Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen vs Echo Plus 2nd Gen: Which to Buy?

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen vs Echo Plus 2nd Gen

This is the review of comparison between two smart speakers from the same brand and from the model. The comparison here between the Amazon Echo Dot 4th gen and the Amazon Echo Plus 2nd gen. To know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Amazon Echo Dot 4th GenAmazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen
Amazon Echo Dot 4th GenAmazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
Eye-catching spherical design.
Space-age aesthetic.
Alexa functionality keeps getting better.
The LED clock display is natural for the Echo Dot.
Generally strong sound with clear high-mids and highs.
Friendly design.
The internal temperature sensor is useful.
Smart new looks.
CONSCONS
Somewhat bigger than its predecessor.
Directional, shallow sound.
Considerably taller than its predecessor.
Not significantly more powerful than the Echo.
Limited smart-home features.
Low frequencies overshadow highs at times.

SPECIFICATIONS:

HEADERAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
BrandAmazonAmazon
ModelEcho Dot 4th GenEcho Plus 2nd Gen
NETWORK AND INTERNET MEDIAAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Connectivity InterfaceBluetooth, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/acBluetooth, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
Internet Streaming ServicesAmazon Music, Apple Music, Audible, SpotifyAmazon Music, Audible, Pandora, Spotify
SPEAKER SYSYTEMAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Integrated Componentsclock
Hands-Free FunctionYesYes
Amplification Typeactiveactive
MultiroomYesYes
Crossover Channel Qty2-way
Audio Amplifierintegratedintegrated
Connectivity TechnologywirelessWireless
Controlsmute microphone, volume
Sound Effects360° omni-directional
AUDIO SYSTEMAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Surround System Class
Audio Formats
TypespeakerSmart speaker
SPEAKER SYSTEM DETAILSAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Speaker Typesmart speakersmart speaker
Speaker Channel Typemono
Driver typefull-range drivertweeter driver, woofer driver
Driver Diameter1.6 m20 mm, 76 mm
INTERNET OF THINGSAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Internet of Things (IoT) CompatibleYesYes
Platform
Communications Typecloudcloud
Communications TechnologyBluetooth, WiFiBluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee
Intelligent Assistant CompatibleAlexa
Voice Controlleddirectdirect
CONNECTIONSAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Typeaudio line-outaudio line-out
Connector Typemini-phone stereo 3.5 mmmini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
Bluetooth ProfilesAdvanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
Diameter
Width3.9 in3.9 in
Depth3.9 in3.9 in
Height3.5 in5.8 in
Weight12.39 oz27.51 oz
FEATURESAMAZON ECHO DOT 4TH GENAMAZON ECHO PLUS 2ND GEN
FeaturesThe sleek, compact design delivers crisp vocals and balanced bass for full sound.

Voice control your entertainment – Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Sirius XM, and others.

Ask Alexa to tell a joke, play music, answer questions, play the news, check the weather, set alarms, and more.

Control your smart home

Connect with others – Call almost anyone hands-free.
Echo Plus has a built-in Zigbee hub to easily setup and control your compatible smart home devices, and an improved sound for streaming music.

New premium speakers powered by Dolby play 360 degree audio with crisp vocals and dynamic bass response.

Ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, read the news, check the weather, set alarms, control compatible smart home devices, call almost anyone, and more.

Set up your smart home without a separate hub.

Echo Plus also includes a built-in temperature sensor.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

The Amazon Echo Dot 4th gen is the updated version of the 3rd gen Amazon Echo. The changes are made not only in the looks but also in their features to make the new Echo Dot. This smart speaker is retailing for around fifty dollars currently on Amazon.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

The Amazon Echo Plus 2nd gen is also an updated version of the speaker from Amazon that is the Echo Plus. This speaker also looks like the actual Amazon Echo but in a shorter and wider size. This speaker is retailing for around a hundred dollars which pretty good considering it is a smart speaker that also sounds really very good.

