Amazon’s Echo Dot is one of the best smart speakers around. It’s not an especially powerful speaker, but it packs a lot of useful functionality. It also sports a unique, spherical design in a range of colors — and it’s cheap for a connected device. There are a few different versions, though. And, while they’re all quite similar, each meets different needs. Not sure which you should get? We’ve got your back. Let’s break things down.
Echo Dot: The default
The Echo Dot is Amazon’s entry-level smart speaker. The current version is the fifth generation — the second Dot with the new, divisive spherical design (older models were smaller, puck-shaped speakers). It’s chunkier than the older, flatter Dots but not as large as it looks in photos; at 3.9 inches wide, it’s only a little bigger than a softball.
The newest Echo Dot features microphones to pick up your Alexa commands and a speaker with a 1.73-inch driver (slightly larger than the fourth generation’s 1.6-inch speaker) to play responses and media. As with other Echo speakers, you can add your Echo Dot to larger Alexa speaker setups for multi-room audio. The speaker sounds okay given its compact size, but it can’t muster much oomph on its own — although it does have Bluetooth and a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary port, so you can output the audio through any larger speakers.
Amazon’s made the Echo Dot a great buy for households with Eero Wi-Fi setup. When paired with a compatible Eero setup, the tiny speaker can function as an Eero range extender, blanketing up to 1,000 square feet in Wi-Fi coverage. That extended Wi-Fi isn’t very quick, limited to just 100 Mbps, but that’s more than enough for basic tasks like video streaming. The same Eero functionality is coming to fourth-generation Echo Dot speakers “in the coming months.” The fifth-generation model also has a temperature sensor built in that you can use in Alexa routines (for example, to turn on a connected ceiling fan when the Dot detects the room’s temperature has gone over a certain threshold).
The standard Dot is available in three colorways: Charcoal, Glacier White, and Deep Sea Blue. It retails for $49.99, but we may see sales in time for Black Friday 2022.
Echo Dot with Clock: A smart, affordable upgrade
Source: Amazon
The creatively named Echo Dot with Clock is exactly what you think it is: a standard Echo Dot with a simple LED display on the front. By default, the display shows the time, but it can do more than that. New for the latest generation, Amazon’s fitted the clock-equipped Dot with a larger dot matrix display, capable of showing more than just the time or the status of your kitchen timer. The fifth-gen Dot with Clock can also show simple readouts of the weather or information about the media you’re currently playing.
This version of the Echo Dot comes in Glacier White and Cloud Blue and packs the same Eero Wi-Fi and temperature sensor features as the base model Dot. The luxury of a built-in clock isn’t all that pricey, either. At $60, the Echo Dot with Clock is only $10 more expensive than the standard version, and it’s entirely possible we’ll start seeing sales in the near future.
If you’re shopping for an Echo Dot to put anywhere, you’d benefit from having a visible clock, this model’s kind of a no-brainer, assuming your heart wasn’t set on a dark gray Dot.
Echo Dot Kids: Kid-friendly features and an extended warranty
Source: Amazon
In terms of hardware, the Echo Dot Kids is exactly the same as the standard Echo Dot: same footprint and same audio quality, but it comes in cute animal-themed designs. The latest generation is available as an owl or a dragon and includes a year of Amazon Kids+. Kids+ is a subscription service that offers access to kid-friendly content for pre-schoolers to pre-teens. For the Echo Dot, that includes audiobooks from Audible, educational content, and ad-free radio stations. Kids+ costs $48 a year for Prime members and $79 a year for everyone else. Monthly subscriptions are also available.
Like many of its kid-focused products, the Echo Dot Kids comes with what Amazon calls a “worry-free guarantee,” which means you can exchange the device for a new one if the original breaks within two years of your purchase. Depending on how hard your kids are on electronics, that guarantee might be worth a lot to you.
The Echo Dot Kids costs $60, a $10 premium over the standard Dot (although previous iterations were frequently marked down, and we expect this one will be soon, too). It’ll be worth considering if you’re shopping for a speaker specifically for your kid’s room, especially if you’re worried they might break it.
Buy the standard Echo Dot if…
- You want the cheapest Dot.
- You can’t live with a white or blue smart speaker.
Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)
The Echo Dot is Amazon’s smallest and most affordable smart speaker. The fifth generation, released in 2022, comes with an improved audio driver for fuller sound, plus enhanced smart features like Eero Wi-Fi extender functionality and a built-in temperature sensor for Alexa routines.
Buy the Echo Dot with Clock if…
- You want a smart speaker for your bedside table.
- You don’t need the Charcoal finish only available on the standard version.
Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (5th Gen)
The Amazon Echo Dot with Clock is a normal Echo Dot with — you guessed it — a clock added. The newest generation can show more than just the time, though: unlike the fourth-generation model, 2022’s version has a display that can show useful data like simple weather forecasts.
Buy the Echo Dot Kids if…
- You’re shopping for a kid’s room
- Your children would enjoy Amazon Kids+
- You really like owls or dragons
Amazon Echo Dot Kids (5th Gen)
The Amazon Echo Dot Kids features cute, friendly designs and comes with a kid-proof extended warranty. For just $10 more than the standard Dot, the Kids version comes with a year of Amazon Kids+ — which normally costs $5 a month on its own.
