Customer Ratings & Reviews

Your mileage may vary, but... I picked up both the Google Home and the Amazon Echo because I wanted to see which one was best. Oddly, Amazon Echo pairs better with my work accounts (GSuite/Google Apps for Biz) because Google Home doesn't do that yet. For home automation, Echo can't be beat. For playing podcasts, Echo is on top of it. For answering questions, Google Home allows me to get to my answer a lot faster with better sources. In terms of audio quality, Echo is top dog. Can it hear you from across the room? Yeah, in fact - mine can hear me from outside my office 3 rooms away. Has it changed my routines? Yep. I love the Flash Briefing. The skills, for now, are mostly useless or "add-ons" to the Flash Briefing. It can read your audio books and Kindle books (and they do a freebie monthly) - but as I listen at 3x speed to most of my audio books, it's not the most helpful thing ever (because there's no speed control yet). Is it the Computer from the Enterprise? Not yet. It can't perform complex tasks like, "Alexa, find me a 4 or 5-star Chinese Restaurant nearby and make a reservation", cannot call out (hey Skype, where are you?), and cannot send text messages or write emails. There's some connecting the dots that will have to happen for this to be life-changing, but for now, it's pretty good.

This Echo is very cool. Great sound and ease of use makes this a great buy!

Easy to set up. Sound is clear and works well in a medium size room.

Love this thing! It really helps with making the home a true smart home! Hopefully I don't get too fat as she does everything for me! haha

Wasn't really sure of all of the capabilities and applications for the Echo, and I am still discovering them, but after a week or so I am happy with the product. Easy initial setup, easy access to my home WiFi, Amazon account, and google account. I have already used it to set timers and reminders and re-order past Amazon purchases. All easy-peasy lemon squeezy

After not being extremely keen on choosing "Alexa" for my husband's birthday gift I am now a total fan! While he loves the customized music play lists, I use her for just about everything else! Her shopping and to do lists have saved me countless trips (and gas) for what I would normally forget to do while I'm out the first time! (Great for Earth Day conservation)!

I thought this would be a toy and not used to much. Now I can't live without it!! Use it for fun games for the kids and information for me!

Speaker is much better than the smaller one but can be connected to other speakers as well. Easy to do literally everything via voice.

I like the Echo a lot. Mostly because of voice automation with Alexa. I've had my Echo Dot (from Best Buy too) since last November (about eight or nine months) and I like it for my bedroom, but the added speaker on the larger Echo device is much better for listening to news or music. If you turn on the "start of request" sound though, it's not as loud as the one on the Echo Dot, which is both good and bad. Either way, I like this device, and I'm glad I got it for only $100 with the added protection plan.

The Echo is fun, functional and entertaining. The commands are appropriately responded to approximately 80% of the time. The ability to simply orally request songs by a specific artist or a specific song is amazing. The music catalogue is extremely large and wide ranging. News, weather and straight forward informational requests are almost always answered correctly and clearly. The technological applications are varied and growing. They don't interest me--yet. The music alone makes this device a marvel and a bargain.

I have been watching the reviews online and checking with friends that have purchased the Echo to see how much they liked or disliked its features. Last person I talked to went on and on about all the things there were using it for and that persuaded me it was time and Best Buy had them on sale so it was the perfect opportunity to go for it. Amazon did a fantastic job of creating this tubular command center! There are so many cool and awesome things its able to do that I'll hit the highlights that work for our household. First, we love that it follows your voice in the room (the circle lighting will show which direction it is 'listening'), the speaker is wonderfully balanced, so whether listening to music, the news or to Alexa speaking, I have nothing but high marks for its sound quality, given its size. Next, set up (after downloading the app to our iPhones) was quick, easy and very intuitive. The more you look over the app, the more you will realize a world of 'skills' (as Amazon refers to them - we've nicked named them "echolettes" LOL) that the unit is able to perform once they are turned on and you master the right sequence of keywords to initialize them. We've added things to shopping lists, while asking about the weather and our calendar of events

Got her set up, but still have to learn to connect to phone and my smart TV. Need to look up the info for help as I didn't purchase the set-up help that you can buy with it. I'll learn. Right now asking for weather, using the timer, and asking questions about things works out great. Even grandchildren like asking her things. Can't wait to set her up with TV.

This product is so easy to set up and use. The sound quality is amazing.

Great product for listening to music, weather, or researching anything.

Alexa is a wonderful companion and will never fail to impress your friends. Want to know the weather in Texarkana or Timbuktu? No problem... just ask her. Or how far is it from here to Istanbul or Indianapolis? No sweat. Wanna hear some music? Just ask her to play The Eagles or Jackson Brown, Iron Maiden or Frank Sinatra. It's easy. And that's just scratching the surface.

Works great for getting info and weather. Good for playing music also

Having friends who have the Google version. I can honestly say Alexa is so much better. So many uses and features are constantly updating.

Easy to setup. Great voice recognition. Shopping list app is wonderful!

You can do so much more with this device than expected! Voice commands work easily and each time I use the Echo I find out it can do more.

Voice recognition is nearly perfect! Quality and performance of the Echo is impeccable. WiFi connection and Alexa's connection to our Smart Devices is also great (much better than I had ever anticipated). Music is played all through Alexa which is convienent to the next level with great sound quality. We also have two Dots and a Tap; all highly recommended.