The question of the day: what’s the difference between the Amazon Echo and the Dot, and which is best for me? We have been experimenting with combinations of these Amazon home assistants since they first debuted. While size and price are the obvious differences, there are a few other qualities that make the Echo, Dot, and Tap best suited to different situations.
Amazon Echo Lowdown
The Amazon Echo is $179.99, the most expensive of the bunch. It features 360-degree immersive sound with a 2.5 inch woofer and 2.0 inch tweeter. With seven microphones and “beam forming technology,” it can hear you from across the room—even while music is playing. Both the Echo and the Dot need to be plugged into an electrical outlet and connect to your home network using WiFi. Both can take full advantage of the Alexa app and are constantly improving with new features. Oh, and both come in black and white.
Echo Dot (2nd Generation) Lowdown
As for the Amazon Echo Dot, it’s priced at only $49.99. Its speaker technology is greatly reduced compared to the Amazon Echo, but you CAN connect it to a Bluetooth-enabled speaker Bluetooth or through a 3.5 mm audio cable (included). Theoretically, you could enjoy better sound quality than you do with the Echo. (You can’t connect the Amazon Echo to a speaker.) Another cool feature is that you can charge it up with a (provided) USB cable, and then take it with you. One unexpected feature is that the Dot is said to perform better at hearing your commands than the Echo.
Another cool feature that’s common to both the Echo and the Dot is ESP, or Echo Spatial Perception. If you have more than one device using the same wake word, Alexa responds intelligently from the Echo you’re closest to. If you want to interact with a single Echo or Dot, you can use an Alexa Voice Remote (sold separately), or you can change the wake word from “Alexa” to something else. Do note: you cannot connect multiple Alexa devices to each other and play the same requested audio at the same time.
Tap Lowdown
Now for the Amazon Tap. It’s $129.99 The Amazon Tap is a “respectable” Bluetooth speaker that can be charged up to take with you. Since it doesn’t have cellular data or mobile hotspot connections, you’ll only be able to use it with a WiFi connection. Unlike the Echo and Dot above, you don’t use it with a wake word (“Alexa”)… you… get this… tap it.
Too Long; Didn’t Read?
The Dot is our recommendation for most people. It’s inexpensive and it has all the features of the Amazon Echo, except for the Echo’s fairly high-quality speakers. And if you do want the Dot to function as a speaker, you need only plug it in (or connect via Bluetooth) to your existing speaker system. It’s also great for families, where you can set your Dots to have different wake words. You can charge it up and take it with you around the house.
The Echo is great for people who want to listen to podcasts and music easily and don’t consider themselves audiophiles. It’s an ideal one-stop solution for people who want to set it up and not touch it again (elderly parents, perhaps).
The Tap is good for people who want a portable speaker and who have access to WiFi wherever they’re taking it. And since it only works when tapped (instead of with a wake word like the Echo and the Dot), it’s good for paranoid people who don’t want the speaker listening to every word they speak. For more on security and these in-home assistants, see our blog post from last week.
