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Customer Review
Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2024
Update: I’ve been using this at my desk now for about a month and am feeling buyer remorse. It seems to lose Internet connection, like a lot. Streaming music from Apple Music is an effort in futility. It plays a few songs and then just stops. I have to constantly and repeatedly tell it to play my playlists. So annoying. My phone, work laptop and personal laptop are all wireless and at the same desk and have no connection issues. Also I find it often doesn’t recognize when I say Alexa, which usually ends up in me pulling the plug for a minute to reset it. Would not recommend this unit. I wish I had gotten a second Echo 8 instead of this one.
I purchased this along with an Echo Show 8 and between the two, I prefer the Echo Show 8. I use this device in my home office. It is linked to our Blink doorbell and camera system, as well as my Apple Music account and there are things I like, and things I don't. The sound quality is very good, a bit on the low end, heavy side - but there are sliders for Treble, Midrange and Bass to adjust. It packs a punch for the size. Both Apple Music and Amazon Music apps have a setting to turn on Sound Check, the feature that equalizes the volume for songs so there are no loud or quiet songs in the mix, however this setting does not translate to when you ask Alexa to play music. You get loud and quiet songs, which is annoying. Using it as a Bluetooth speaker resolves this, but then defeats the purpose of having a smart device management system.
Voice recognition is just ok, it seems to struggle sometimes and not register what was asked, or not hear me at all. The screen quality is good, but there are delays when switching between things, like it gets confused, or maybe there is not enough processing power to keep it zipping along. Setup was a bit of a pain, when I purchased it, I selected link to my Amazon account, and it came linked, but it was acting really weird. I did a factory reset and it seemed to behave better. The home screen content that cycles through seems quite static, I am seeing the recommendations for the same Skills, Recently Played music, etc that I did when I first got it and set it up about 3 weeks ago. Would be nice to have the content refresh daily. It integrates well with my Blink camera system and compatible smart devices - it is nice to say turn off / on living room lights and have it happen almost instantly. I think overall I had higher expectations of what to expect, and while not meeting the expectations, it works fine for my office to listen to music on and tell me when someone is at the door. I would recommend the Echo Show 8 over this device if that is an option.
I purchased this along with an Echo Show 8 and between the two, I prefer the Echo Show 8. I use this device in my home office. It is linked to our Blink doorbell and camera system, as well as my Apple Music account and there are things I like, and things I don't. The sound quality is very good, a bit on the low end, heavy side - but there are sliders for Treble, Midrange and Bass to adjust. It packs a punch for the size. Both Apple Music and Amazon Music apps have a setting to turn on Sound Check, the feature that equalizes the volume for songs so there are no loud or quiet songs in the mix, however this setting does not translate to when you ask Alexa to play music. You get loud and quiet songs, which is annoying. Using it as a Bluetooth speaker resolves this, but then defeats the purpose of having a smart device management system.
Voice recognition is just ok, it seems to struggle sometimes and not register what was asked, or not hear me at all. The screen quality is good, but there are delays when switching between things, like it gets confused, or maybe there is not enough processing power to keep it zipping along. Setup was a bit of a pain, when I purchased it, I selected link to my Amazon account, and it came linked, but it was acting really weird. I did a factory reset and it seemed to behave better. The home screen content that cycles through seems quite static, I am seeing the recommendations for the same Skills, Recently Played music, etc that I did when I first got it and set it up about 3 weeks ago. Would be nice to have the content refresh daily. It integrates well with my Blink camera system and compatible smart devices - it is nice to say turn off / on living room lights and have it happen almost instantly. I think overall I had higher expectations of what to expect, and while not meeting the expectations, it works fine for my office to listen to music on and tell me when someone is at the door. I would recommend the Echo Show 8 over this device if that is an option.
