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- Verified Buyer
You think these are better than Google devices? Yes. They are. But... and I'm an expert. I have these things all over the house and I also have some Google devices. Some of these Echo devices have the time, and that's really cool. When you say, "Alexa, what's the temperature?" it not only tells you but shows you the temperature. This is cool. So it's not just the time that it shows. but sometimes it shows you the temperature while it's giving you the temperature. Nice feature.So let me explain. My wife and I bought into Alexa devices early on. We have two Gen 1 devices and a bunch of Gen 4 devices. The Gen 1 devices you have to activate with the word "Alexa." The Generation 4 devices can have male voices. We activate ours with "Ziggy" from some stupid old TV show Quantum Leap. So now there's a guy's voice and I activate it with "Ziggy" rather than "Alexa."You can't activate this with any word you want. You have to choose between a few voices, but at least now you don't have to have the female "Alexa" voice if you prefer something else, which in this household my wife prefers the male voice. So to activate it we say, "Ziggy, turn on the living room lights."Sometimes (not all the time) Ziggy responds, "A few things share the name room. Which one do you want?" and I have to repeat "living room" and then the living room lights come on. So annoying.But it can also detect when I enter the living room and turn on the lights just by walking through the living room. It does that by magic. Actually, it detects a change in the wifi signal by walking through the room. Pretty cool.My house is full of smart bulbs most of which are from Kasa, and smart plugs. I'm not sure it was a good idea, but that's what it is, and it's nice to say "Ziggy, play music everywhere" and everywhere in the house is the same music. Or, "Ziggy, make the porch purple" and the porch light turns purple. I even have one of those artificial fireplaces that the seventy inch TV sits on, so I can say, "Ziggy, turn on the living room" and that includes the fireplace lights.Yeah. I like 'em but they do have their limitations too. AI isn't as smart as we hoped.Overall, the clock makes it worth the upgrade. But the mic is not as good as before.Coming from 2nd Gen Echo dot , this 4th Gen Echo dot with clock is overall a decent upgrade. It is aesthetically pleasing. The led ring is now on the bottom making is less visible but still effective.Clock (excellent)The clock is the highlight of the device. This is a simple yet essential feature that I was missing in my setup. In my TV cabinet , having a clock nearby to tell time makes it so convenient. I have been using it to check the time so many times a day since I had the device. It's a simple yet essential feature. The brightness of the clock effectively auto adjust depending on ambient light level. I can see the time clearly in day time and it's not overally bright at night time.I thought about getting echo Show 5 instead but Echo Show 5 cannot constantly show a big clock on the screen. When idling, Echo Show 5 would shrink the time to the top left corner of the screen while showing many ads (trending topics or alexa tips) would interfere the display even after you disable it in the options. With the clock display shrunk to one corner, the fonts are too small to tell the time when you are a few feet away from the echo show 5 (say in a living room). With this echo dot with clock, i can tell the time 10 to 12 feet away. So this Echo Dot with clock is a better option to have an alexa device that shows the time.Mic (no good) 2nd Gen Echo dot had 7 mics. This 4th gen echo dot only has 4 mics. Of course the number doesn't always mean much. However in my real world test, the 2nd Gen Echo dot can pick up my voice commands even with noisy TV sound on. It is just that good. However, with this 4th gen echo dot, I would need to mute my TV for it to hear my voice. Sometimes if TV volume is not too loud , it could hear me if I shouted the command. But with the 2nd Gen Echo dot, I did not have to mute TV or lower the volume nor do I had to shout for it to hear. So in this regard, it is definitely a downgrade. Under normal situation with no ambient noise, the 4th gen echo dot with clock can hear voice command with no problem. I.e. it works, just not outstanding.I wish they come with a black color. The blue is ok but the mesh still looks closer to a light grey color from afar.Overall this is a decent upgrade solely because of the clock. And if the clock feature is important, I strongly suggest this device over the echo show 5.I needed a clock as I do not have a cable box any more and the TV does not really tell me the time quickly. Having a clock is the best part. I have Alexa on the TV (LG), but if someone makes an announcement in the house. I do not like the fact Alexa comes up full screen changing what I am watching over to Alexa. Now I have to get the remote to get back to what I was watching. My other TV (Using Chromecast) just has a pop up. I know first world problems. So I got this and took Alexa off the TV. Problem solved. Now I just need the right Alexa to answer when I call her.every thing works like it should with alexa. sound it plenty loud, I use mine for an alarm clock as well, and it does a great job, except the white numbers is a bit bright to be next to bed and pointed at me. I have it on auto dim but it's still to bright for me. I put a piece of super dark window tint over the time and it helps. It would have been so much better if they had used red leds rather than white. But if you arent pointing it right at your head next to your bed, then none of that matters.Love these for all the reasons I love the echo dots but mostly because of the lit up clock that you can easily glance at to see the time day or night but it is not glaringly light at night and thats important to me because i prefer a dark room for sleep. This second one in my guest room lets them ask Alexa to turn on the lamp in an unfamiliar room, easy to set an alarm for themselves which can be difficult for a guest with a clock radio, they can request music they like and they can communicate with us in a different room if they need something. I first purchased one of these when I was taking care of a sick relative who needed to call to me for help day or night plus it let them have the benefit of turning on or off their light etc To me this is an absolute necessity for a guest room and especiaaly if you are cring for someone who needs assistanceWorks fantastic.Exactement ce que j’attendais de ce petit machin.
