PRODUCT TEST & REVIEW
Amazon ECHO Talking & Listening Speaker
VIDEO – No time to read
watch the video
Just to clarify I did not receive this from Amazon to test. I ordered it early last winter and it just arrived in May, 2015. It looked cool and useful.
In the month I have had it I have not used all of the features but I have used a lot of them.
- Music – Prime lists and my Amazon music collection.
- News
- Weather
- Lists
- Audible Books
I enjoy walking in the door and asking, “Alexa, play some ……… kind of music” and within seconds music fills the whole floor. If my hands are full, not a problem because it is all voice command. I do like to use play lists and I have a hard time remembering what the names are to the Prime lists.
The remote is nice also to have if it’s too loud for it to hear you speak.
I give it two thumbs up.
A tech tool I am glad I invested in.
Look: It arrived in a very nice little black box. I have to say that the look is sleek and blends in well in the three rooms I have tested it in. It doesn’t look like you have a stereo in the room.
Sound: I enjoy the sound. It is better than most speakers on the market this size. It fills a room and has extra volume to be very loud if needed.
Ease of use: I have a Fire tablet and so it was very easy to set up. I went slowly and followed the instructions. It walked me through everything. When I want to run it from my Fire tablet I can.
Instructions: I felt it had good instructions. I also paid $2 for an ebook about all the features and things you can do with it. That was helpful, it is also out of date the second it went to market because the Echo is evolving quickly. Just in the month I have had it Amazon added the audible.com book feature.
Best Feature: Operating it by voice command. So easy once you get a couple of commands learned.
I would recommend this for:
Anyone who has a Prime account with Amazon and listens to a lot of music. Not to replace your music collection, but to supplement it with some new options and as fast background music.
Business owners that have walk-in customers. Easy to turn off or down when clients need to talk with you. Sets a nice atmosphere. Great in a shared workspace where people can use it’s other features like- Weather, News, Wikipedia, Lists and More.
Families with kids who have lots of questions. It’s like having their own Siri not attached to your phone or tablet.
People with difficulty spelling – You can ask it the meaning of words and how to spell them. You can stay focused on your task and not have to look up a word or get sidetracked surfing the web. If you are dyslexic, this would be great.
Non-Tech People- Seniors, people who yell at their technology a lot and people in nursing or assisted living homes. I have had two clients in this category add it to their home and apartment and they love it. Once I installed it and taught them how to use it, they just fell in love with the Echo. A client was showing it off to the neighbor and the neighbor called me an hour later to schedule a time for me to help him get that “speaker thing”.