5th Generation Echo Dot with Clock Review: much more than a bedside alarm?
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- Опубліковано 31 жов 2022
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There’s a lot of new smart speaker-digital assistant products on the market these days. The latest to arrive is the 5th generation of the popular Amazon Echo Dot with Clock. This compact smart home helper features all the power of Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant with the added functionality of a bedside alarm clock. I had a chance to wake up with the new 2022 version of the Echo Dot with Clock for a week and in this review I’ll talk about what’s new, what it’s designed to be best for, how it works and if I can recommend it for you.
What is Echo Dot with Clock?
The key feature of the Echo Dot with clock, as you might guess, is the addition of a LED digital display to the front of the spherical Dot. The display can show things like the time, temperature or the status of a timer if you set one. While the LED lights don’t really change much about this device and its true core purpose as a smart home hub, it does make it easier to use beside your bed or even in a bathroom, which is where I placed mine.
A built-in light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness, day or night, and when I did move it to the bedroom for a few days, I didn’t find it too bright for sleeping.
What makes 5th Gen Echo Dot with Clock different?
There are a few key additions and improvements in this device that makes it a bit of a better choice over previous versions. The last time I reviewed Echo Dot with Clock was the third generation, so some of these upgrades will be even more useful to those of us with an older version.
For starters Amazon says the speaker sounds better with, “an improved audio experience for clearer vocals, deeper bass, and vibrant sound.” The LED display now does more and apart from time and temperature it can now also display more weather details, song titles and more relevant info to your inquiry.
5th Gen Echo Dot with Clock also has a temperature sensor built in so you can use it to create routines based on the temperature in the room.
The final addition and improvement is that there’s a Wi-Fi booster built in if yo use the Amazon Eero network. With the Wi-Fi capabilities in here you can add up to 1,000 sq ft of wifi coverage to a compatible eero network.
That’s actually quite a bit of improvement in the new version, particularly when compared to my 3rd gen version.
Setting up Amazon Echo Dot with Clock
Setting up this device, like all Echo devices, is easy and straightforward. You'll plug it in then follow the instructions you’ll get verbally or via the Alexa app. That basically involves getting connected to your home’s Wi-Fi network and signing in to, or creating, an Amazon account.
Once that’s wrapped, you can manage the Dot with Clock’s setting inside the Alexa app.
Alexa as your Alarm Clock
This Dot is made for your night stand and its small footprint means it doesn’t take up a lot of space.
You can ask Alexa to set an alarm each day, or ask her to see an alarm for every weekday so you don’t need to worry about remembering every night. I liked that feature a lot.
You can customize the sound Alexa will make as your alarm inside the Alexa app. There’s an expanded choice of different sounds since I last explored the device, and there’s options from light wakeful tones to songs and celebrity voice clips too.
When it rings, you can tap the top of the device to snooze it, or just ask Alexa to shut it off.
Amazon Echo Dot with Clock as a Speaker
With the smaller speaker, the Echo Dot with Clock is definitely less powerful than some of the other Echo devices, but Amazon has continued to make improvements in the audio quality so it doesn’t sound small and tinny. Even so, this small unit is meant to be a supplementary or satellite to your overall system.
Echo Dot with Clock has always sounded just fine to my ears, given its place int the Echo ecosystem. The 5th Gen Dot with Clock sounds quite good for its small size, and the improvements are noticeable. It gets good and loud but the audio is also clear and crisp; in the 5th gen there is a lot more detail in the music and more resonance in the bass than before.
Particularly on the high end of the music spectrum, the previous versions of the Dot with Clock could lean into tinny, but Amazon seems to have balanced the speaker much better so it has more of a natural sound. The bass is actually pretty good on this speaker, and it can get quite loud while still keeping the overall sound big and clear. In short it sounds great and you’ll have a hard time cracking on this speaker’s quality, given its size and price. - Наука та технологія
Thank you so much for this review, I love my echo
My pleasure, thanks for watching!
Thanks Erin, another informative review
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Erin, A cool device! I grew up in the age of rotary dial phones and wind-up alarm clocks. We had one called a ¨Big Ben¨. 🙂
I also grew up in that era, cool!
This has made want to order one of these!
