Amazon Echo review

The Amazon Echo might be the first device of its kind, but its outward appearance betrays its hardware and software capabilities. Standing only 9.25 inches tall and a mere 3.25 inches around it is about the same size as many wireless speakers on the market. Circular perforations cover the bottom half, which is where the 2.5 inch woofer and 2 inch tweeter are housed. Reviewers do not suggest using the Echo solely as a Bluetooth speaker as the music was, as The Verge states, "shallow, tinny and compressed…Setting the Echo up is more complicated than an average speaker, too…"

The biggest draw of Amazon Echo is, of course, its ability to understand voice commands. The Echo uses its own voice assistant – Alexa. Like Siri or Cortana, users simply have to say the keyword (Alexa or Amazon) and then issue the command. The Alexa assistant was able to answer numerous questions experts posed such as the current temperature and even the population of Tokyo though Neowin notes that, "…it's hard to predict what it will understand." Experts add that Alexa often didn't recognize their voice when music was playing on the speakers, which proved to be an issue when they wanted to change songs or turn down the volume. As well, they warn Alexa is not as powerful as Siri as it lacked access to services like their email and calendar. So while they were able to set an alarm, they could not schedule a meeting. Even simple things like modifying shopping and to-do lists were not as straightforward as they liked as they could only remove items through the companion app.