Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Echo (4th Gen) + Evolux Smart Bulb

Top positive review

An Echo Upgrade for My Home Office

Reviewed in Canada on August 23, 2023

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

I recently added the Echo (4th Gen) to my home office, and I must say, it's been a fantastic addition. This isn't my first Echo device, and I'm confident it won't be my last. Here's why I love it:

**Sound Quality (★★★★★):**
The sound quality of the Echo (4th Gen) is truly impressive. Whether I'm listening to music, having a conference call, or simply asking Alexa for information, the sound is clear, crisp, and fills the room beautifully. It makes working from home a much more enjoyable experience.

**Voice Recognition (★★★★★):**
One of the standout features of this Echo is its exceptional voice recognition. Alexa understands my commands and questions perfectly, even in a room with some background noise. It makes managing tasks and controlling smart devices in my office a breeze.

**Tech Support (★★★★★):**
As an experienced Echo user, I've rarely needed tech support. However, it's reassuring to know that Amazon provides excellent customer support for its devices. Should any issues arise, I'm confident they will be resolved promptly.

**Smart Home Hub (★★★★★):**
The Echo (4th Gen) doubles as a smart home hub, which is incredibly convenient. I can easily control my smart lights, thermostat, and even my coffee maker with just my voice. It's a game-changer for productivity and comfort in my home office.

**Overall Impressions (★★★★★):**
This Echo (4th Gen) has exceeded my expectations and has become an integral part of my home office setup. It combines premium sound quality, efficient voice recognition, and the convenience of a smart home hub in one sleek device. If you're considering upgrading your office or home setup, I highly recommend giving this Echo a try.

As someone who's had multiple Echo devices over the years, I can confidently say that Amazon continues to innovate and improve their products. I'm looking forward to what they come up with next, and I'm certain that Echo devices will remain a staple in my home.

In conclusion, the Echo (4th Gen) is a stellar addition to my home office, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy more for other rooms in my house. It's a versatile and high-quality smart speaker that offers a lot of value for the price. If you're a fan of Echo devices like I am, you won't be disappointed with this one.

27 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

E B

This device becomes unusable once it tries to update itself, going into a restart loop

Reviewed in Canada on March 26, 2024

Update: After spending a literal 3 hours on the phone with customer service, I was able to reach the department responsible for amazon devices here in Canada (I had to go over the US to do this which was beyond weird) but once I reached them they were very helpful and have immediately initiated the return and exchange of the device. They have sent a new echo (albeit a refurbished one), so I'll be sending the old one back soon... The new (refurbished) one seems to be working fine, at the very least it went though the updates without a hitch... we will see... so 3 stars for now.

Once the Echo tries to update itself, it estimates the update time to be 30 minutes and then the light turns yellowish, after a few minutes however it goes into a reboot loop (very bright blue light turning on and off continuously) which can only be stopped by pulling the plug, as it is unresponsive to any voice commands, and identified as “Device is unresponsive” on the Alexa App (resetting also does not work at this point). I have also tried to just wait it out, however the restart loop goes on for hours.
I know for a fact that there is no problem with the internet connection as the device (after unplugging and restarting) until it re-attempts the update can answer questions and stream music. I have tried everything that was listed in amazonforum for troubleshooting several times. Unplugging and re-plugging my router, unplugging waiting and re-plugging echo, resetting echo, removing smart home devices (pressing minus and mute buttons), deregistering echo, registering it again, factory resetting, nothing seems to work. After resetting and a new setup it is responsive for a while then once it is idle it tries to update itself again and gets stuck.
It clearly has a problem installing the update package which leads me to believe the device has either a software or hardware defect. I am outside the return window now and Amazon just gave me the run around when I tried to start the process to exchange it. Thus I am stuck with a useless device that simply blinks (very brightly) blue... zero stars if I could.

One person found this helpful

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From Canada

Thomas Scotland

An Upgrade? Not really.

Reviewed in Canada on July 16, 2021

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

I'll start this off by saying I have a 3rd Generation Echo, as well a 3rd Generation Echo Dot. I was in love with both devices from. The day I opened them.

I can say with absolute honesty, this is the first time I've been disappointed by an Amazon Device. There are minor improvements, such as the extra tweeter in the speaker system allowing you to have better, clearer highs and mids. The Bass woofer points up instead of down, adding to a fuller, much cleaner sound. HOWEVER, if you're going to be within 6 feet of the device, you have to position it precisely to hear it properly. If it's pointing at you and you move a couch cushion over, you're only going to hear it in one ear. If you're behind it, forget about it. Instead of having the excelent omnidirectional sound of thr 3rd generation devices that would give you great sound throughout the entire room, this device just projects sound in one direction. I could have my 3rd Generation Echo on my night stand and have great sound throughout the entire room. If I put the 4th Gen on the nightstand, I lose sound quality simply by sitting up in bed, because I've exited the one directional beam of sound this device gives off. Even the 3rd Generation Echo DOT can fill a smaller sized room with sound better than this. It's a huge flaw staring me in the face.

