Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Review: Bigger, better, and much louder

Amazon’s heavy hitter has been overhauled with a focus on quality and volume.

When people say they have an Amazon Echo, they almost always mean they have an Echo Dot. The cheapest of the Echo family regularly drops into stocking-stuffer price points, which allowed for these speakers to quickly rise in popularity over the last two years. But popularity doesn’t necessarily mean quality, and the competition quickly moved to make mini speakers with better speakers and a more visually pleasing design.

Amazon, now on the third generation of its Echo product line, has responded with a new Dot. And at first glance, it looks an awful lot like Amazon is reacting to the competition. After a few days of using it, and seeing how much better this new speaker is over its predecessor, I think the only company Amazon is competing with is itself.

Crank up the volume

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)

$49 at Amazon

A worthy upgrade in almost every way.

Amazon’s Echo Dot has grown up quite a bit, bringing with it improved audio and noticeably better microphones.

The Good

• MUCH louder
• Nice tactile buttons
• Improved design
• Easy set up

The Bad

• No more USB port
• Audio gets muddy at top volumes
• Light animations aren’t as smooth

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) What I like

I thought I knew exactly what I was getting myself into as I opened the box to the new Echo Dot. It’s an Echo, after all. Alexa is a ubiquitous platform, and the Echo Dot is supposed to be the low end of what this experience offers. I wasn’t expecting a lot of surprises here, as I already have multiple 2nd Gen Echo Dots in the house.

Wow, was I wrong.

Every part of this experience exceeded my expectations, starting with the initial set up. On multiple occasions, I have had to go in through the Alexa app and manually pair to an Echo product because the auto detection had failed. This time it immediately connected and, because my Wi-Fi network was stored in my Amazon account, was available on my network almost instantly.

This new Echo Dot is loud, especially when compared to its predecessor. Sitting the two side by side, a 2nd Gen Echo Dot at max volume is right around as loud as a 3rd Gen Echo Dot is at 30%.

It’s not just louder, too; there’s a lot more character to the audio. You get some bass with your little speaker, which absolutely could not be said of the last Echo Dot. If you were planning on listening to music with the last Echo Dot, you really needed to connect a speaker to the 3.5mm jack at the back. With this new Echo Dot you can certainly do the same, but in smaller rooms, you probably won’t need to. In fact, there’s a reasonable argument to be made for having two of these Echo Dots paired and playing audio together from different sides of the room instead.

This increase in volume meant a change in how the microphones on the Echo Dot are set up. The previous generation could barely handle picking up the Alexa passphrase when playing music at a reasonable volume, and the little animation for where the microphone thought the request was coming from is frequently wrong. This new Echo Dot has multiple microphones and does a noticeably better job picking up your voice even when the volume is up high. You can see the four microphone holes on the top of the speaker clearly, and the results are obvious from the moment you set it up.

This thing sounds better than its size suggests. A lot better.

Finally, I realize this is a small thing most people won’t notice, but the buttons on the top of the Echo Dot feel really nice. This speaker has the same four buttons its predecessor has, but they all have a more tactile and satisfying click when you press down on them. No more spongey buttons is a great thing, even if these buttons don’t get a lot of use.

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) What I don’t like

Amazon gets lots of credit for making the speakers on the Echo Dot louder and adding some character to the sound these speakers produce, but louder does not mean better. At higher volumes, the audio quality on this speaker suffers. Everything becomes a little muddy at the 70% mark, and gets noticeably worse as it gets louder. At 100%, none of the songs I played on it were things I wanted to listen to. It’s cool to be able to say this speaker is louder and noticeably better than the one in the Google Home Mini, but kind of hard to see how it matters much if you don’t ever want to use it at those louder volumes.

This new Echo Dot is an improvement in nearly every way.

This new, louder speaker requires more power to drive it, which makes sense. The small 9W power adapter included in the previous Echo Dot has been replaced with a larger 15W power adapter, and at the other end the miniUSB has been replaces with a barrel connector. This isn’t a big deal to many, but I really liked being able to grab a random cable and use it to power an Echo Dot. I liked being able to connect to things that weren’t a standard wall outlet, but those features are gone now. And, honestly, I doubt many others will notice.

Amazon’s new design makes the light ring around the outside of the Echo Dot more visible from more angles, which is fantastic. Lots of people rely on this light animation to confirm Alexa is listening before giving a command. This new design doesn’t contain an LED array that is quite as densely packed as some other Echo products, though, so the animations look a little segmented at times and not quite as smooth as I’ve come to expect from this line of products. Also not a huge deal, just worth noting if you’re already a fan of these speakers.

Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Should you buy it?

