Echo Dot (4th Gen) | Smart speaker with clock and Alexa | Glacier White

The current top review for Alex's DeathSta—I mean, the Echo Dot 4th Gen—at the time I'm writing this covers all the basics beautifully, and since you've probably already read that one, I won't reiterate all those points. Instead, here's what makes the 4th Gen Dot a winner for me. 1. Built In Clock I'm pretty nearsighted, and squinting across the room at the Hubster's clock radio doesn't cut it. The little clock face on my "Moon Dot" (as I've named it in Alexa's Devices list), which lives on my nightstand, means that if I wake up, I can check the time without activating my tablet and possibly falling down an internet rabbit hole. Sure, there are other, potentially cheaper ways to solve that problem, but most of them don't have... 2. Extremely Adjustable Brightness: Ultra-Dim Mode, Go! I have great night vision, which is just another way of saying that my eyes are really sensitive to light. I'm forever being vaguely annoyed by how everything is hailed as "ultra-bright," when really I just want most things to have an ultra-dim mode. The Echo Dot 4th Gen can bring the Ultra-Bright, assuming you have normal eyes and that's a thing you want. But it can *also* bring the Ultra-Dim, if you're a weirdo like me. Many bedside clocks are bright enough to keep me awake, and few are dim enough that I can look at them without my eyes smarting. With its brightness turned down to between 2% and 5%, the Echo Dot 4th Gen fits the bill. 3. Great White Noise Speaker! In addition to being a cranky dim-light fanatic, I sleep really lightly. Every little sound will wake me up, but a constant stream of white noise will help my brain ignore the inevitable bumps-in-the-night, honks, car alarms, barking dogs, people randomly knocking on doors several houses away... However, I travel a lot for work, and the lighter I can pack, the better. Combined with rain or fan sounds streamed from a music app, the Dot 4th Gen makes a perfect portable white noise system. I've been using my Dot 4th Gen for white noise for a couple of weeks, and the sound quality is good enough for it to be relaxing. The only con here is that if I don't mute the Mic after the hubs falls asleep, Alexa will pause the music when he snores because he thinks he's trying to talk to her xD Thank goodness there's a mute button! 4. Morning Weather Reports Without Overcaffeinated DJs ^-^ Look, I get it. Lots of us find it helpful to listen to peppy people in the morning, and that's fine—it's just not for me. I like a more mellow approach to the start of my day. I'm hyper enough already! However, it's nice to get a succinct preview of the general state of the weather *before* you get dressed, right? So with a few taps, you can set up a weather announcement for specific time or to play after your alarm goes off. Sure, I could try to remember to glance at the weather on my tablet or phone (without getting sucked in), but I have ADHD, and the more I can automate, the better. Work smarter, right? 5. In fact, Alexa in general. I didn't expect Alexa to come in anywhere near has handy as she does. This is my third Dot. The first, a 2nd-Gen hockey puck Dot, now lives in my kitchen, where Alexa sets timers answers cooking questions, updates me on the weather, etc. The second, a 3rd-gen white hockey puck, lives in the living room, where Alexa can launch movies and TV shows, etc. They are all excellent sources of terrible dad jokes, though when I ask Alexa if she's Dad, she consistently denies having any children. I'm not convinced. I suppose that, for me, that's the only major "con." When you install an Echo Dot, you put yourself at the mercy of Alexa's dad jokes, invoked by friends and family whenever you least expect them. For an excellent clocks radio I white noise machine-weather station-personal assistant-information dispenser, it's a small price to pay.

The Echo Dot (4th Gen) with clock and Alexa is a perfect addition to any smart home. The Twilight Blue color is modern and vibrant, easily complementing my room decor. The built-in clock is super convenient, making it easy to check the time without needing to ask. The sound quality is impressive for its size — clear, balanced sound that fills the room, and Alexa’s responsiveness is spot on. I’ve integrated it with my smart home devices, and it controls everything effortlessly. It’s also fun to use for playing music, setting timers, or even just asking for weather updates. ✅ Pros: Sleek, modern design with a built-in clock Great sound for a compact speaker Alexa integration for controlling smart devices, setting reminders, and more Twilight Blue color adds a vibrant touch to your space ❌ Cons: Volume may not be sufficient for large rooms, but perfect for smaller spaces 💡 Tips: Pair it with other Alexa-enabled devices for a full smart home experience. Use the Do Not Disturb mode at night to avoid interruptions. The clock display brightness can be adjusted to your preference in settings. Bottom Line: The Echo Dot (4th Gen) with clock and Alexa is a great, affordable speaker that brings smart home convenience, great sound, and sleek design to any room. Highly recommend it for anyone looking to start or expand their smart home setup.

