Amazon Echo (4th generation) review

The first smart speaker from Amazon is back with a completely new look, a built-in Zigbee Smart Hub and more potential under its new, 100 percent recycled hood. You don’t need a particularly keen eye to see that Amazon has started over for this fourth-generation Echo.

The cylinder design has changed in favor of a Magic 8-ball-like sphere, and perhaps you can conveniently ask it any question you want – as long as it’s plugged in and connected to your WiFi. We raised an eyebrow when we first saw the new ball-like Echo, but Apple recently unveiled a Bijou HomePod mini that looks similar and is taken very seriously.

Amazon is transferring its once exclusive flagship Echo Plus features – more audio performance and an integrated smart home hub – to the redesigned Echo. This new fourth-generation Echo essentially negates the Plus model as it offers the ability to control ZigBee devices, promises better audio quality than its predecessor, and of course, offers more sophisticated Alexa voice support. On paper, this is already a better deal than any other smart speaker in the £ 100 ($ 100, AU $ 200) range.

To build

The echo is 13 cm high, 14 cm wide, and nearly spherical in shape (the base has been chopped off to provide a flat surface to keep the device from rolling). This makes it roughly the same height and width as a CD. It is available in black, dark blue or white.

Amazon’s Smart Speaker light ring has been moved from the crown of the speaker to the base and creates a glow that is now well reflected by surfaces. It glows blue when you pronounce your selected Alexa wake word, yellow when you group it with another Amazon speaker, and orange when in setup mode.

On the top there are buttons for Alexa, volume and microphone mute. The socket and the 3.5 mm audio output are located on the back. Perhaps a little mark against the new design is a rising ellipse made of die-cast aluminum that is highest above the port openings, which means that the back of the speaker doesn’t offer great omnidirectional sound output.

It’s a bit of a problem – since Echo speakers need to be plugged in to work, you’re unlikely to put one in the center of a room, but we’ve found better multi-directional sound on the older, cylindrical model.

Under its much more mesh-like fabric jacket, the Echo houses a 76 mm woofer and two 20 mm tweeters that support Dolby Stereo (not to be confused with Dolby Atmos, which is available exclusively for the Echo Studio on the Amazon Smart Speaker Family) . Like the older Echo Plus, it now offers what Amazon calls “Premium Adaptive Sound”, which it can use to capture the acoustics of your room and optimize the audio playback accordingly.

The drivers in the new Echo are the same size as those in the Echo Plus and outgoing third generation Echo, but you now get two tweeters instead of one. In addition to the integrated ZigBee Smart Home Hub (previously only seen in the Echo Plus), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Amazon Sidewalk are supported. The latter is meant to help you set up new devices quickly and expand the workspace of things like Ring Smart Lighting that may be beyond the capabilities of your home WiFi.

The design of the new Echo is nothing more than a topic of conversation. It is different; The same cannot be said of other competing smart blobs currently on the market. While the Echo is physically smaller than the brick-shaped Google Nest Audio, its drivers are slightly larger, and you get another one – the Nest Audio only includes a 19mm tweeter and a 75mm woofer. So far, so good.

characteristics

The Echo includes Amazon’s AZ1 Neural Edge processor, a brand new silicon module specifically designed to accelerate machine learning applications. AZ1 enables powerful inference engines to run “on the edge” (ie on the device), starting with a purely neural speech recognition model that is designed to process requests faster and make Alexa more responsive, “learn” and understand more about you over time .

As long as this concept doesn’t completely put you off (you can always turn off the Echo’s microphones), your preference between Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa will likely depend on compatibility with other products in your home. There’s not much in it for us – and the service here is vastly improved thanks to an impressive array of third-party services including the BBC. The guard and Pointless Smarts in the UK.

It’s easy to get the Echo working with your smartphone (you need to enable bluetooth) and Wi-Fi. Once you’ve linked your streaming service accounts, music from Apple Music, Spotify, or Deezer will be played over Wi-Fi. Even if you don’t link any music provider subscriptions, Amazon Music will play the Echo by default – and you’ll always have TuneIn radio too.

It is set up using the Amazon Alexa app which is well designed and intuitive. In the app, you can change the EQ levels of your echo, give it a name and assign it to a room in your house or group it with other compatible Alexa speakers. For example, create a group “downstairs,” say “Alexa, play music downstairs,” and your new Alexa multi-room smart setup will obey.

Thanks to the intercom function, you can use Alexa to tell every speaker in your home that dinner is ready, or you can send music to a specific room as a not-so-subtle message – Bruno Mars. Faules Lied in a room with a roommate who may not have shown up. Most of these scenarios are set up on the Devices tab, followed by the Plus icon. If you found Alexa the most attentive while testing, just tap the in-app play if you’d rather click your music requests than say them ‘icon and use your phone to load music.

We work a third generation cylindrical echo and a new spherical echo together in a group so that we can easily switch from one to the other. What you can’t do is pair the two speakers in stereo. During stereo pairing is As an echo function, this can only be carried out with two speakers of the same quality.

Klang

We’re asking Alexa to play a Spotify playlist from the 80s and throughout Live on a prayerJon Bon Jovi’s vocals play a central role alongside a surprisingly expansive bass: there’s the deep injection of Richie Sambora’s electric guitar, background vocals, and trademark voice box. The newer echo makes these musical strands much clearer and more effective than the older model.

Our playlist continues to Queen’s Don’t stop me nowand we get a well-timed performance across all frequencies. It’s also not afraid to go deep – one of our problems with the older Echo was an occasional mellow and ill-defined bass, and it feels like Amazon has addressed this.

We switch to Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy on Apple Music, and the structured voice comes through centrally, with an impactful but agile bass line. Stream Hip-Hop and the new Echo come into their own, full of full-bodied, structured depths.

With Disturbeds Cover by The sound of silenceThe new Echo offers a sound that is heavy and expansive enough in bass for its size, but has no bite, and we find we turn up the volume to get it.

The older generation model offers an additional injection of height volume, although the newer model is a little more detailed. We stream Adeles When we were young and get a slightly more eager, open, and emotional display of your upper registers on the cylindrical speaker.

Carmina Burana, performed by Edvin Marton, again has a more pronounced prank section due to the older echo. While there is a more expansive mix across the frequencies in the new speaker, this piece sharpens the fiddle, and here there is more urgency and excitement through the hectically curved passages in the third generation’s echo. Because of this, along with its pumping dance beat, the track is related to a better sense of oneness.

The advantage of the slightly recessed highs in the spherical loudspeaker is of course that tracks with greater refinement can be processed, while the older model can have brightness or harshness in some recordings. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you prefer a fun, energetic sound or a more integrated hi-fi approach. We lean towards the latter, but it’s not for everyone – and it’s a sign against the new echo that the highs are a bit overcooked.

judgment

If you leave aside the small acoustic flaws of the new Echo as a HiFi offer, its user-friendliness and sympathy cannot be ignored. Alexa feels present and useful, but not imposing. The support of the Alexa app makes placement and multi-room configurations child’s play. The sound quality is a step away from ideal, but it easily passes the sound-per-pound test for a smart speaker at this modest price.

It’s important to remember that as a smart home hub, the Echo chops are more of an ancillary function than an ancillary function purpose. Ultimately, the Amazon Echo (4th generation) is a solid cornerstone for building your smart home, surpassing its predecessor in terms of expanse, subtlety, and bass weight.

SCORES

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