Nice - hope you enjoy it!
thanx for Review Mrs
My pleasure 😊
Thanks Erin.
Hi Ron! I hope you’re well
I have one now. However both me and Amazon tech could not get it paired with my WiFi. We tried so many things but ended up sending it back as defective. New one comes tomorrow and I hope it is working right.
I have one and I love it.❤
Excellent, thanks for sharing!
Good review. I have two of these and really like them. I use one in the bedroom mainly as an alarm clock and to control the lights, stuff like that. The other is in the living room, where it gets wider use. Also use it to control my house security systems. The sound though, hmm. It's not quite there in my opinion and for playing music or radio, I still use a little cheap Anker Soundcore Mini; it's so much better, plus it cranks up a lot louder. I get the impression there's a challenge to keep the size down and deliver decent sound.
I appreciate you sharing your experience too, thanks!
I love my Echo dot 5th generation,with battery base it's excellent.
Fantastic!
Erin, great review, as always, love the Amazon ecosystem which I feel is more advanced than the google one.
Thanks Dan, agreed!
Hi Erin, Can I play my favourite radio channel for alarm when waking up? And do I need a special music provider for radios, or does it have radio built in? Thanks
Thank you!! 😁
My pleasure!
They need to add a back speaker port, maybe making slightly bigger, a plastic folding horn added, it is a cheap way to improve a speaker, it's been around since the 50s. One over priced 3 digital single speaker radio sold by a well known maker does just that. You get big sounds out of small cheap speakers. It's not top shelf but good enough for small items like this, making great improvements.
I don't know if you covered this and I missed it but can you connect Bluetooth headphones to the dot 5th gen?
Can its clock display the seconds too?
Does it have a loud alarm?
Hello how turn off or on the lights?
Can you make it so that when an alarm rings its starts out at low volume and gradually increases?
Why do I feel like I'm Watchung the news 😂
I used to be a news reporter! :)
Can you turn off the time on the display during the night?
You have to pay alexa monthly?
No built in FM or AM Radio as alarm clock?
this is like a news report lol
Wishing they would add a backup battery. If power goes off, or internet, have option to wake you. Could have option, alarm set, or not, notification. Our internet provider loves dropping the internet at night, it's like they are doing maintenance, around midnight, waking up to no power, no alarm, no joy, either.
Something a battery clock radio, wind up clock doesn't have those problems.
Good point!
Can you use 12 hour format for UK time? Anyone answer? Also if I leave it near my TV and tell it to tell me the time via voice command would it do that? Would you recommend this over a traditional walk clock?
Yes. I have both of mine set-up in 12 hr format for UK time and again, yes - leave it anywhere in the house and it'll tell you the time or anything else, with a simple voice request. Ask about the weather and it also displays the temperature as it gives you the forecast, you can set it to centigrade as well.
Great video… I’ve just purchased mine (5th generation) but no clock display??
As far as I know, they have both a Clock version and a version without the clock…
@@ErinLawrenceTV ah right, I must’ve gotten the one with no clock 🙄
Hi Erin - thanks for the review! I’m considering one of these in our kitchen, where we use the timer function frequently on our 1st-gen Alexa tower, which is wearing out. When you set a timer on the 5th gen, does it display that timer all the time, or only when you ask how much time is left?
Good question. I have to double check now…
It displays the timer until it ends. But if you ask it the time it will show the time for a few seconds and then switch back to the timer
do these come with cable and plug? or do i need to buy th bundle?
You get the cable and plug in the package.
can you change it to celsius ?
Yes
always get the dot with clock, you can always turn it off if you dont want it
Hi erin i have the standard 5th generation dot, Arent they the same?
Mostly. The difference is really the display
@@ErinLawrenceTV thanks 👍😁 i didnt expect an answer, thank you for that! Greetings from the Netherlands
Are you Elisabeth Shue?
I still don’t know why I would want one ? Clock -weather - news ect. I get all this on tv. iPhone ect. Just seems redundant
Fair enough.
😊🎃
now compare it to the 4th.....
Just brought it on Amazon prime day £31.99 bargain😊
Nice!
I bought one but it was faulty so tock it back and swap it for another one but I tock that back as I didn't work well either I think there rubbish. Don't waste your money.
I bought two and they have been just fine. You sure you plugged yours in 😉