Rating: 4.25/5
Echo Dot 3 (3rd Gen) is one of the most inexpensive ways to start with Amazon’s smart home ecosystem. With the gamut of features it comes with and at an unbelievable price, we featured Echo Dot 3 and Echo Dot 4 in the top 10 Smart speakers for 2021.
Every smart home is equipped with at least one Amazon product in today’s world. This indicates how big a role Amazon is playing in shaping up the entire smart home automation. Here is another amazing device from Amazon – “The Echo Dot 3”.
Having the ability to speak multiple languages such as English and Hindi, the product is well positioned to take over the market with upgrades and new product variants. Though the competing product ‘Google Home Mini’ wins in sound quality, we have a lot more reasons to get excited about Echo Dot 3.
Amazon Echo Dot 3 Review Design :
Coming to the design structure, Echo Dot 3 looks great and sounds even better than its predecessors. The Echo Dot 3 is noticeably smaller with puck shaped design. On the surface of the Echo Dot 3, we have four buttons, two for volume, microphone button, and one action button which does a bunch of things including activating Alexa without using its wake word. The exterior side of the speaker has a fabric cover and is available in four colours: black, white, blue, and grey
The Echo Dot 3 has a digital clock display on the front facing part of the device. The clock variant is available only in white color, and this also has an LED display that shows classic digital numbers. Once set up, the device will display the time and can also be used to show the outdoor temperature and timer status.
There’s also a light ring which lights up whenever we use a wake word. The LED ring on the Echo lights up with different colours: blue is for ‘listening’ mode, red indicates if your microphone is disabled, yellow means Echo Dot is connecting to a Wi-Fi network, and purple indicates a connection failure. If you noticed, these colors are assigned such that we get an intuitive sense of what’s going on (Not many like purple, so yeah, that’s a connection failure). The brightness of the display can be adjusted through the Alexa app on your smartphone, but the Echo Dot can also adjust its color automatically based on the ambient light.
Size of the echo is around 99*99*43 mm and weights nearly up to 300g. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) is provided for audio streaming from your mobile to Echo Dot or from Echo Dot to your Bluetooth speaker. We also have Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices and a Dual-band Wi-Fi that supports 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 and 5 GHz) networks. The Alexa App is compatible with Fire OS, Android, and iOS devices and also is accessible via your web browser.
Clock Performance :
Amazon Echo Dot 3 Review, Here you go with an Echo Dot, with a clock which is pretty much efficient. The new Echo Dot comes with a built-in clock. It’s a simple addition with some LEDs embedded under the Dot’s fabric-coated rim that can display the time.
I think it makes the most sense on your bedside table in such a way that you can check the time without having to grab your phone. In addition to this, the Echo Dot 3 can also display other info to complement a few basic verbal requests. If you ask for the temperature, it will briefly show the current temperature in place of the time. Alexa’s voice provides a more detailed breakdown of the weather. If you set a timer, the Echo Dot 3 will show you a countdown clock too. Think about issuing a voice command to set a timer while baking in your oven. Isn’t it handy? Another smart feature is that, after setting an alarm, a little dot will appear next to the time to remind you that it’s set.
Smart home controller:
As the world is getting smarter today, Nearly everything in your home including air-conditioners, thermostats, lights and doors can be connected to the internet and be remotely controlled with a mobile device or smart speaker.
Amazon Echo Dot 3 Review, The Echo Dot 3’s virtual voice-controlled assistant makes it easy to control your smart home products by speaking simple commands like “Alexa, turn on the lights”. You can control switches for utilities like heaters, fans, and coffee makers, control thermostats, and also operate your smart TV through Amazon Fire TV. For setting up and enabling each skill, go to the Alexa app, pull up the main menu, and tap the “Music, Video, & Books” option. You can manage all of your Music and Book listings through the app, and also control additional speaker add-ins like Sonos from the app. Be aware that you’ll need compatible devices and may need to update your platform’s software before linking with Alexa. Once you are smartly connected, you can change channels/volume, rewind & fast-forward, pause, choose which show you’d like to watch, and ask for general movies or TV shows based on actors or actresses involved.