Second flaw, is that the microphone is much less sensitive. With the 3rd Generation devices, I could simply speak the name "Alexa" from anywhere in the room, and it would respond. With this device, I have to raise my voice directly facing it to get any response. Terrible.

I feel like the "Premiere Sound" tag in the title has some merit. If you're in just the right position in front of it, it can deliver a beautiful sound. If you move a foot to the left, you only hear it in one ear. My 3rd Gen Echo can fill a room with sound from any direction. I really wish I would have bought another 3rd Gen for my bedroom instead of the new 4th Gen. It can't hear you unless you nearly yell at it, and while the quality of sound it provides is improved, it's implementation is sub par at best.

It can do neat things like tell you the ambient temperature in your room. That's nice. So could a 10 dollar thermometer.

The sleek new look and the "Premiere Sound" tag lines are deceptive in my opinion. And unfortunately, there are no more 3rd Generation Echos to be found, so I won't be returning this. It works, but because of design flaws with the one directional Audio and a Mic that needs you to yell at it in a quiet room, I have to give it 2 stars.

I want to reiterate that this is the first time I've ever left a negative review for an Amazon product. If I was Amazon, I would put the Mics back on top in the open, and bring back Omnidirectional sound so that I don't have to adjust where I'm sitting in a room to hear it. Find a way to keep the extra tweeter, turn the Bass woofer upside-down like it used to be, and just go back to the drawing board on this device ASAP. This is one step forward and 3 steps back in the design.

If you have a 3rd Gen and think this might be an upgrade, you'd best think twice.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

craig

Mostly adequate, but not for listening to music

Reviewed in Canada on February 12, 2024

Colour Name: Twilight BlueConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

Alexa devices, and this is my 3rd over the years, have been quite interesting. We used to use it to control lights and such, until Alexa stopped recognizing them, so we tossed the wall switches away and mostly used Alexa for streaming music. It worked mostly OK for this for awhile, despite the muffled speaker and incredibly weak speaking voice. And now when we ask it to play music it asks us to purchase a music package from Amazon. For things that Alexa plays randomly. So Alexa will play songs randomly that I've requested previously, but for Alexa to play the music I want, when I want it, I have to subscribe to yet another service.

Fortunately I still have a few TB of music on drives so I don't *need* streaming, it was just kinda nice to have. Now that Alexa is simply a gateway into more things to subscribe to I would like to return it and replace it with a generic Bluetooth speaker that will play the multitude of music I already own.

Other than checking the weather Alexa is underwhelming. And also overpriced, as many Bluetooth speakers have better sound, and a battery makes them portable, so 2 pluses for the cheapie things Amazon sells, but not for Amazon's own gear. Substandard, needs work, but Amazon laid off much of the staff so this is a sunsetting product anyways - so best avoided unless one likes that muffled sound common amongst Alexa devices...

Helpful

Rob T

Disappointing voice recognition

Reviewed in Canada on January 19, 2021

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

Update November 2022: dropping a star due to the changes in Amazon music for prime which takes away a lot of the usefulness of these devices. This kind of change highlights the risk of buying these kind of items. I am definitely going to rethink purchasing a Kindle and fire tablet given that I can't trust that my experience in a year will be the experience on signing up for.

Update January and 28th: I talked to Amazon customer service and they promptly swapped out for a new one. I've had it a day so haven't used it much yet but it now responds to the wake word immediately. So I have added another star to my review. If the voice recognition improves the same way then I will be adding a fourth star.

I have a third generation Echo and two third generation Echo dots and was happy enough with them that I thought I would order this fourth generation Echo. It started out in my bedroom but I found that it was a bit too loud even on its lowest setting so I moved it down into the great room. I have to say overall I am very disappointed with this echo. The voice recognition is much worse than that of my echo dots. I am off and having repeat myself for the echo to even recognize the Wake word. In addition it's not interpreting my voice very well at all. I do tend to mumble and I don't project my voice but I didn't have this problem with the third generation devices. In terms of sound quality I can't really comment because I don't ever have the need to have the volume much higher than three or four. I would not say that I'm blown away by the sound quality but maybe in a less wide open room or at a higher volume it would be more noticeable. If given the choice I would order a third generation Echo dot and return this one. Unfortunately it looks like the third generation devices have mostly been snapped up.
I agree with the other reviews that question the wisdom of using a white cord with a black device. It does stand out on my home theater shelf. Not really a deal breaker but it just adds to the disappointment in this device.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Customer

Don’t expect to use this as a media player

Reviewed in Canada on June 15, 2024

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

It will not keep playing radio stations, it should keep playing until I tell it to stop but it just randomly stops playing whenever it feels like it which is extremely annoying. I have found that same with all echo devices and contacting support does nothing they say check your wifi signal but that’s obviously not the issue or I wouldn’t be able to contact support.

