AMAZON ECHO (2ND GEN) REVIEW / SMALLER, CHEAPER & BETTER

The new version of the Alexa-ready gadget sounds great, looks good and improves on the original, meaning nobody can touch its quality for the price...

For the past three years, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has been invading homes inside the case of the Echo smart speaker. Alexa has been answering questions, turning on smart lights, adding things to shopping lists, ordering things from Amazon, and playing music for millions of people. The Echo essentially established the smart speaker market, which now has entries from Google, Microsoft, and soon, Apple.

The new Echo 2 is dinkier than its predecessor – 89mm shorter in fact – so it will take up less space on your shelf or kitchen counter. It also no longer quite so Blade Runner-esque, instead looking more like something you might buy from Habitat or Ikea.

After expanding the line with the smaller and super-popular Echo Dot, the portable, battery-powered Tap, and the more expensive, but ultimately less thrilling, Echo Show, Amazon has finally gone back and updated the original Echo. The new Echo, which is heretofore known simply as the “All-new Echo,” as the original Echo no longer exists in Amazon’s world, comes with a smaller, simpler design; better aesthetics; supposedly improved audio; and, most importantly, a significantly lower price of $99.

BETTER SOUND QUALITY :-

The new Echo’s sound is sharper, with more treble than the first model. That’s good for hearing Alexa speak back to you, or for cutting through the din of a running faucet if you’re using the Echo in a kitchen. But for music, the sound is thin and flat, with even less bass than before. The old model had a softer sound with just a little bit more bass that’s much more pleasant to listen to.

Amazon has added a number of new features to Alexa, the smart assistant inside of the Echo, including control of Fire TV set top boxes and improved smart home controls. Since Alexa runs entirely in the cloud, it doesn’t matter which Amazon Echo device you own, it performs all of the same functions on all of them. You don’t need to buy a new Echo to get the latest Alexa features on your first-generation model. And the new Echo performs all of those voice-controlled functions just as well as its predecessor.

The new Echo hears you just as well as the old one, even when music is blasting out of it, or the cooker hood is going hell-for-leather as you concoct your latest culinary creation. If you have more than one Echo device it’ll “echolocate”, meaning only the nearest one will respond to you, and you can play one source of music in multiple rooms using groups of Echo devices.

The new smaller Echo sounds better than the previous version. The audio is slightly clearer, and of a higher quality all round – particularly at louder volumes. Thanks to a recent software update, it has more bass too. The smaller size has not diminished the sound

PROS :-

• Lower cost
• Can always here you
• Changeable covers
• Customization appearance
• Bluetooth in and out
• Mute button electrically disconnects the mics
• More attractive design
• Less expensive than original
• Small looks
• Excellent smart home device control
• New Alexa features
• Far-field mic array works wonders

 CONS :-

• Can activate accidentally
• Decorative shells don't look great enough
• Always-listening object in your house
• Sound quality only on a par with original Echo
• Much the same as the original
• Volume-control buttons are inferior to the volume-control ring on the original

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