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

DESIGN:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

In the box, you get some paperwork, you get the power supply and the Echo Dot 4th generation. It’s just such a different design. This speaker is available in Twilight Blue color, Charcoal, and Glacier White. And the regular Echo is 49.99. One of my favorite devices, the Echo Dot with clock, is 59.99. I think having a clock is great. The Echo sitting there, it’s nice to be able to glance over and look at that clock. The blue one is interesting, I like the colors of it. It seems so different to be sitting on a counter or somewhere. I ordered my Echo Dot with a clock in this blue, but for my regular Echo Dot, I went with the black. Yeah, it’s just a totally different design. If we place it next to the previous generation, it’s a little wider, and it’s definitely substantially taller.

There is a 3.5 millimeter Jack. So if you do want to hook this up to a better speaker, a sound system, any of that, you can come out of the back there. The new Echo Dot is solid plastic on the bottom, on the inside is a plastic grill. And then a fabric over the top of that. You have buttons on the top to control volume up, down, mute, and an action button to call up. Buttons do feel nice and clicky.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

The second-generation Amazon Echo Plus aesthetically shares nearly nothing with its predecessor. It has a modern 360-degrees speaker design. It comes in three colors and has an updated larger light ring for the Alexa assistant feedback. It’s not just his appearance that’s how to makeover, the second generation has seen a big technological jump too. It houses a 3-inch woofer and a 9.8-inch tweeter that supports both auxiliaries in and out and also has an inbuilt zippy smart home hub, which in theory and against the use of bridge devices plugged into your home network to control lighting.

In terms of its design, is it a significant improvement over its predecessor, very much like the Echo Dot? This is the older style Echo. The original Echo and the Echo Plus looked very similar indeed. This one is much nicer, it’s nearly half the size, it’s a bit wider in comparison to the original Echo but it’s just a nice design. Almost both have similar weight, and if you’ve got this on your shelf it’ll look nice but the original one I’ve never particularly liked.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

FEATURES:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

This is an Echo-like any other Echo, you’re able to use the Alexa, to get help with things, set timers, access calendars, listen to music, listen to audiobooks, control your smart home and so much more. You get all of that out of this Echo Dot, no different than any other generation of Echo. When Amazon announced this device, there were no huge features, no hubs built-in, no sensors, and nothing crazy about it. It really seems like a year of a design change, and an audio change.

It does have a 1.6-inch speaker like the previous generation but this is a front-firing speaker. So that’s what I’m really curious about. Amazon says the Echo Dot 4th generation delivers crisp vocals and balanced bass for the full sound you can enjoy anywhere. Echo has really kind of focused on 360 sound and kind of shooting sound down and throwing it out. It also has Bluetooth to send audio from a device to the Dot and use it as a Bluetooth speaker. Or you can send the music from the Echo Dot or audio, over to another speaker.

If you’ve never set up an Echo device before, Amazon does make it really easy. When you purchase an Echo, it’ll automatically default to linking it to your Amazon Prime account. You need to pay attention to that ’cause if you’re buying for someone else, you wanna check, this is a gift. That way it doesn’t automatically get tied to your account. This is what we’re looking at. I started playing with it some and it’s really kind of odd to have those lights down there on the bottom.

This does have Amazon’s new AZ1 Neural Edge processor, and this processor is supposed to help with machine learning and using new speech models to speed up requests. Overall, initial impressions, it’s round. It sounds better, it definitely is a nice step up there. It’s a design I think I’m gonna take a little getting used to. One thing I did notice looking at this color versus the Charcoal or the Glacier White, the other colors, the fabric, and the plastic match better. So it’s not as much of a two-tone as the blue one.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

The most important thing is the sound as always and the usability of the device. This one uses some sort of weird Amazon’s own AC type adapter, a little bit annoying while the previous generations used micro USB. The new one uses this type of weird Amazon-only adapter, a bit annoying if you want to have a longer cable but it doesn’t matter. This is their new way of setting devices up when you purchase something from Amazon or one of these devices particularly, it leaves it up to your letter out, straight away before you’ve even had it delivered then plugging it in. I think it takes all the Wi-Fi settings from the app already that you’ve used on other devices and just passes it up, so it should work straight away.