Echo Dot 3 really starts to make sense in your home when controlling smart home tech from an Echo device. It also allows us to set up single command groups that can control multiple lights, plugs and other devices together. This is pretty a awesome feature since a single command can set the mood in your entire house.
Audio:
The previous Echo Dot was already impressive in terms of hearing commands. Even when the music is playing, a clear command will wake your Alexa up. However, the Echo Dot lagged behind the sound quality. The Echo Dot 3 has greatly improved the output and is arguably the most impressive upgrade in Echo Dot 3 (3rd Gen). The device has been replaced by actual bass notes, full-bodied voices and a smooth treble.
You can finally place hands-free calls and voice texts on Amazon Echo or in the Alexa app. You can place calls to any landline or mobile number. When placing or receiving calls, the light ring around the Echo will turn green, and it’ll turn yellow when you have a voice or text message waiting to be answered.
Music :
Like with the older Dot, you can connect the third-generation device to an external speaker via the 3.5 mm audio jack, or you can play music through the Dot via its Bluetooth connection. The Amazon Echo is a very capable speaker that can easily fill up a room with its sound. There was no automatic provision for music built into the Echo or Alexa, but you could access Prime Music if you were an Amazon Prime subscriber. However, Amazon has a free tier of its music streaming service that’s ad-supported and available for any Alexa-enabled devices. This is not at all a limitation since you can always cast Spotify and other top streaming services to Echo Dot 3.
Echo features have arrived in the form of multi-room support where you can group several Echo speakers to play music in your home. You can even tell Alexa which device you want to use to play a song, be it your living room’s Echo Dot or your bedroom’s Amazon Echo.
To group speakers together, you must go to the smart home settings in your Alexa app, select Multi-Room music, and choose which speakers you’d like to group together. The grouping feature can also make commands a lot more simpler. For example, you can add an Echo product into a light group (designated by room) and say, “Alexa, turn on/off the lights”, without having to say which Echo you’re referring to.
Make payments:
Now just ask Alexa on the Amazon Shopping app and pay your bills across categories such as electricity, water, post-paid mobile, cooking gas, and broadband.
Powered by Amazon Pay and Alexa, the Amazon shopping app helps users search for items via voice. Tap the microphone icon on the Amazon shopping app and ask “Alexa, pay my electricity bill” or “Alexa , recharge my DTH”. Customers who have paid bills in the past will be navigated directly to the bill page with pre-fetched bill details. First time customers will be navigated to the specific bill page to register their account and service provider before proceeding with the bill payment.
Play games and quizzes :
There are lots of games that you can play with your Amazon device, one among them is “Trivia Hero”. Now this is a quiz game which calls out questions, and you just shout out the answers and get to know whether you are right or wrong. You can also play games with multiple players. Alexa has hundreds of skills, from playing Jeopardy to turning on your coffee machine and ordering your favourite pizza. With FreeTime, parents can set time limits on Alexa use and disable the ability to voice shop and listen to news .
Once you enable Echo Dot 3 for kids in the app’s settings, your kids can safely interact with Alexa while it gives child friendly responses to their questions. In fact Echo will interact in a friendly manner, and sometimes Echo Dot 3 can surprise you by teaching lessons in politeness and manners.
Final verdict :
One major upgrade from Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen) is the audio quality. Amazon vastly improved the sound quality in Echo Dot 3. The device has multi-room audio functionality, and connects with numerous smart home products out there. The Echo Dot 3 connects with top streaming services such as Spotify and integrates perfectly with Amazon Fire TV. Smart use of the fabric space by putting a clock (that can be used as a timer too), beautiful design, well within the budget, and many other exciting features make this a worthy purchase. In general, Echo Dot line of products are one of the best budget friendly smart speakers you can get in the market.