Hey guys, we just had this come in the mail.
This is the new Amazon Alexa-enabled microwave.
We're kind of excited to unbox it and just see what it's all about.
I'm not expecting anything too fancy.
It was 60 bucks, $59.99 something like that.
A lot of people I know have been giving this thing crap on social media saying like,
Why would you want to talk to your microwave and all that
I can see some genuine uses for it.
Let's say you want to microwave a chicken leg versus a chicken breast or something like that.
That's hard for a regular microwave to kind of cram that into the small little interface on the front.
So we're just gonna get started.
I haven't done an unboxing before.
I don't really watch unboxing
So we're just gonna tear this thing open and see what happens.
So we have just a boring brown box here.
It doesn't feel like one of those Amazon packages.
It's like the box is thirty times larger than the actual product.
Okay, so up top here, we have just the basic standard glass plate.
It spins.
I really hope I don't have to read this.
This is what it looks like taking it out just giving it like a brief glance.
It's very minimalist.
Again, not fancy by any stretch of the imagination.
It looks like any small inexpensive microwave.
I do like the panel just at first glance.
It's clean, minimal and it has the little Ask Alexa
button right there on the bottom that you can tap.
Otherwise, the controls are identical to what you'd see in any other microwave I'd say.
That went really fast.
That's a bad, huh.
Yeah, I mean at like 60 bucks, it's pretty much what you'd expect.
It's very small.
That is much smaller in size than I was thinking.
This and I know that is gonna scratch like nobody's business.
Okay, so we just got the Alexa microwave unboxed and got it all set up.
Got the tape off of it. All the stuff that comes with it like that.
It says to download the Alexa app, install the microwave.
Plug it in and then just follow the instructions in the app to get going.
So I'll try that here in just a second.
It also comes with a list of things that you can try so
Cook for a specific time, change the power level, pause, start, restart, all those things
and then reheat different types of food or cook different types of food
looking at the microwave itself
It's a lot smaller than I was anticipating.
I guess I was looking for a basic microwave actually to replace what we have.
When I saw the Alexa microwave, I didn't realize there was only one model.
I wanted to give it a shot.
Definitely smaller than I would have thought.
This is a 700 watt.
Apparently that's not the greatest either.
But again, this is a $59, $60 microwave so it's gonna be very basic.
I think Amazon just wants to get these into as many houses as possible
and ultimately control all of our lives
and from what I understand - it connects with the closest Amazon Alexa device.
So I have an echo dot here the latest version that will we'll try out with the microwave.
Fail I got a fail.
I like that it's just like epic fail.
No, you do not do that to me.
Wow.
Okay, it just says microwave Amazon's basics.
Okay, next press and hold the two
Okay
It worked
after a
Little bit of us. Um
So it's connecting our microwave to our wireless network. This might take a minute.
In that minute, I could microwave something that a regular microwave.
Okay, so it just beeped it says SUCC
I'm not sure why they didn't have that scroll
or try to come up with another four-letter word.
But we're connected. It says microwave connected.
Enable the "Ask Alexa" button.
The "Ask Alexa" button lets you control your microwave without seeing Alexa or microwave.
Once set up, press the "Ask Alexa" button and say three minutes.
That's simple.
Okay, so it says it's ready to go if I connected it to the right echo dot.
This button should work.
So, let's see what happens.
And it pings the closest echo.
I presume I could just ask the echo dot to microwave something.
So I'll try that.
Alexa microwave a bag of popcorn.
Sorry, I don't know that one.
Maybe I do need these one second, but
Microwave a bag of popcorn
Alexa: What's the weight of popcorn?
Regular?
Alexa microwave a bag of popcorn.
Alexa: What's the weight of popcorn?
I'm not sure.
Alexa: What's the weight of popcorn?
Frustrating
for the weight of popcorn
In all reality, I probably
Should actually have a bag of popcorn so that I can look and see the size of it.
Let me try that now.
Okay, so now I have a
popcorn box
Which tells me how big the bags are because the bags don't say, but now that I know that they are three ounces
We'll try this again.
Microwave a bag of popcorn.
Alexa: What's the weight of popcorn?
Three ounces.
Alexa: Cooking popcorn. 2 minutes 31 seconds.
Very nice. Little extra information.
So I finished the setup here and it says popcorn when you need it.
Set up auto popcorn replenishment and your microwave can reorder popcorn for you when you're running low.
So, the Amazon master plan is not so thinly-veiled.
That seems really slow, doesn't it?
Like it's, that one just seems faster, but it is a 700 watt.
So
Very impressive if you've never used a microwave before.
I'm a little disappointed. I thought I would be able to ask the echo dot
Directly to microwave me something but I have to hit the button first. Not a big deal
I mean you're gonna be putting stuff in the microwave. Anyway, I'm gonna try microwaving a potato
Actually two potatoes a small one and a large one
I just want to see if it just lets me put the potato in and say microwaving a small potato.
Jam it full of holes.
Microwave a small potato.
Impressive
Alexa: Cooking potato. 6 minutes 30 seconds
Very cool. So uh, yeah. I just said microwave a small potato and no small potato
Hopefully and then we'll try a large one
Later and see the difference
All right. So the small potato is done. We're gonna pull it out here. It did take a very long time.