Helpful

Shawn Scouten

Regretting My Purchase (100% Meh)

Reviewed in Canada on December 2, 2023

Colour Name: Glacier WhiteConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

Liked: easy set up, simple appearance, good sound quality, pairs well, the lighting is nice

Disliked: Alexa Mobile App (required) is really frustrating—there are no back buttons to leave a screen (so you get stuck and the app tries to push settings on the user and force agreement), can’t change or adjust voice at all; (tone, gender, accent are all annoying and grating, but you’re stuck with it), didn’t understand basic commands (ie stop the music!); seems to default to country music which makes me want to throw it across the room especially when the music won’t shut off; pretty sexist device really; very limited in what it can do; could just use Siri instead or Google. Siri and Google have custom voices, are pretty smart, with a range of configurations and options.

Hey Amazon! Assistants don’t always have to be female.

With the poor configurabiliry, an app that tries to force settings you don’t want, and lack of responsiveness to basic commands, I’m really disappointed. It’s back in the box within 30 minutes. Rating = Totally Meh!

Helpful

Suraj

Disappointed

Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2024

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

When I opened it and try to turn it on it was not working.

Helpful

Denise Legere

Does not pair to Amazon tv for home theatre

Reviewed in Canada on January 4, 2024

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

I am sure this is great for a stand alone speaker but I bought unnecessarily to use as home theatre for Amazon Fire tv. I have 3 speakers already but they were not compatible with tv. So I bought this to set up on tv and wasted hours trying to get connected with Amazon. Called my internet supplier to split bandwidth and still would not connect. Device showed online but network error when trying to connect speaker. The only reason I bought this was to set up as a home theatre. Wasted 5 or 6 hours on this. After hours of trying to connect original speakers. Returning to Amazon. Please do not purchase if this was your purpose.

Helpful

Nick M

Constantly Shills for Amazon. Defaults to Amazon Music Which Cannot be Turned Off. And More ....

Reviewed in Canada on February 2, 2022

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

Constantly Shills for Amazon and pushes products. Horrible voice options - sounds like a teacher patronizing a child! Continually misunderstands commands, even though I enunciate perfectly clear English (my native language) and am a popular long established public speaker!

Just a terribly frustrating experience. How people can say that the sound quality is good amazes me - it's terrible - lofi and distorted .... not good at all. And a limited number of built in streaming choices - no Tidal for instance - and the only way to connect these is through a clunky add on interface.

Is an OK product if you just need simple questions answered, make lists, weather etc. but you are totally tied to your Amazon account and simply help Amazon to better target its marketing at you.

I will return this thing tomorrow and look for something better. My Chinese phone understands me perfectly when I speak!

UPDATE: Decided to give it more effort before returning but it just ends up frustrating me more. Voice recognition is poor and if the speaker is playing the mic does not pick up commands well at all. And then there's the dropped wifi! I have over 60 devices connected to my network and all work almost perfectly - except for this Echo. It constantly loses the connection and as a result just sits there and does nothing when queried!

Also Amazon music has a poor selection of international music, a clunky interface and is heavily tilted towards mainstream pop. Understandable, but for anyone with broader musical interests a poor value.

Perhaps I will try the Bose unit???

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Toronto Man

2 years later

Reviewed in Canada on January 27, 2024

Colour Name: CharcoalConfiguration: EchoVerified Purchase

I bought this over 2 years ago and it seems her hearing has deteriorated. The sound is fine, but she not only misunderstanding what we're saying constantly, often doesn't engage when addresses and more often doesn't pick our command up from 10 feet away at the same time that our ecobee from 30 feet down the hall picks up our command. Its surprising that other brands do a better job than Amazon's own brand. I'm now thinking of getting rid of it altogether.

Helpful

Highway420

I expected better. Get screen Echos

Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

It kills me to only give 3 stars for this product because I love the entire Echo/Alexa series but this Echo 4 is just nothing special compared to the other ones and can never hear me when I call it. Sometimes I call it 7-9 times before giving up and asking Google Nest or another Echo device. The ring light on the bottom is a poor design choice as well. There's just nothing new or exciting (besides colour) about Generation 4. Yes she's a bit quicker but sometimes that's a negative because she closes out before you get a chance to say anything/finish your question. Too much hassle to send back but will be last Amazon smart device until they come up with something new/exciting.
I can't even find any use or even mention of the zigbee hub. The one thing I love which is probably unimportant to most is the indoor temperature feature. Love knowing the temperature in my room by asking. This is extremely hard of hearing and never wakes up when I ask it to, yet wakes up when its dead quiet. Very strange experience this purchase. Hopefully Amazon can release a fix (OTA) for the hearing issue as its a major issue and walking to control the echo 4 defeats its purpose.

Update- no firmware updates have fixed anything yet, I love my echoes but I wish I had of bought another one with a screen as I find those ones 1000 times more useful. A Red ball is cool looking but that’s about it. Having a screen has spoiled me.

One person found this helpful

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