Promising review: "The 4th generation Echo Dot with LED display is my first smart speaker and I am really impressed by it. Easy to set up and sounding good as it comes out of the box. I don’t think that I could ask for more.

This is a pleasant surprise as the Dot is small — roughly the size and shape of an orange with the top cut off to provide a flat base. It was simple to set up with the help of the Alexa app on my mobile. Once I had logged into my Amazon account in the app it was just a matter of letting the app find the Dot and then answering a few questions. It took me roughly 7 minutes from start to finish. I didn’t even have to enter any network name, although the option was there.

The 4th generation Echo Dot is a well-designed piece of equipment. It looks great and feels comfortingly solid. The firmware and software are clever. When plugged in for the first time I was greeted in several languages on the built-in display and sound (I spotted English, Spanish, and Italian but I was not really paying attention). The ring of LEDs around the base is used as a status display. The colors look to be orange for connected, blue when Alexa is active, and switch to a rotating light to indicate that the Dot is waiting. There’s a light sensor on the top that adjusts the LEDs to match the ambient light. It’s a quality feature and something that I find very reassuring.

It is the sound quality that I find amazing. I am a Prime member so my first experiment was to say “Alexa play Beethoven’s fifth.” After a moment I was given details of the recording before the piece started playing. I was taken aback by the quality of the sound, rich and warm, that seemed to fill the room. Much better than I had expected from such a small device. Just before I started writing this, I called out, “Alexa play Enya” and have been equally impressed. The tracks are a little bass-heavy for my preference but are perfectly acceptable.

The 4th Generation Echo Dot gets 5 stars from me without any hesitation. I can see that it is going to be a great addition to my den." — Greycynic

Buy the Echo Dot 4th Generation here.

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