I'm not really sure what the power level is set to.
I can probably ask it.
What's the power level set to?
Alexa: I don’t know how to set to that setttings.
What is the power level?
Alexa: I don’t know how to set to that setttings.
Set the power level to high.
Alexa: For how long?
Never mind.
Okay, all right, so it just finished microwaving the small potato.
It did take quite a while, it's pretty slow.
I don't know what the power levels set to by default.
Hopefully high, I don't know.
This is a 700 watt so it does take a while.
It took seven minutes but poking my fork in here, it feels like a microwave baked potato should.
So I think, that's kind of cool that it just everything it needs to cook a small potato just by asking that.
All right, so now we have the super large potato we're going to try this one out and see how this one goes.
Microwave a large potato.
That's it.
Alexa: Cooking potato. 6 minutes 30 seconds.
Excuse me?
All right, so the large potato is done now and I'm not gonna touch that plate because it's super hot.
This is not as impressive. I have to say.
This is still pretty.
Hard inside
And maybe this isn't classified as a large potato.
Maybe it's like an extra-large potato or something, but this would definitely need to be microwaved longer.
Hello mostly in the very very middle
I think it did a great job with the small potato.
And actually when I was microwaving potatoes recently
You put a potato in the microwave and you have no idea how long you're supposed to microwave it for?
So it's kind of just like put it in guess and the next time you guess again, and you
Maybe over time get better and you dial it in to how long
or you could look online and like find a table for microwaves.
To know how long you need to microwave
Different food items for but the small potato is actually a pretty good result and now in the future I know
That at least with this microwave it's gonna be 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
I was hoping that it would do a better job on this potato.
Um, like I said, maybe it was just way too large to be classified as large potato.
We're gonna try again and ask for an extra large potato just to see if that's an option.
Microwave an extra large potato.
Alexa: How many do you want to cook?
One
Alexa: Starting the table, 6 minutes 30 seconds.
So
I've asked for a small potato and a large potato and an extra-large potato and
It's just 6 minutes and 30 seconds. No matter what. It's actually a little frustrating.
I was hoping that it would be smart enough to know the difference between different sizes and adjust the time.
I mean that's honestly the entire promise of the technology.
But it is what it is.
That time - it asks like how many which it didn't the other times?
All right, so
We are going to take this really sad looking chicken leg and see if we can bring it back to life.
Let's ask Alexa.
Microwave chicken leg.
Alexa: Hmm, I don't know that one.
That sucks.
Microwave a piece of chicken.
Alexa: Fo how long?
I have no idea. That's why I asked you to do it.
Microwave a
Alexa: Fo how long?
Alexa stop.
Abort mission, okay.
Abort mission to microwave the chicken nike.
Microwave a piece of chicken.
Alexa: Fo how long?
One minute.
Okay, so it's interesting I asked it to microwave a piece of chicken.
I even asked it to microwave a chicken leg.
I was hoping that it would kind of know how long that should be cooked for.
It ended up asking me how long I wanted to cook it for.
I have no idea.
I said a minute.
But it did automatically adjust the power level.
So it seems like it knew that what power level chicken should be cooked at.
Very interesting.
I'm starting to become like a little less impressed. Oh, there's obviously like it still sees some usefulness, but
Man.
That's like really basic stuff too. Like chicken leg, chicken thighs.
Okay.
So the chicken wasn't very good
But to be honest, that look kind of look like death before I put it in the microwave.
So it didn't work any miracles.
And that's that's fine. I won't hold it against it.
I'm gonna just gonna try a couple random things to see if it does it.
It would be crazy if it did but,
Microwave a CD.
Alexa: I don't know how to set microwave a C. D. to the settings.
Interesting, okay.
I don't know why you do this but,
Microwave an apple.
Alexa: What's the value of apple
Microwave one apple.
Alexa: I don't know how to set microwave one apple to the settings.
It honestly makes sense. I don't know microwave enough.
So we just tested the Amazon Alexa-enabled microwave.
Looking at it, it's the most basic of basic microwaves.
It's smaller than I thought inside.
It's low powered. It's 700 watts.
Would I recommend this microwave?
It's definitely not gonna work for everybody.
I think you know people getting this for Christmas.
Thinking they're gonna replace their current microwaves.
Are gonna be maybe disappointed on the size.
How slowly it cooks things.
But if you do need just the most basic microwave and you don't mind it being smaller,
I think it does provide some minimal usefulness in kind of recommending how long to cook things for.
If I put a potato in a microwave,
I wouldn't know how long to set the time for and you can figure that out.
You could look tables up online, you know trial and error get to the right result.
But it knows how long it should cook an average-sized potato.
And that provides a minimal set of usefulness.
I think they could make it more useful in the future by updating the software
To allow you to say more things, recognize different sized items,
Expand its vocabulary and what it can and can't microwave.
But for now, it seems very very basic and I'd say,
A little less impressive than I was hoping it would feel like.
But for my purposes and just needing a basic microwave, it's gonna do just fine.
It is a normal microwave except for this
Amazon Alexa button and that's really what it comes down to in the end.
All right, so that's all for now.
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