I think this is a good device to listen to a bit of music on but not if you’re really interested in your music and you want that extremely crisp audio. I think it’s good but it’s not super-premium. As far as the price, ultimately, the premium usually comes with an extremely high cost but this isn’t set a premium price. This is about a hundred and fifty dollars which is actually quite a small amount for what you would expect as being a premium speaker which is why this is also another reason I think this possibly isn’t that premium, it’s quite a low price. I want to consider the amount of technology that goes into this to use all the elective light service and the lights and all of the buttons and things. You’re putting a lot of technology in there for a relatively low price and you’re trying to say that it’s premium sound.

As the fact that they’ve used the term premium sound is it worth that hundred and fifty dollars? Definitely they worth the price range I think so. It’s a very good standalone generic speaker to sit in the corner. It’s good because it delivers a punchy, clear, overall tone to your songs, and it has the Amazon Alexa voice service which everybody loves and it helps you control your smartness. So overall, it might not meet the expectation that Amazon has set by touring it’s a premium speaker but that doesn’t stop the Echo Plus 2 from being a good device. It’s got a good overall sound quality, it’s extremely loud for such a small device, and there’s a smart speaker it outperforms many competitors products. I also happen to think that this is one of the nicest looking smart speakers that you can buy, which is a far cry away from my thoughts on the previous generation. Overall, I think this is a great update to the Echo Plus range that will appeal to many wanting to add smart homes and voice control to their lives without looking too techie. 

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

SOUND QUALITY:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

One of the things I’m noticing when listening to music is it sounds good behind it, it doesn’t sound bad at all, but you definitely notice that if I rotated it around, I could hear that the speaker’s center was there and it would shift a little. So just something to think about for me, where I put them. I want them to kind of be more focused and not just everywhere with the sound. By test, I felt that the vocal seem a little crisper coming out of the new Echo Dot. The vocals are definitely crisper and cleaner compared to the previous-gen. Definitely an improvement.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

It sounds very nice, it’s got a good punch, it’s very punchy very much like the Echo dot. It’s got like a punch in the lows, the cool thing list is its 360 degrees sound so wherever you put it, you’re gonna get a lovely soundstage right away throughout the room. When we turn the volume to around 50 percent at that range itself it is very loud, and at full volume, it is very loud. Really the sound quality is very impressive out of such a small space.

Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen

WHICH TO BUY?

If you are looking for a brand new smart assistant that looks beautiful, has much better sound quality than the last generation, it has the most cutting edge technology in the processor then the Amazon Echo Plus 2nd is the good one for you to buy. If you want a good smart speaker at a lesser price and if the sound quality is not much important for you then you can go for the Amazon Echo Dot 4th gen.

Expert Reviews of Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen:

By Tech Radar
The new Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) delivers what you’d expect in terms of sound quality and Alexa integration, but it feels like the same internal components from last year packed into a new spherical shell.

By slashgear.com
Alexa is getting a fresh wardrobe for 2020, and the new Echo Dot (4th Gen) is going spherical just like its bigger Echo sibling. As always, the pitch…

By techhive.com
Like chocolate-covered peanut butter or eggs served with bacon, an Amazon Echo Dot with a built-in clock turns out to be a splendid combination. The latest Echo Dot with…

By theverge.com
Amazon may get more attention for its higher-end Echo speakers, such as the Echo Studio and the new 4th Gen Echo, but the humble Echo Dot…

Expert Reviews of Amazon Echo Plus 2nd Gen:

By Tom’s Guide
The Echo Plus delivers a smart-home hub and robust smart speaker in one device, offering significantly better sound than its predecessor.

By Digit
The second-gen Amazon Echo Plus is undoubtedly better than the first-gen device and the current Amazon Echo in terms of aesthetics and acoustics. Even with…

By Trusted Reviews
The original Echo Plus felt like a product that wasn’t quite ready to go, and it was expensive for what it was. The Amazon Echo Plus (2nd Gen) is…

By lifewire.com
The Echo Plus (2nd Gen) is a big upgrade from the previous generation. Amazon abandoned the plastic body in favor of a shorter and…