Echo (3rd Gen)- Smart speaker with Alexa- Charcoal

Short & Sweet - For what it is, this device is amazing. Performance is quick, audio is great, and the built-in Zigbee hub works quite well.Longer Review;After dragging my heels for over a year, I finally bought our first Echo (2nd Generation) back in August. I loved it so much that I got us 2 more for other areas in the house. Being able to group them and play the same music or audio throughout the house is a novelty that won't grow old for me. I've only wished that they had a little more full sound, especially at higher volume. I'd considered the last Echo Plus, but the average of reviews I read didn't make it appear to perform significantly better than our already great 2nd Generation Echos.When I saw this new Echo Plus listed, I pre-ordered it to "replace" the Heather Grey Echo in our kitchen and move that one to our bedroom. We tend to have music playing in the kitchen more than any other room, and I wanted slightly better sound than the regular Echo in there. I'm honestly glad we took a chance on this device without any reviews to go by.Appearance;As you can see in the photos, it's pretty much identical in height to the 2nd Generation Echo. It is a bit wider to accommodate the larger speakers, and the top is slightly domed instead of being flat. A similar 7-microphone array is on top and they seem to work just as well. There also appears to be a tripod-style connector on the base of the unit.Setup;Setup was surprisingly easy as this Echo Plus detected our network settings on its own. I plugged it in, it did its initial startup, and then told me the device was connected. Simple as that.Audio compared to 2nd Generation Echo;Highs are clearer.Mids are more natural and better-defined.Lows are deeper.Overall volume is noticeably louder and sound quality is improved.When paired with our other Echos, music and audio is in sync everywhere and this device stands out above the others in audio performance.General Performance;We have a quick network and I don't notice any perceivable performance difference between this new Echo Plus and our regular 2nd Generation Echos. Everything seems to work as it should.I bought this with the "free" Philips Hue bulb promotion. This bulb is our first Zigbee device and works very well with the Echo Plus. It is easily controlled by either the Echo Plus or the other Echos we have in the house. I'll be keeping an eye out for deals on these bulbs in the future. Like our other Echos, it also has no problem controlling our Kasa Smart Plugs.Overall;While $150 is a lot for a single speaker, for what I was looking for, this thing excels. If you like the 2nd Generation Echo but hoped it sounded a bit better, I would highly recommend this. Based on what I've read, if you were disappointed with the audio performance with the 1st Generation Echo Plus but want everything else it had to offer, consider giving this wonderful speaker a try.P.S.: The internal ambient temperature sensor seems fairly accurate and nice to have included.

Originally, I bought an Echo dot a few years ago to help in the kitchen by providing a nifty way to set multiple countdown cooking timers. Then during Quarantine this year I read an Amazon article about hue wireless bulbs and I thought "how cool is that". So about $700 and 8 bulbs, one lamp, a bridge, and a full size echo later, I had what I thought was the beginning of a cool home automation system. Instead I was in line for one of the worst experiences of my life and something that cost me over $1,000 before I realized what a total waste of time and money it was, not to mention the added aggrevation that I'm overall trying to eliminate from my life, not add.First, upon receipt I created all these routines to let me easily turn on various lights at various colors or hues with a simple voice command. I though it was wonderful! Then, over time, Alexa stopped understanding me, so I would have to repeat myself a few times just to turn on the damn lights. It got to the point where I was thinking how nice it would be to simply use a light switch; not to mention losing my temper at a friggin box of bolts!Then today the Alexa app disconnected from all my devices for absolutely no reason at all. After not being able to resolve this problem, I called Amazon and this wonderfully helpful person in India who could barely speak English told me that I would have to delete all my routines and re program them from scratch.So I did that and an hour later, everything worked. Right up until I wanted to go to bed, when none of the lights in my house would shut off, and I discovered that once again all my devices had disconnected from the Alexa app for no reason at all.So this time I did what I should have done months ago. I disconnected and threw away all the wireless bulbs I had purchased, along with all my Amazon Echo devices, save one that I will keep in the kitchen to help with cooking timers.Otherwise, don't waste your money on Amazon devices because Amazon Alexa is total crap. Doesn't work. Never will.And by the way - did you know that these Amazon devices record snippets of what you are saying every few minutes whether you want that or not? Everything you have said either to an echo or not to an echo is recorded and available for you to see in the Amazon app. The purpose of Amazons echo devices are not to help you do anything, they are a way for Amazon to violate your privacy by getting a microphone in front of you 24x7.Whoever thought up the idea for the echo should be put up against a brick wall and shot!