Amazon has cornered the market on cheap and easy-to-use good residence gadgets with its Echo line. Two of its smallest (however nonetheless most feature-rich) choices are the Echo Dot (now in its Fifth era) and the Echo Pop, which launched in 2023. Each price lower than $50 and often promote for $20 to $30—particularly on Prime Day.
And whereas the 2 gadgets are remarkably related, there are some key variations you must know before you purchase. This is how the Echo Dot (Fifth Gen) and Echo Pop examine, primarily based on my firsthand expertise as somebody who’s used each.
Echo Dot vs Echo Pop: Specs
Picture credit score: Diagram: SaVanna Shoemaker / Mashable
Design: We like shade choices
The Echo Dot and Echo Pop are nearly the identical dimension, however whereas the Echo Dot is spherical, the Echo Pop has a flat floor. It mainly appears like a cross-section of the Dot.
The Echo Dot (left) and the Echo Pop (proper) – as you’ll be able to see, the Echo Dot has the spaghetti fingers of a toddler.
Photograph credit score: SaVanna Shoemaker / Mashable
The Echo Dot can also be accessible in three pretty muted colours (grey, white and blue), however the Echo Pop is out there in some, properly, popPier colours (lavender and teal along with grey and white).
General, I just like the look of the Echo Pop a little bit higher. The brighter colours can add a pleasant pop of shade to a nook shelf, or the Pop can function a extra discreet Alexa assistant than the Echo Dot (which is widely known as a sensible residence system).
Each have a contemporary, elegant look that simply enhances or blends into any inside fashion.
Winner: Echo Pop
Setup and value
Amazon has made establishing these gadgets extraordinarily simple. You will want the Alexa app in your telephone, which is able to stroll you thru the setup step-by-step. The app additionally helps you to join different apps like Spotify or Audible to stream them in your Echo gadgets utilizing Alexa voice instructions.
Echo vs. Echo Dot: Which Amazon system must you purchase?
The gadgets themselves are additionally very easy. Bodily buttons allow you to mute and unmute the microphone and modify the quantity. Every thing else is completed through voice instructions or the Alexa app. I had no issues establishing the gadgets and each responded very properly to my “Hey, Alexa.”
Winner: Draw
The sound high quality is practically an identical
Amazon describes the Echo Pop’s sound as a “full sound” that is good for bedrooms and small areas, and the Echo Dot’s sound as a “richer, extra vibrant sound” for any room.
In my side-by-side comparisons of the Echo Dot and Echo Pop, I could not inform the distinction in sound high quality between the 2 gadgets. Each gadgets had been nice for enjoying background music in my workplace or listening to podcasts whereas doing home tasks, providing fuller, clearer sound and louder quantity in comparison with my smartphone.
The most effective moveable Bluetooth audio system for 2024
The Echo Pop has a barely bigger speaker, however the Dot’s spherical form might help fill a room with sound regardless of the place it is positioned.
Winner: Echo Dot
Alexa integration and good residence connectivity
Each the Echo Dot and Echo Pop combine with Alexa by means of the Amazon Alexa app. You need to use Alexa to ask questions, verify the climate, set timers and alarms, and open related apps (like music or streaming apps like Spotify, Pandora, Audible, and Amazon Music).
Personally, I’ve all the time discovered Alexa gadgets most handy within the workplace and kitchen. They supply a hands-free, screen-free strategy to set timers (for productiveness or pizza) or stream audio. A centrally positioned Echo system can also be an effective way to release house in your mind. I’ve used Alexa to remind me to water my vegetation, ship birthday playing cards, and verify the water stage within the pool at common intervals after I fill it up for the season.
Nonetheless, the Echo Dot outperforms the Echo Pop in two essential methods: temperature sensing and movement detection. So your Echo Dot can run Alexa routines that contain temperature or movement, whereas the Echo Pop can’t. Some examples:
Winner: Echo Dot
Contemplate further features
Each the Echo Dot and Echo Pop can act as Wi-Fi extenders if in case you have an current Amazon Eero community, creating as much as 1,000 sq. ft of further Wi-Fi protection.
Nonetheless, with regards to further options, the Echo Dot as soon as once more surpasses the Echo Pop. As talked about above, the Dot is provided with movement and temperature detection options.
Plus, the Echo Dot with Clock ($59.99) has all of the options of the Fifth-generation Echo Dot, plus a easy LED show that may present the time, temperature, and timer countdowns. The Echo Dot with Clock served me properly as an alarm clock for some time, however with out the LED show that lets me all the time look on the time, it would not deserve its place on my nightstand.
Winner: Echo Dot
Our winner: Echo Dot vs. Echo Pop
The Echo Dot and Echo Pop have extra similarities than variations. The Echo Pop is about $10 cheaper and a bit cuter (and is available in extra enjoyable colours), nevertheless it lacks the movement detection and temperature sensing that may enable it to carry out a number of the most useful and handy Alexa instructions and routines.
In case you’re simply in search of an easy-to-use speaker to play music or set alarms in a single room of your own home, the Echo Pop is a good selection. However if you would like a extra purposeful good residence assistant, your finest guess is to pay $10 extra and get the Echo Dot.