hello everyone thanks for tuning in again I'm ready to get started with my
review of the Amazon echo plus second generation device and of course as
you're going through a device like this you can't forget its competitor so let's
go through it right now first up is cost now of course the Amazon echo plus
second generation is the exact same cost as the first generation this is what
we're seeing with the Amazon echo dot third generation where the price
matching from the previous generation is going on so this device is a hundred and
forty nine dollars same as this one was originally when it was sold and to date
now in comparison here to the Google home which is I would say its main
competitor this device is a hundred and twenty nine dollars u.s. now whenever
you're buying a smart home speaker I think first and foremost what you want
to know is how is the speaker all three of these devices are going to be
excellent but in my tests of these three devices this is the best speaker here
and what I'll say is from the first generation echo plus to the
second-generation plus here what has happened is there is a slightly larger
woofer here in this device so this was a 2.5 inch and this is a three inch woofer
here and so what that does is gives you that extra low-end or bass sound that a
lot of people are looking for from their home theater system now of course it's
actually important for you to actually hear how these all sound so let me put
them all next to each other give you a demo of that
all right so there you go I think you could see that in general these devices
were pretty close all three of them were pretty close in terms of quality and in
terms of loudness they're all very close as well but ultimately in my tests here
this speaker is a excellent listening speaker I know it's a little heavy on
that low-end but you can actually adjust that using your application on your
phone and a number of other ways you can actually control it through the voice
assistant so you know that ability to control the bass and the treble here
with the echo plus I think makes this the best speaker in the class one other
thing to talk about in terms of speaker quality this device is able to pair with
another echo or another echo plus and also the echo sub and then turn into
that two point one theater system and you know I have the sub now here in my
home and I can tell you from what I've been listening to it's pretty amazing to
actually get those devices all working together by comparison neither of these
two devices can do that that hasn't been promised for the first generation of
echo pluses and Google really has zero response in terms of a two point one
system like that and I think Amazon over time is going to be able to take that
further and further since they've already created it I wonder if we're
gonna hit 5.1 systems very very soon the next thing to talk about here is the
home automation capability now between the Amazon echo plus first generation in
the second generation there's very little
difference what happens here is both of these devices have what's called a
ZigBee hub in them and so you don't know what a ZigBee hub does for you or what
it means the ZigBee hub gives you the capability of controlling ZigBee
protocol enabled devices directly using this where the comparison happens here
is the Google home is unable to connect directly so for a system like Samsung
smartthings you can connect the sensors directly to
your echo plus either the first or the second generation whereas with the
Google home Mini you're going to need the Samsung smartthings hub in order to
connect those devices to it so that little differential is actually quite
significant when you think about all the different hubs that are out there today
little caveat to all of this if you want Philips you you're still going to need
the hub but where a differential exists is for example like a single bulb or
again like I said Samsung smartthings now on top of that there's one
differential here between the first and second generation what basically happens
here is there's a temperature sensor on board with this second generation of
echo plus that was not there in the first generation and so you can ask this
device right here anytime you'd like what the temperature is in this device
or at this device so that gives you the opportunity to get another temperature
sensor in your home at the same cost as this the echo plus 2 temperature is 22
point three degrees now in terms of look and feel I think there's some pretty big
differences here across the board but ultimately the Amazon echo plus first
generation is obviously the largest and the most you know prominent device here
what amazon has done is they basically paid attention to what Google is doing
this is not a prominent device it's not standing out as much as it possibly can
instead this device is trying to hide and also blend in a little bit with the
surroundings and that's what I'd say Amazon has done with this the new cloth
fabric clearly they've been moving in that direction
since the second generation of Amazon echo devices we now see the echo dot
third-generation with that same cloth finish I really like it and I think it
softens the whole look the other thing is you notice the height is very similar
between the Google home and the Amazon echo plus second generation it's about
half or just a little over half the size you can see the thickness and again if I
kind of line these two up very close in terms of their stature so overall in
terms of look I think this is a real upgrade for Amazon in terms of their
echo plus second generation and I think the lessons that they've kind of taken
over the last few years have been well learned on top of all of that and let me
show you a little bit of a difference here the Amazon echo plus here basically
has one microphone there in the middle and then there's an arrangement
underneath the surface now when you compare that with this new Amazon echo
plus you can see the arrangement rate there is quite different so there's
actually a whole number of microphones and they're on the top of the speaker
now what I think that does for Amazon in this case is it helps with clarity and
understanding of queries commands and those other things that people are
saying to the device the reason I say that is actually I've been testing this
device out for a few days now and what I found every day is that this device is
understanding me much better and with more noise in the room now still when
you go ahead and you fill the room with the sound the the music that is capable
out of this device it's not going to hear you very well you're still going to
have to yell at it there's really no way around that the far-field microphones
that are on here just cannot compensate for that much sound going on in the room
so it hasn't eliminated that but when it dims that audio or it lowers that audio
for me what I've noticed is that it is understanding me better than the first
generation device so I think ultimately what this is going to do is push this
new series of echo devices closer and closer to the accuracy that we see with
a Google home and the Google assistant so if you've been reading lots of those
reports overall what happens is the Google assistant understands a hundred
percent of the questions it's being asked and I actually think sometimes
this voice assistant here and I'm not going to say the name but this a voice
assistant struggles with hearing actually and I think that was always
somewhat partly at fault or what was that fault here was the microphone
arrangement so what I'm noticing here is the clarity and the understanding is
much better in the echo plus second generation alright now one last thing to
talk about here the new application that controls all of this and again it's
named for the voice assistant so I'm not going to say it but that new application
has been redesigned and the new redesign is significantly better than the
previous version of the application so I think when you go out and you buy this
speaker now you're getting a much better experience on your phone or your tablet
and in terms of your control capability within this system so overall yes you
can get that application and use it here on the first generation but ultimately
it is significantly improved and over time we're of course going to see more
and more of the functionality be limited to just this second generation device
not the first generation so there you go everyone I think that's a pretty good
review here obviously we have a lot of upgrades from that first generation and
in general I think you have very close devices here obviously stay tuned to the
channel as I go through a full comparison review of these three devices
that will be coming next and then you're going to see the echo sub coming rate
after that now of course I'd like you all to subscribe join up with the
channel as I go through all these new devices from Amazon and of course you're
going to see the continued advancement of all of our tutorials for all of your
home nation needs so everyone thanks for
watching and we'll see you next time
you