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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 December 2023
Having been investing in Alexa Dots for some years saw this newer version on a prime deal so added it to my collection . I normally replace an old version and find somewhere new to place the older one. My house is now pretty much covered with Alexa Dots now.
As always with Alexa products this unit is easy to setup and install straight out of the box. As a veteran Alexa user I already have the app set up and used the Amazon preconfigured option selected at checkout ..
If you are new to Alexa you will have to download and setup the Alexa app, which is also intuitive and easy to set up.
Now to the Dot itself , it looks identical to the 4th generation dot so be a little careful when buying one and make sure you buy the generation you want . There should be better pricing and deals on the 4th Gen but the reason I purchased this one is due to some additional tech inside the unit and supposedly better sound quality.
The sound is very good, not HI-FI quality but more than good enough for day to day use . ( I have paired 2 x Dots together in my main room to utilise the stereo options on the device. Apparently the 5th gen has a larger speaker/woofer and after comparing the 4th and the 5th gen together I can confirm the sound quailty is slightly better with particularly a better bass ) the difference in quality is NOT a huge jump from the gen 4 but still noticeably better , and is massively better than the 3rd gen Dot.
An issue I have with both the 5th and 4th Gen Alexa Dot is the light bar is on the bottom of the unit. I use the light bar quite a lot to see if Alexa is responding in a noisy Enviroment or for notifications and as with most of my dots I buy 3rd party wall mounts for them to keep the cables nice and tidy and off a flat surface.the problem with this as most of these mounts place the light ring at the back and therefore close to the wall and makes the light bar hard to view. ( it’s a minor niggle not a deal breaker )
The additional tech that grabbed my attention was the inclusion of a temperature and motion sensor.
Both these would be ideal to add to my smart Home system to enable routines for heating and lighting etc so was eager to test these out.
The temperature sensor:
This is a great addition works very well and responds quickly to voice commands. I tested the accuracy by putting another smart temp sensor in the same room with an additional stand alone temperature sensor.
The accuracy of the Alexa sensor was accurate and comparable to the two other sensors tested in the same room .. it is so easy to add it to routines in the Alexa app and works well.
The Motion Sensor:
I was eager to try this out as well as I wanted to make use of it Alexa routines such as if someone walked in the room the lights switched on and if there was no motion for a set time the lights would switch off. This is a fairly simple routine in the smart home .
Unfortunately the motion sensor in the Alexa Dot 5th gen is pretty much useless and simply doesn’t work. It uses a slightly different way by detecting motion using ultrasonic technology. I realise this technology wouldn’t be the best as any noise in the room, such as TV , people speaking etc would diminish the accuracy of the sensor .. however having tested it many times in a completely silent room it simply doesn’t work , and on the odd occasion it does actually work it’s usually from an unknown source and not actually from someone entering the room.
Conclusion: if you want good Alexa integration , a more than adequate sound for every day use , and a temp sensor buy this with no qualms that you will be getting a good quality product that works well straight from the box.
If you are buying this for the motion sensor tech , don’t bother it’s useless and you would be much better off buying a separate smart motion sensor . The Echo Dot version is unreliable and just going to give you many headaches
As always with Alexa products this unit is easy to setup and install straight out of the box. As a veteran Alexa user I already have the app set up and used the Amazon preconfigured option selected at checkout ..
If you are new to Alexa you will have to download and setup the Alexa app, which is also intuitive and easy to set up.
Now to the Dot itself , it looks identical to the 4th generation dot so be a little careful when buying one and make sure you buy the generation you want . There should be better pricing and deals on the 4th Gen but the reason I purchased this one is due to some additional tech inside the unit and supposedly better sound quality.
The sound is very good, not HI-FI quality but more than good enough for day to day use . ( I have paired 2 x Dots together in my main room to utilise the stereo options on the device. Apparently the 5th gen has a larger speaker/woofer and after comparing the 4th and the 5th gen together I can confirm the sound quailty is slightly better with particularly a better bass ) the difference in quality is NOT a huge jump from the gen 4 but still noticeably better , and is massively better than the 3rd gen Dot.
An issue I have with both the 5th and 4th Gen Alexa Dot is the light bar is on the bottom of the unit. I use the light bar quite a lot to see if Alexa is responding in a noisy Enviroment or for notifications and as with most of my dots I buy 3rd party wall mounts for them to keep the cables nice and tidy and off a flat surface.the problem with this as most of these mounts place the light ring at the back and therefore close to the wall and makes the light bar hard to view. ( it’s a minor niggle not a deal breaker )
The additional tech that grabbed my attention was the inclusion of a temperature and motion sensor.
Both these would be ideal to add to my smart Home system to enable routines for heating and lighting etc so was eager to test these out.
The temperature sensor:
This is a great addition works very well and responds quickly to voice commands. I tested the accuracy by putting another smart temp sensor in the same room with an additional stand alone temperature sensor.
The accuracy of the Alexa sensor was accurate and comparable to the two other sensors tested in the same room .. it is so easy to add it to routines in the Alexa app and works well.
The Motion Sensor:
I was eager to try this out as well as I wanted to make use of it Alexa routines such as if someone walked in the room the lights switched on and if there was no motion for a set time the lights would switch off. This is a fairly simple routine in the smart home .
Unfortunately the motion sensor in the Alexa Dot 5th gen is pretty much useless and simply doesn’t work. It uses a slightly different way by detecting motion using ultrasonic technology. I realise this technology wouldn’t be the best as any noise in the room, such as TV , people speaking etc would diminish the accuracy of the sensor .. however having tested it many times in a completely silent room it simply doesn’t work , and on the odd occasion it does actually work it’s usually from an unknown source and not actually from someone entering the room.
Conclusion: if you want good Alexa integration , a more than adequate sound for every day use , and a temp sensor buy this with no qualms that you will be getting a good quality product that works well straight from the box.
If you are buying this for the motion sensor tech , don’t bother it’s useless and you would be much better off buying a separate smart motion sensor . The Echo Dot version is unreliable and just going to give you many headaches
