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amazon echo pop
Best for your budget
Amazon Echo Pop is available in three eye-catching colors and a hemispherical design. This is the cheapest option in the current lineup and is an affordable way to install Alexa in your home.
Advantages- More color options
- cheaper price
disadvantage- Fewer onboard sensors.
- sound is not good
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Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation)
Best for Smart Homes
Amazon Echo Dot is one of the most popular smart speakers in the world. It offers great sound quality, great smart home integration, and great voice recognition. If you have a lot of smart devices, try this method.
Advantages- Temperature sensor and tap control
- Easy to access microphone mute button
- Wi-Fi is built in.
Key Takeaways
- The Echo Pop is a budget-friendly alternative to the Echo Dot, with an attractive design and a variety of color options.
- The Echo Dot delivers richer, room-filling sound compared to the Echo Pop.
- Echo Dot has additional features like a temperature sensor, accelerometer, and Zigbee hub, giving you even more choices for smart home connectivity.
The Echo Dot has long been one of Amazon’s most popular smart speakers. It’s easy to see why. One of the most affordable and compact options in the Alexa smart speaker lineup, it’s perfect for bedrooms, offices, hallways, and other small spaces in the home. It provides decent sound for a small speaker.
Amazon Echo Pop review: Alexa on a budget
Extend your smart home to every room with this super-affordable Alexa smart speaker.
The Echo Dot has always been a top choice for an affordable Alexa device. That was until the Echo Pop was announced. The newer speaker is much cheaper, has an attractive design, comes in a variety of colors, and offers many of the same features as the Echo Dot in a smaller package.
The question is, how does the Echo Dot compare to the 5th generation Echo Dot and which one is right for your needs? We’ve tested and reviewed both devices and this is how they compare.
7:50
Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation) review: Small speaker, big sound
Amazon’s little Echo sounds better than ever. It’s a winner.
Specifications, Pricing, Availability
The Amazon Echo Dot, now in its fifth version, was a puck-shaped device for several years before switching to a spherical design in 2020. The latest version was released in 2022 and currently sells for $49.99.
The Echo Pop will be released in May 2023 and will cost $39.99. If you want to add some style to your pop, you can purchase a silicone sleeve for an additional $16.99.
Both speakers are regularly discounted on Amazon, especially during sales events. Keep an eye on the deal range to get the best price.
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amazon echo pop Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation) size 99x83x91mm, 196g 100x100x89mm, 340g Woofer size 1.95 inches 1.73 inches connectivity Dual band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Substance colors Charcoal, Glacier White, Lavender Bloom, Midnight Teal Charcoal, Glacier White, Deep Sea Blue
design
sphere vs hemisphere
The design differences between the Echo Dot and Echo Pop are very simple. While the Echo Dot has a spherical shape, the Echo Pop has a flat front, creating what Amazon calls a hemispherical design.
Both devices have LED lights that signal when they are in use, and both operate in the same way, but their location varies between models. The Echo Dot has a ring of lights around the base, while the Echo Pop has a small light section at the top.
The Echo Dot is available in Charcoal, Glacier White, and Deep Sea Blue color options. The Echo Pop has a slightly louder sound, but it’s all very subtle.
The Echo Pop is available in Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal options as well as classic gray and white versions. But if you want to liven things up a bit, you can also purchase silicone sleeves in colors such as blue, red, orange, grey, lilac, purple, and even Glow in the Dark. Echo Pop’s more exciting colors and array of sleeves make it a great gift, especially for younger family members.
Both devices can be triggered using the Alexa wake word, and both have buttons to increase or decrease the volume and mute the microphone. However, the Amazon Echo Dot has one button that the Pop doesn’t have. The Action Button, also known as the Echo Button, allows you to quickly switch between setup modes, summon a voice assistant without a wake word, answer or reject incoming calls, and can even be programmed to control compatible smart home devices.
sound quality
Good sound for small speakers
We listened to both of these speakers and the soundscapes were quite different. The 5th generation Echo Dot features 1.73-inch drivers, which produce a decent amount of bass from a small chassis. It has a 360-degree design that allows it to project sound from any angle, and its sound transmission is incredibly robust, allowing for flexible placement in your room.
Surprisingly, the Echo Pop has a much larger speaker inside at 1.95 inches. However, the Echo Pop is designed for small spaces and its sound projects forward, making it best suited for solo listening or confined spaces. It performs best when placed in a corner, on a shelf or on a bedside table.
Of the two, the Echo Dot offers richer, room-filling sound, so if you’re interested in sound performance, it’s the Echo Dot. The Echo Pop is better suited to places where listening demand is low and not particularly suitable for entertainment.
Connect your smart home with Alexa
With Zigbee or With Zigbee
Both devices feature Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor at their core. This means it delivers a nearly identical Alexa experience, with fast response times and reliable voice recognition. Both use Alexa’s universal features, so their functionality is identical.
If you have an Eero mesh network at home, the good news is that both of these smart speakers can act as extenders, providing up to 1,000 square feet of additional coverage.
The difference comes in the form of additional sensors. Echo Dot has a built-in temperature sensor and accelerometer. This means it can be used to create temperature-based automation, or it can just be used to report the temperature of a room. For example, you can also tap to turn off the alarm. Another useful feature of the Echo Dot is that it can act as a Zigbee hub, allowing you to expand your smart home setup. This means you can directly control Zigbee devices without the need for an additional Zigbee hub.
Unfortunately, the Echo Pop doesn’t have this feature. Because it’s a simpler device overall, it’s a bit cheaper and much smaller. The Echo Pop lets you control your smart home devices with your voice, and if you don’t have a Zigbee device or already own a Zigbee hub, don’t miss out on the Zigbee functionality built into the Echo Dot.
Echo Pop vs Echo Dot: Which Should You Choose?
The Echo Pop has been added to the Amazon Echo lineup. We think this is one of the brand’s best-looking speakers to date, and the multiple color options make it easy to match your home decor and make a great gift.
It’s also the cheapest option, which is a big selling point in itself. However, the sound isn’t as wide or room-filling as the Echo Dot, so while it’s handy for adding Alexa to a room, it’s not ideal for listening to music.
Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation)
If temperature-based automation and using an alarm clock are features you want in a smart speaker, the Echo Dot might be perfect for you. The Echo Dot also offers better sound performance, so if you want background music on a regular basis, this is the one for you. Things will get better with Echo Dot. Overall, the Echo Dot is a more versatile package and doesn’t cost much more than the Echo Pop.
Whichever device you choose, you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck, and you can rest assured that you’re unlikely to find a better smart speaker for the price.