This Dot 4 replaces a clock radio and a Dot 3 in my bedroom. We live in an area that most radios don't work well due to lack of reception. I did have a clock radio on my night stand primarily to see the time during the night. I also had a Dot 3 on my dresser to access the the various features of Alexa devices. The clock radio didn't play music well due to lack of reception and often the time was not correct. I used the Dot 3 primarily to for the alarm and to play sleep sounds that help me to get a better night's sleep. Since my bedroom doesn't have a usable electrical outlet connected to the wall switch, the Dot 3 also controlled all of the lighting in the room. The problem with the Dot 3 for commands was that it seemed to need a direct line of communication for it to hear commands. Since the Dot 4 is in my bedroom, I use it primarily for the alarm and to play sleep sounds. All of the lights in my bedroom are plugged into smart plugs connected to Alexa, and I have them set up in groups, i.e., dresser, night stand, butterfly (a light on the dresser). I can turn them on or off independently or as a group. Although there are buttons on the top of the Dot 4 to control volume and turn off or on the microphone, this can also be done with voice commands. What I like about the Dot 4 over the Dot 3 are: 1) A direct line of sight is not needed for the Dot 4 to hear me. It hears and understands voice commands much better than the Dot 3 2) I don't have external speakers attached and the sound quality is much better than the Dot 3. Granted there is not a booming bass, but the sound quality is much better and tends to fill the room better. 3) Although I am sensitive to light in the room when I sleep, the light from the time on the Dot 4 does not bother me at all. 4) I can easily see the time when I wake up in the night, but the light doesn't bother me when I sleep. 5 So easy to set up since all of my preferences and settings are stored in the Alexa app. Just had to name the device. Overall, I very much like this Dot 4, and it has replaced a clock radio and a Dot 3. I bought one for my husband, and he also loves it. One downside I can think of is that it's too easy to turn off alarms to sleep longer. The other is that I am without lights in my bedroom when the internet goes down which doesn't happen very often. UPDATE 09/09/23: I have been using this Echo Dot for about 1 1/2 years, and I still love it. I depend on it for my alarm to wake me, and can set different wake times for different days if I want to. At times, I have had to get up earlier to make an appointment and can easily change the wake time for only the next day. Alexa will ask if I want to change the wake time for every day. If I say "No", the wake time is changed for only that day. You can choose to be woken to a chosen alarm sound or you can choose a specific song to wake you. For a couple of days, I tried "Eye of the Tiger" thinking it would get me out of bed faster, but it didn't work for me. As mentioned previously, all of the lighting in my bedroom is controlled by Alexa. Sometimes I wake in the night and don't feel like turning over to look at the clock on this Echo dot, so I just ask Alexa what time it is. It is so easy to become dependent on the conveniences offered by electronics. I hope this review was helpful for you. I will update this review if my opinion changes.

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase. The sound quality is excellent, and the maximum volume is so loud that I can hear an alarm or music in another room or on another floor of my house. The display quality is also good; the time is very easy to read and large enough to see from across the room. The backlighting on the display adapts to the ambient lighting in the room, so you can always see the time regardless of whether it’s day or night. And the display is bright enough to see without being really activating or blinding me at night. The color is a nice, light gray. I like the modern, minimalistic design. It’s built fairly well. But I wish that the outside of the Echo were hard and not porous, as it collects a lot of dust and there’s no way to disinfect it. My other complaint is the connectivity. Any time my WiFi goes out for even a few seconds, this Echo goes offline and does not automatically reconnect when the internet is back on. Consequently, I have to manually reconnect it to the internet using the Alexa app, and this often takes a few tries and several minutes. Sometimes I don’t realize the internet has gone down, and have missed important alarms and reminders as a result.

Well, first thing I would like to say is that, before submitting a review, specially a bad review, because you can't do this or that with the Echo Dot, please learn how to use it. Alexa even guides you to things to do and configure during the initial setup. With that said, I gotta say that it is more than I expected. It was setup very easily, the Alexa App is very useful and easy to understand with few practice. Alexa system is straight forward and I like that, as I am not into the "super conversational/human mimic" system, I just want an assistant to understand my orders and my request, and Alexa does it very well, so far. For those complaining about the sound quality, I can say that, as someone that enjoy music and HiFi sound, as someone used to the Bose, Sennheiser, JBL, AKG or Harman Kardon sound quality, the Alexa speaker has a good and decent sound quality, considering its size. I read many people saying it has zero bass, but that is not true, It does have a bass level, of course it won't be like having a subwoofer, but it does have, specially when listening to EDM, Pop, Classic Music or Jazz, it sounds very good (refer to the attached video, please use headphones or good speakers to appreciate the sound), and the best part about its sound is the Alexa App Sound settings with a 3-Ways Equalizer, I can't be more satisfied. If I want louder sound with extra super ultra HiFi quality, I can use the 2.1 Speakers connected to my gaming computer. I also read some reviews stating that the display is too bright, well, it can be also adjusted with the Alexa App, there is even an Adapative Display Brightness, perfect for me, when I turn off the lamp next to my bed, the Echo Dot reduces the display brightness automatically to a point it does not bother while readable in the dark. I can even listen to my favorite radio stations via TuneIn service, I just ask Alexa and she plays it. Same applies for the audio streaming or music services, I just ask Alexa to play my music from Spotify and she does it! So basically it is just matter of getting familiar with the Alexa App and it all runs smoothly. Just setup the Skills you want and enjoy, including the funny ones. It can also controls the Amazon TV without the remote control. Super cool! All around, so far so good. I do recommend it.