Amazon didn’t make a speaker to compete with Google or Apple. It made a speaker for people who want to try Alexa for the first time, or who already own an Echo Dot. This speaker isn’t going to convince anyone to switch platforms, and until we get to the holidays and Amazon drops it down to those crazy $30 prices there won’t be a mad rush to buy these from people who don’t already own them.

But if you own an Echo Dot right now and aren’t totally thrilled with it, this new upgrade is an improvement in nearly every way. If you are already a fan of the Alexa ecosystem, you’re going to love this speaker. In fact, if you’re looking for a first smart speaker, we think this is the one you should buy.

4.5
out of 5

Personally, I’m excited to see which company makes a big battery enclosure for this so it can be portable. That worked really well for the last generation.

See at Amazon

NFL and Epic team up to bring all 32 NFL teams’ uniforms to Fortnite

Out of the gridiron, into the storm.

The National Football League and Epic Games have announced a new partnership that’ll bring some NFL content to Fortnite. All 32 NFL teams get love here, so you can represent your colors no matter who you bleed for.

The team outfits will be available in the Fortnite shop from Friday, November 9. The way it works is simple: you buy the “NFL Outfit” item from the shop, and from there you can choose which team you want and the number that’ll show on the back. You’ll be able to buy up to 8 outfits in all, so if you have love for more than one NFL team you can show it for them, too.

Other cosmetics will be available to go along with the outfits, including NFL-themed gliders, harvesting tools, emotes, and skins, the latter category housing a nice referee skin, we’re told. Someone’s gotta keep everyone in check, right? Get your V-Bucks ready and open the shop at 7PM Eastern once November 9 rolls around. You can play Fortnite on Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Download Fortnite for Android beta at Epic Games

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Apple’s Confusing Mac Lineup: MacBook Air vs. MacBook

Apple at its October event unveiled a new 2018 MacBook Air that’s been entirely overhauled with a Retina display, Thunderbolt 3, a slimmed down design, a faster processor, and other hardware upgrades.

The new $1,199 machine is a great addition to the MacBook Pro, but there’s just one problem – Apple already had a notebook with all of these features. The 2018 MacBook Air is very similar to the 12-inch MacBook, which did not receive a 2018 update.

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The 2018 MacBook Air, which Apple is selling for $1,199, is better in almost every way than the 12-inch MacBook, which is still priced at $1,299. It has a larger Retina display, a faster Amber Lake processor, upgraded Intel UHD Graphics 617, two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, up to 1.5TB of storage, Touch ID and T2 chip, better battery life, and it costs $100 less (though you’re getting 128GB storage instead of 256GB with the base model).

At this point in time, with no update, all the MacBook has going for it is a slimmer body and a lighter weight, but even then, the difference is minute given the revamped design of the MacBook Air.

The 2018 MacBook Air measures in at 0.16 to 0.61 inches thick, compared to the MacBook, which comes in at 0.14 to 0.52 inches. It also weighs 2.75 pounds instead of the MacBook’s 2 pounds, but those are really the only differentiating factors.

Right now, there is absolutely no good reason to purchase a MacBook over a MacBook Air, and anyone considering a new Apple notebook that’s aiming for portability and good battery life should choose the MacBook Air.

You can get close to MacBook Air performance with the upgraded MacBook with a 1.4GHz Core M processor, but the MacBook Air is still going to beat it because it’s using eighth-generation processors instead of seventh-generation and it costs $1,549 to upgrade to that higher-powered processor.

If and when Apple upgrades the MacBook with next-generation Intel chips, it’s still going to be almost on par with the MacBook Air if there are no other changes to form factor or specifications, so it’s a mystery why the MacBook is still in Apple’s lineup and why Apple has opted to have two machines that are so similar.

Prior to the October update, Apple hadn’t made significant changes to the MacBook Air since 2015, and it was believed that the machine, which was priced at $999, was sticking around as a low-cost option until component prices for the MacBook came down. With the launch of the new version, that’s clearly no longer Apple’s plan, and the future of the MacBook and MacBook Air is murkier than ever.

As for the MacBook Air vs. the MacBook Pro, things are a bit clearer. The MacBook Air is still the lower-cost lower-performance option that is ideal for lighter workloads that don’t require high-powered software.

All MacBook Pro models, including the 2017 non-Touch Bar models, offer better performance than the MacBook Air’s 7W Amber Lake processor, but with the base MacBook Air vs. the base non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro priced at $1,299, there’s not a huge difference. When deciding between these two machines, it’s going to come down to whether you prefer a smaller form factor and Touch ID or slightly better performance.

What do you think Apple is planning for the MacBook in the future? Let us know in the comments.

Related Roundup: MacBook AirBuyer’s Guide: MacBook Air (Buy Now)
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