Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - Smart speaker with Alexa - Plum

I have placed the echo dots all over my home. I paired them with rhe switches and bulbs. My electric bill used to run about 4 to 500 a month. At times it was six. I have seen a drastic drop from the moment I started using these smart devices. Month one dropped to 200 and by month 4 it has consistantly been less than 100. This month it was 84. The only thing that has changed in this 4 bedroom tripple wide mobil home is Alexa now runs the show. My son thought this was a stupid investmwnt but now he is buying them. Do your self a favor and let Alexa take over at home and put your money back in your pocket. The sound is amazing. I feel no need to purchase extra speakers. I love using the group feature and running around cleaning with my music. The drop in is amazing. When my grandaughter is here and playing in her room I just drop in and listen as she plays and if she wants to talk while going to sleep we can. Home watch, one of the features is watch my home. Whwn I leave I say Alexa I am going to work and she says I will watch the house. If there is so much as a broom falling over in the house she alerts me and the video scrwen kicks in. Mannaging my mail. I shop on line for everything. With alexa my packages no longer get left on the porch. They just give her a code and she unlocks the front door and they can set the packages just inside. Shes watching them on camera to make sure they go no farther and then she locks the door when they leave. The hot water heater. Alexa turns the hot water heater on 1 hour before I come home from work. That is at 4 pm she turns it off at 8. That means I am only running that costly water heater 4 hours a day and saving the other 20 hrs of bill. Why pay for it when noone is home. The heater in my room. I love cuddling uo in the chilly air and going to sleep however whwn i wake up I want warmth. She turns rhe heat on one hour before i wake up on my room heater and I get dressed in cozy warmth. I never write a review this long but honestly tuere is a ton more I could say. The grocery shopping. I tell her and she adds it to my list and say purchase and then i pull up at walmart pickup and they put it in the car....reminders...I never forget my meds anymore. I just love my echo dots.

I love these Echo Dot's. I own 4 of them and I am very happy with them. I own them in different colors depending on the room where I have them, for instance I got a white one in my kitchen since it matches better with the decor there. Voice recognition works good, it is able to pick up your voice commands with no major problems even when your talking over some other loud sound, for instance, over the sound of a vacuum cleaner, over the sound of a window AC or even if it is playing music at a high level. Sound quality is also good, you can't expect high fidelity from such a small speaker but I think it is good quality and you can get it to a decent volume without a lot of distortion. There are some settings you can adjust on the Alexa app on your smartphone, like Bass level. If you have more than one unit you can also group them and have them play all at the same time. You can also talk from one unit to the other, useful if you want to call your kids instead of yelling thru the house. Best feature for me is the integration with other devices. I use it to control lights, electrical plugs, a Roomba vacuum, a Dyson air purifier, Nest thermostat and although I never set it up for that you can also control your Ring alarm system.

The voice recognition feature requires thoughtful placement. I have 5 Dots in my house now and the two newest ones are 3rd generation with great sound improvements. It’s not unusual to consider acoustical output for placement but I found it worthwhile to think about input as well. Wow! When I play a song on my “Everywhere Group” the 5 of them are spectacular together (two floors, 3000 sq ft total) - And that’s before I’ve even told some of them to search Bluetooth devices and “Connect to speaker.” BUT, I’ve gotten the best results when I also considered Alexa’s “hearing” too. I’m posting this advice at the risk of sounding silly; Some of you may be thinking “Duh....” Six months ago i probably would have too but I mean it. Two of them can’t appropriately listen to you at the same time so spread them such that you can talk in a normal tone and only one Dot can hear you. Any of them can carry out whatever you wish across the board (downstairs Dots can work upstairs lights, etc), but two can’t answer so you won’t get the intended response if two dots hear your command at the same time. Neither of them will perform the requested task because of confusion on their end. I’m just sayin... it’s not only about how they sound, it’s also good to place them giving consideration to how they “hear.” I LOVE LIVING WITH ALEXA ALL AROUND! I might be getting too lazy though. I hardly flip switches anymore; I just ask Alexa to turn things off or on.