Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Gadgets

Amazon Echo Dot (2nd gen) is $50, Improved in Black or White

Amazon Echo Dot 2nd Gen

Amazon just announced a second-generation Echo Dot for a lower price and in a new color, white. The new $50 device brings Alexa to any room in your home, who is a voice-controlled personal assistant that can answer questions, play music, turn on the lights, set timers, give sports updates, check the weather, access over 3,000 Alexa skills, and much more. The catch is you need to hook it up to powered speakers or a receiver, either via 3.5mm headphone cable or Bluetooth if you want to listen to music. Although, there is a tiny internal speaker that makes it functional for voice replies or as an alarm clock.

The all-new Echo Dot is said to fix some voice recognition problems in the original model. So Amazon is now using the same array of seven microphones found in Amazon Echo, along with beam-forming technology and enhanced noise cancellation to detect the wake word, Alexa, from across the room. In addition, the new Echo Dot features a more powerful speech processor, which delivers improved far-field speech recognition accuracy. However, Amazon did replace the volume ring on the original Echo Dot with physical up and down buttons.

Amazon Echo second generation in black

Echo Dot is designed to disappear into any room in a house. With its built-in speaker, you can place Dot in the bedroom and use it as a smart alarm clock that can also turn off your lights. Or use Dot in the kitchen to easily set timers, ask for measurement conversions and recipes, and shop for tens of millions of Amazon products using just your voice.

Key Details

  • The new Echo Dot is hands-free, voice-controlled, and powered by Alexa to play music, turn on the lights, get information and the news, set alarms, and more.
  • Connect Echo Dot to external speakers to enable voice control of your home entertainment system, or use it on its own to talk to Alexa
  • ESP (Echo Spatial Perception) makes it easy to have multiple Echo and Echo Dot devices throughout your home, ensuring that Alexa responds intelligently from the device closest to you
  • Supported music services include Amazon Music, Prime Music, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more.
  • Alexa has already learned over 3,000 skills, and is always getting smarter.

Use Echo Dot to turn on the lamp before getting out of bed, change the temperature without leaving your chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all with just your voice. Echo Dot works with smart home devices such as lights, switches, fans, thermostats, garages, sprinklers, and more from leading smart home providers including Philips Hue, ecobee, TP-Link, Insteon, WeMo, Lutron, TrackR, Luma, Nest, Wink, Honeywell, Samsung SmartThings and Garageio.

For customers who have multiple Echo devices within hearing distance, Amazon’s new ESP technology intelligently calculates the clarity of the customer’s voice and determines which Echo is best to respond to the request—instantly. This feature is smart—performance gets better over time, so ESP will continuously improve as you use Echo. In multi-Echo households, ESP resolves the problem of two Echo devices answering you at the same time. This new feature will be available as a free update for all Echo devices—including Amazon Echo and the first generation Echo Dot—starting in the coming weeks.

Alexa — the brain behind Echo Dot — is built in the cloud, so she is always getting smarter. Alexa can play music, and provide information, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly. The more you use Dot, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences. Thousands of third party developers are also building skills for Alexa—there are already over 3,000 skills available that let you do even more with Alexa. You can order a pizza through Dominos, request a ride from Uber, read Audiobooks with Audible, find flight information with Kayak, get cocktail recipe suggestions from Patrón, and much more.

Amazon Echo Dot 2nd Gen

Pricing and Availability
The Echo Dot (2nd generation) will be available in either black or white on October 20, 2016. You can pre-order now at www.amazon.com/echodot.

A single Echo Dot is available for $49.99 in the US or £49.99 in the UK. Otherwise, you can choose a six-pack for buy five, get one free (with promo code DOT6PACK), or a 12-pack for buy 10, get two free (with promo code DOT12PACK).

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Customers interested in purchasing a new Bluetooth speaker can take advantage of a special price when they purchase a bundle of select Bose speakers with an Echo Dot.

Customers interested in creating a smart home can save up to $50 on bundles with Echo Dot and smart home devices from ecobee, Philips, and TP-Link.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Latest Products

Beyerdynamic AVENTHO 100 Wireless Headphones Lifestyle

New Products

Beyerdynamic AVENTHO 100 wireless headphones offer retro style, German-engineered sound, ANC, and travel-friendly features at a competitive price in 2025.

Focal Diva Mezza Utopia Loudspeakers Focal Diva Mezza Utopia Loudspeakers

New Products

Focal’s Diva Mezza Utopia is a $70,000 high-end wireless speaker system with Naim Class A/B amps, UWB streaming, and app control—no separates required, no...

KEF XIO Soundbar in Silver Grey mounted on-wall KEF XIO Soundbar in Silver Grey mounted on-wall

New Products

KEF XIO Soundbar brings Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and hi-res streaming to a sleek 5.1.2 system with premium design, VECO bass tech, and wide connectivity.

LG OLED evo M5 Wireless TV Lifestyle Gaming LG OLED evo M5 Wireless TV Lifestyle Gaming

HDTV 4K & 8K TV

Top-of-the-line LG OLED picture technology in a 77-inch screen size with zero cable clutter for a sleek home theater or gaming setup.

Orange Amplifiers O Turntable Angle Lifestyle Orange Amplifiers O Turntable Angle Lifestyle

New Products

With a $699 tag, the O Turntable is belt-driven and comes with a pre-installed MM cartridge and a built-in phono preamp for easy connection...

FiiO K15 Desktop DAC and Headphone Amp Front View Angle FiiO K15 Desktop DAC and Headphone Amp Front View Angle

Headphone Amps

Discover the FiiO K15 DAC Headphone Amp: A powerful, affordable desktop solution offering balanced audio, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, all for $549. Compare with top...

Gift Ideas?

Amazon Prime Day is July 8-11, 2025

Daily Deals

Amazon Prime Day is a four-day shopping event from July 8-11, 2025 offering the biggest discounts of the year on consumer electronics.

You May Also Like

News

Streaming movie and TV shows is getting very complicated, and you may not always get what you think you're paying for.

Gift Guides

Upgrade Mom's home audio and video experiences this Mother's Day with 10 gift ideas she'll absolutely love -- and you might too.

HDTV 4K & 8K TV

Amazon introduces top-of-the-line Omni Series Mini-LED QLED 4K TVs in sizes from 55 to 85-inches at affordable price points.

New Products

At $249, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus features 3.1 channels, but is expandable to 5.1 with optional wireless subwoofer and speakers.

Amplifiers

Just add in-ceiling speakers to Q Acoustics 300A Ceiling Amplifier to bring streaming music and Amazon Alexa into any room.

Gift Guides

Bring function, style and entertainment to any educational experience with tech that kids will absolutely love.

New Products

Amazon just announced one of the most unique products of the year, called Echo. The tubular device is a wireless speaker and voice activated...

Gift Guides

Impress Mom this year with the latest top-rated tech gifts this Mother's Day that are guaranteed to be useful all year long.

Advertisement

ecoustics is a hi-fi and music magazine offering product reviews, podcasts, news and advice for aspiring audiophiles, home theater enthusiasts and headphone hipsters. Read more

Copyright © 1999-2024 ecoustics | Disclaimer: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.



SVS Bluesound PSB Speakers NAD Cambridge Audio Q Acoustics Denon Marantz Focal Naim Audio RSL Speakers