more capable Dot with Clock it’s a great time to upgrade.