I've got Echoes and Dots from 1st to 3rd generation and this Dot is leaps and bounds above my even 3rd gen stuff. First thing I noticed was the weight of the box. It felt just about the same as my 3rd gen Echo , but the wall wart felt lighter on the Dot . Upon removing and plugging in I saw a HUGE improvement in set up. It practically set itself up vs every other one gave me some sort of issue, be it Wi-Fi or connecting to smart devices , Bluetooth , or home theatre equipment . In 5 minutes it was set up , wake word changed and routines switched from my Echo to it . Does this mean Amazon knows more about my private stuff ? Maybe or maybe they got the software right . The sound quality with music is almost as decent as the full size Echo but bass distorts at a lower volume when listening to music. Vocal sounds are hard to tell which is which when set the same in the Alexa app . I initially planned to set the Dot near my sofa and move the Echo across the den but the microphones on the Dot are so much more sensitive than the big brother the Dot ended up across the room and the Echo stayed where it was . I don't find anything wrong with the gen 3 Echo but the 4th gen Dot is just a lot better. No need to hit the mute on the tv to tell it to change the channel on my Hopper . The clock is why I got the thing and I really really am glad I paid the extra 10 clams to get the clock. I keep it manually set you 3 (30%) and it's plenty bright with or without lights on in the room. The fonts are crisp and large enough for my 56 year old eyes to easily, even on heavy allergy days . Just say "Alexa what the current temperature " and the clock changes to show the local weather affiliate temperature and she also says what it is plus what the expected low for the day is . Adaptive brightness SUCKS on this thing though. It says try it and it'll adapt but I have not the patience and it sets the brightness so low I can't barely see it , even up close , and cannot read what the time is . It's like it's set on maybe 1 (5%) . Perhaps a software update will help but as of now setting it on 3 (30%) works well in all conditions and is not enough of a nuisance to take away my impression of this device being a huge upgrade from the 3rd gen Dot I got my daughters . If they add a clock feature to the new Echo I'll update mine to it but as of now the Dot is a great addition to my 20x28 man cave . Edit. I saw someone had found a way to make their Dot gray. I now have a charcoal Dot with clock and couldn't pass up the sale price along with 5 interest free payments for a Death Star (full size Echo ) after reading many many reviews and also seeing video reviews . The new Echo will be here in a few days and I'll use by blue full size somewhere else .

This is a nifty little device and I think it looks like an adorable little sphere on my nightstand. The blue color is beautiful as well. It’s actually smaller in person than I had expected, and the sound quality and max volume are louder than I had expected. As a bonus it has an digital clock display, which I do not find to be too bright at all in a dark room, as some others have mentioned. I think it’s perfect in its brightness and actually reduces brightness when it’s dark in the room. I also enjoy that it has a mic off button for when you don’t want to accidentally trigger Alexa. Picked this up on prime day for an incredible price too that I would have paid for just a regular standard digital clock, which I had been meaning to buy anyway. I wake up in the middle of the night frequently and tend to check my phone for the time - the blue light of the phone and any distracting notifications on it can pull you out of sleep mode so having a digital display for the time is super helpful. As far as night light goes I was expecting the whole sphere would be illuminated but for that I think you’ve gotta buy the glow. The nightlight isn’t that useful on this because it just pulses a blue green light on the ring at the bottom. There’s no way to stop it pulsing. On the other hand if you turn the mic off at night, you can have a red ring stay illuminated at the bottom and that is kind of like a nightlight too + it doesn’t pulse.

I bought this echo dot during a sale, and I could not be more happy with my purchase! It makes everything so much easier, too. I use it in my living room, and ended up connecting it via aux to my surround sound system, and man, does it bump! The speaker on the device itself is actually really nice for the size, and it can get super loud! I only wish it had more of a "bump" in the woofer section...but as I am a bass head for life, I needed that extra umph by connecting it to my external speakers. You can customize the sound (trebble, mids, bass) via the Alexa app and that deffinately makes the speaker sound amazing (bass on high, mids to one less than the middle of the bass, and trebble about 3 notches to the left of the "zero" line (negative 3). This makes for a nice, full embodied sound, even without my external speakers plugged in. I love how it came automatically connected to my Amazon account, so I can now easily use voice-access to my music apps. I don't even have to get up or get on my phone to play, skip, pause, or stop the music <<but let's get real, the music never stops at my house (; >> 10/10 would reccomend! This Echo Dot is definitely worth the money. And if you're thinking of getting one without the clock...I'd advise to reconsider. I use the clock all the time. And when my speaker system is not on and I ask what temperature it is outside, it is displayed on the clock face. So I don't have to turn on my speaker system just to find out how warm or cold it is outside. This item is also very gift-able. In fact, I got one for my little brother for Christmas last year too, and he loves it! OH, and did I mention that (through alexa) it can control all of my smart outlets and lights? No more getting up to turn switches for this girl! All I need to do is ask my Echo to turn off all the lights, even singular lights, or lights in only one room (after setting up the rooms on the app), with a couple notes from my vocal chords...and...*poof* they're off. It's like magic. Especially useful for people with handicaps that limit mobility. Again, 10/10 would reccomend!! 😁