Smart speaker Amazon Echo Dot 2nd Gen with built-in assistant - Alexa for smart home control

What's this?

Amazon Echo Dot is an Alexa-enabled smart speaker system. Echo Dot can be used as a hands-free device to easily control smart home devices, plan your day, listen to music and audiobooks, and call other Amazon Alexa users and Echo devices over the Internet. Unlike other Amazon speakers, this model is equipped with a small speaker and is designed to work with external speakers. You can connect external speakers (or headphones) to the Echo Dot via a 3.5 mm audio jack, via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Amazon Echo Dot has a whole array of microphones to hear the user's voice even over loud music. At the same time, Alexa is able to remember the voice of the owner and recognize it among the voices of other people.

Design

Amazon Echo Dot is very compact. With a diameter of 8.4 cm and a thickness of 3.2 cm, the column can be placed on a table, coffee table, bedside table or even a shelf. The shape of the device resembles a hockey puck. The body is made of black plastic. On the top panel there are control buttons: turning on the speaker, turning on / off the microphones, as well as adjusting the sound. The speaker is located in the center. Surrounding the control panel is a trellis ring that hides the microphones, followed by a blue LED ring. On the side of the gadget there is the Amazon logo and connectors: microUSB for the power cable and 3.5 mm for connecting an external speaker. The audio cable is not included and must be purchased separately.

How does it work?

To connect your speaker system to your smartphone, install the Amazon Alexa app on your mobile device. The browser version of the application allows you to connect the speaker to a PC or laptop. With the Echo Dot app, it syncs over your home Wi-Fi network.

Amazon Echo Dot is designed to work with external speakers, so its own speaker is quite small. However, through it, you can also talk on the speakerphone, listen to music, audiobooks, news, weather, and other content, and even call a taxi. Set a musical alarm clock and at the right time, the acoustic system will wake you up with a pleasant melody.

The built-in Alexa voice assistant allows you to choose your favorite music among thousands of tracks: say "Alexa, turn on the jazz" and enjoy the compositions of the selected genre. In addition to the genre, you can set other search parameters: the name of the track and the artist. Music sources for the column are online services Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Connecting to external speakers is done in three ways: via a 3.5 mm stereo jack, via Bluetooth, or via Wi-Fi. The built-in microphones in Echo Dot allow you not only to give commands to the voice assistant but also to call friends and family who also have Amazon Echo devices. Manufacturers have taken care of privacy: the microphones built into the gadget are activated only after the word "Alexa". If you have combined several Echo speakers and placed them in different rooms, the one that is closest will answer you. The smart speaker system Echo Dot allows you to always stay in touch with loved ones. With it, you can call friends over the Internet, provided they also have an Echo device or Amazon Alexa installed. Android users can synchronize the speaker with the phone book of their smartphone and thus send SMS messages to their contacts (messages will be sent via a mobile device).

Amazon Echo Dot is a home assistant that makes it easy to interact with smart home devices. With the help of a speaker and a voice assistant, you can control lights, fans, locks, and gates, and other gadgets united in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem. Just say "Alexa, turn on the light" or "Alexa, turn up the temperature in the room." Supported devices include gadgets from WeMo, Philips Hue, Sony, Samsung SmartThings, Nest, and more.

Characteristics

• Wi-Fi connectivity: 802.11 a / b / g / n (2.4 and 5 GHz) (Does not support ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks)
• Bluetooth
• Supported profile: A2DP (supports audio streaming), AVRCP (for voice control of connected mobile devices)
• Hands-free voice control not supported for devices: Mac OS
• Bluetooth speakers requiring PINs
• Stereo output: 3.5 mm (for use with external speakers)
• Audio cable included: no
• App: Alexa
• Compatibility: Fire OS, Android and iOS devices