Alexa what do we have today today we are going to be looking at a smart device
from Amazon voice assistant is becoming increasingly popular in today's consumer
technology products and in this video we are going to be testing out one of the
most popular voice assistant in the market and without taking much time my
name is Alexa and this is the echo echo dot
this would be a good time to press the mute button on your Amazon device to
keep it from being triggered because I'll be mentioning the weak word for
quite a bit in this video with that out of the way let's get started okay in the
box you get a Quick Start Guide safety and warranty the power adapter and
lastly the echo dot at the time of recording this video you can get this
for about $49.99 on Amazon I've put the links in the description if you're
interested to get one of these or better still if you already have decent
speakers and just want to add Alexa to your setup then I really recommend you
consider the new Amazon echo input now this basically brings all of our LexA
skills to your speakers practically upgrading it into a smart speaker and
the cost is only about 35 pounds on Amazon now you might be wondering what
the difference is and I can tell you as far as functions go they all work
exactly the same the third generation is much bigger in size the echo input on
the other hand is the smallest of all and that's because it doesn't have any
internal speakers so you won't be able to hear alex's feedback directly from
the device you will always need to have it connected to an existing speaker or
headphones to get feedback from Alexa let's go through a general overview of
the third-generation echo dot and the first thing that stands out to me is
this revolving ring light I really like it and I think it looks quite cool
probably one of the only reasons why I would go for the echo dot instead of an
echo input the ring light also animates itself to give you the volume level
indication which is just really cool another nice feature is the fabric cover
and I think this gives the echo dot a really nice home friendly premium look
ok now let's take a look at the controls and all the buttons are located at the
top of the echo dot so it has the volume up and down buttons for a
just in the volume and on here it has the mute button for muting the mics to
prevent Alexa from being triggered hopefully you've managed to press yours
by now and on the other side it has the action button and that is used to
directly trigger Alexa from the device without using the wake word now the
buttons are not touch responsive but they do have a clicky feedback which is
very good you also get a tonal feedback each time you press a button and that's
also very helpful it also has this microphone classed as a far-field
microphone this simply means that echo dots can actually hear you from across
the room it can also hear you even if the music is turned up really loud so I
think that's a really good feature to have on this device and over on this
side it has the audio input for connecting a 3.5 millimeter cable to any
speaker that has an auxilary input you also have the ability to connect to a
speaker by bluetooth if you wish now moving on from the auxiliary input you
have the power port for connecting the power cable and one can I'd like to
mention is the third-generation echo is no longer powered by the micro USB so
you would have to always rely on this cable to power the device so if you want
to use Alexa in places like your car or while you're on the go
then the echo input or the second generation echo dot is your easiest
option but I do have to mention that you need some kind of mobile data to have
this working on the road I normally use my phone's hot spot for the echo inputs
whenever I'm in my car ok let's go ahead and do some voice demo and for this demo
out change the wick word from echo so I don't drive your device crazy and by the
way you only have three options to choose from so as for the time of this
video you won't be able to give it a custom name that you like hopefully this
might change later on in the future ok now for a little demo echo what's the
weather for today right now in South Ockendon it's 18
degrees Celsius with cloudy skies today's forecast for showers with a high
of 18 degrees and a low of 9 degrees echo
how is my commute looking currently traffic on your commute looks good the
fastest route takes about 48 minutes fire a 2 a 2 and a 2 echo
they made some smooth jazz all right the station
smooth jazz on Amazon music stop echo inspire me
on ambition here's some wise words from Matthew McConaughey bo Jackson
what do you do he's to run over the goal line through the end zone and of the
tunnel the greatest snipers and marksmen in the world they don't aim at the
target they aim on the other side of the target we do our best when our
destinations are beyond the measurement when our reach continually exceeds our
grasp and when we have immortal finish lines and when we do this the race is
never over the journey has no port the adventure never ends because we are
always on the way to start your day with a bit of inspiration just say Alexa
inspire me as you can see it really works quite well to understand your
speech and even with a different accent like mine it does a good job to pick out
my sentence now after setting up the echo you can do
basic things like setting up your alarm or getting the weather report but for
more complex tasks like controlling smart devices like your lights and other
electronics you need to add the skills to perform those tasks and to do that
you need to go to the app and search for the skills that we require these skills
are like little apps that work with Alexa and there are tons of skills are
available and the database gets updated regularly with more skills being added
so you definitely find a skill that you require another cool thing you can do
with the echo is to use it as an intercom to quickly send voice messages
across all the echo devices in your home now let's do a little demo on that echo
announce what's the announcement hey guys if you're still working then just
go ahead and hit the like button and the subscribe button thank you announcing
hey guys subscribe thank you now that's quite handy i normally use my echo
inputs to announce a quick message to the house while I'm still on the road
but I kind of wish that you can announce a message to a specific echo device in
your home instead of announcing it to the entire device on your network that
would be really good but I haven't found a way to do that yet and if you know how
to do this then please let me know in the comments okay guys it's time for the
things I don't like and on this channel we look out for some possible issues
that you might have to live with on your purchase and here are a few points to
consider the first thing is the microphones yes now it can certainly
feel a little creepy knowing these microphones are kind of always listening
to your conversation which means Alexa could easily get triggered by accident
and it could end up doing things you don't like now you can always have peace
of mind by pressing the mute button and this simply means the microphones will
no longer listen for the weak word but do they stop listening to your
conversations and the second point is the app now the app can sometimes feel a
little bit lost and overwhelming as you come across different menus that do
exactly the same thing and other times you run into dead-end options with no
way of going back now the app is not overly complex but sometimes you can
definitely feel a little lost navigating the options and the third point is Alexa
skills and the amount of setups to perform now don't expect the echo to
perform complex tasks right out of the box you definitely need to put in some
time to get it set up the way you wanted to and if you have a lot of tins enabled
you might actually start forgetting all the settings that you have made okay
that's all I could find about this device in general I think it's a cool
device to have especially if you're looking to build a smart home now Amazon
have got themselves a great product here and I think this can only get better in
the future okay so who do I recommend this to now let me start by who I don't
recommend this to now if you're in need of Alexa and you also want a big sound
for music then this isn't for you I would recommend you get the echo input
in then you can go ahead and buy a bigger
and better speaker you're going to get a far greater audio experience that way
now of course you can still use the echo dots in conjunction with any speaker now
if you have a bit more budget to spend and you really want the Amazon
experience then I highly recommend you go for the echo plus which has much
bigger speakers inside now but if you're on a budget and you just love the form
factor of the echo dot with the ring light then you'll absolutely be happy
with this purchase now that's it guys let me know what you think about this
video in the comments below do you think voice assistant devices are overrated
or do you think they're only going to get bigger and better I'd like to know
what you think and if you have any questions about the echo dot let me know
in the comments below I love interacting with you guys and I respond to almost
every comment that comes in and if you'd like to see more product reviews like
this one then please don't forget to hit the like button subscribe to this
channel and click the bell icon so you know when I upload anything new and
until next time my name is Oni and Alexa and I'll see you in the next video
you