Customer Ratings & Reviews

We've been using Echo since early in Gen1. This is a stylish upgrade with excellent sound for the price!

It's so much more sleek than the previous echo. Easy to use, great sound and looks perfect in the home!

I actually really like the concept of the product. It is fun just to play around with, but difficult to operate, which I'll go into detail about later. I recommend the echo plus over the echo, if you don't already have one. The built-in hub on the echo plus isn't necessary, unless you plan on buying one smart light bulb are a time because the packs come with a hub free (an echo dot is sufficient and cheaper). I bought the echo for my teenage son to stream on. The speaker quality is great for music and can be increased fairly loud without distortion. Now for the difficulty with operating. For starters, your echo doesn't have many bells and whistles prepackaged. You have to search skills, which are kind of like apps or lessons to teach Alexa. There are many different skills you can teach Alexa, so make sure you have time to look through them. Now you've taught Alexa skills, but for every skill you must remember how to communicate exactly as instructed on the skill page or Alexa will not understand (e.g. "Alexa, tell <skill name> to perform such and such task). If you don't remember the phrases to get Alexa to perform the skill you can always look through your app and under skills to find directions. Who will remember all the specific wording for each skill? Plus, the whole point in speaking to Alexa is that it's hands-free, so looking at the app for directions isn't convenient. It gets very frustrating if you don't have the Alexa app handy. Next, if you plan on controlling plugs or lights with Alexa you have to download apps from the manufacturer. Your now cluttered phone is even more cluttered and you don't speak the same language as Alexa. She also has difficulty understanding a lot of questions and you have to rephrase them several times for her to give you any answer. I love, love, love the functions I can remember the wording for Alexa to perform the task. There are so many things Alexa can do that listing them would make this review entirely too long. I will list my favorites and most useful to me. Turns on lights or plugs. Groups lights, traffic report, weather, and many other functions together to be performed with one command (e.g. "Alexa, good morning"). Orders pizza. Tells jokes. Gives answers to questions you have. Controls TV. Sends messages and makes calls. Adds things to grocery lists. Sets reminders so you won't forget things. Adds appointments to your phone or email linked calendar. Helps kids with homework. Plays games for adults and kids.

Much better sound in a smaller factor. Not a necessary upgrade to the older one but an imporvement.

This is so great, we use it all the time to listen to music, get recipes or even just ask questions

Best price for this product. Fast delivery. Great way to control your TV or just listen to music.

More Compact and sound is as good or better than 1st generation. Like the size and cloth finish.

Intelligent, fun, good sound. Easy to set up and link to other devices, lights, security system.

I am impressed by the sound quality and ease of use in this device. Works great for everything.

Alexa/Echo is very responsive, easy to set up and link accounts. Speaker is good sound quality.

I was late to the echo party. I just couldn't see a need for an echo when I had a smart phone that could do all the same things at a touch of a button. But I eventually broke down and bought one this holiday season as a way to listen to music in the bedroom. Now I love my Alexa. Admittedly she and I don't always communicate clearly which can be frustrating, but I love the integration with my smart thermostat, bulbs, switches, tv and plugs. I still do a lot of things on my phone rather than asking Alexa but I now have either an echo or a dot in most rooms. Turns out they make good intercom systems and are fantastic for that lazy Sunday when you don't want to get off the couch but you really need to adjust the thermostat or turn a light on. :-)

Don’t understand all the comments about the speaker versus the previous version. It sounds great to me. If you want better sound it Bluetooth connects or 3.5mm jack to another speaker. Microphone works great. Can hear me from far away.

I waited until Black Friday to get a great deal (for me) on an Echo, as I didn't see any use for it except as a nice and shiny streaming widget. I was quite surprised on what other skills the Echo has, especially if paired with smart plugs and other smart home peripherals. Within hours of activating our Echo, I had to go back to Best Buy and get Echo Dots on the same Black Friday deals for other parts of the house.

Have the 1st generation Echo and really like it, so wanted to get another for another room in the house. Best Buy had it on sale for $79 Black Friday weekend. Got it setup and the sound wasn’t so good. This wasn’t unexpected as a firmware update is needed for it to perform at its best. The update happened automatically within 30 minutes. To my ears, the 2nd generation sounds better than the 1st generation.

The Echo works great and paired easily. The speaker is perfect and can be heard clearly.

Simple setup and great audio through Spotify premium. Whole house audio is awesome too!

I have wasted so much time asking this inanimate object random trivial questions and being delighted by it in a way that Siri never came close. I have both an Echo and an Echo Dot and going on week 2 I can't tell any difference in having the bigger more expensive unit. The Echo Dot gets the job done if you're not a sound quality snob or your use will run more towards the personal assistant features.

This is so easy to use and it’s a great speaker for when you want to listen to music.

Really great quality and it's pretty small. I love the fabric touch, very unique.

Awesome clear voice, great size and hassle free with connections to other devices