Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) Review. Is it Worth the Upgrade in 2020?

The Amazon Echo Dot is and has always been one of Amazon's most popular products ever.

And, it's now back with some pretty cool upgrades in it with its 3rd Generation technology.

The setup is straightforward; you download the Alexa App on your phone, whether it be your iPhone or Android, and then walk you through signing in and setting it up.

Design

The old brother Echo Dot was an old shiny little plastic design, but now its just some rubbery plastic on the bottom and the top and is surrounded by some lovely fabric.

And not going to lie, the aesthetics of the device, the design, and the quality is so good that it just looks so elegant enough now to fit into a modern room where it should belong to.

It comes in 3 elegant looks, the Charcoal version, my go-to, if you guys know me, you know I love sleek looks and aesthetically pleasing device designs, and it's just me! It also comes in 2 more looks, which are Sandstone and Heather Gray.

And I honestly love the fact that they designed their device's look's to fit into 2020 and beyond, and it completely blends in with the other tools you might have bought in 2020 and especially if all those devices are in the same room, you'll probably have a hard time finding which designs stands out the most.

And top of this little Smart Device, you'll be able to see a Mute button, an action button, and two volume control buttons and one of the main things I love about the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen is that there is a blue-ring light that animates each time you use the Echo Dot which makes me feel almost satisfied with the device thinking I'm already in 2050.

Improvements

This device is pretty interesting to talk about.

It does all the same stuff, but with a few enhancements just like the last year's model, there's an AUX port on the back if you want to connect it to some external speaker instead of using the built-in speaker. Still, the most exciting improvement in the Echo Dot is how it sounds.

It just sounds richer balanced, and louder than ever before, and you will be able to hear a clear difference in this generation's model.

This is the best quality sound from a smart speaker this small.

And this model is also a bit larger than the previous 2nd Gen model.

But the size has increased for the better. It's just simply because they can re-engineer the components inside to make it sound better and also at the same time to make some other improvements to the previous components inside as well.

Microphones

If you have used or own a previous version of an Echo Dot, you know one of the most important and cool features you can do with the Echo Dot is making phone calls with it. And it's pretty awesome.

But one of the most annoying problems with the last Gen's model was the call quality, which is when you take a call, you can hear the person on the other end of the phone very well, but they could not listen to you that well as you do.

But, fortunately, they did have managed to improve the call quality as well. Even though the last Gen's model sounded like crap in talking to phone calls, the 3rd Gen Echo Dot says excellent, even when you are across the room and believe me or not, even when I went to the next room and sounded in the same volume, it said suitable for the person on the other side listening to me in the phone call.

And in case you didn't know, you can also send text messages through Alexa if you did a setup that option via the App.

But keep in mind, if you are in a room with a lot of noise, maybe you have the T.V. on or perhaps even playing some music. If you murmur as you would normally do most of the time, Alexa will miss out on what you are trying to say, but to make Alexa hear you, you got only one little secret option to do, and that's, Yell at it!

And if you were to compare the previous 2nd version of the Echo Dot with the new 3rd Gen in a sound/speaker-test, the 3rd Gen Echo Dot sounds significantly a lot louder than its old brother, the 2nd Gen Echo Dot.

Features

In terms of features, you can do most of the things that you may ask a Smart Speaker to do, whether it be asking about the weather, setting a reminder, setting the alarm up, listening to some songs, hearing about some trending news, having fun with all your other smart home devices that are sitting in your house to make your life more comfortable or even shopping online on Amazon hassle-free without the need of even touching your phone.

You can also ask Alexa to help you sleep by playing some white noise like raining sounds or forest sounds.

If you love playing a podcast via the Echo Dot, you can ask Alexa to play the specific podcast by saying the podcast's exact name and just adding "Play" at the beginning of your request sentence.

You can also review your current shopping list by simply asking "Alexa, what's on my shopping list" and she will be happy tell you every single one of those items that's in your cart added currently waiting for you to proceed to checkout and get the goods at your doorstep.

So, should you buy the new 3rd Gen Echo Dot?

Well, there are some pretty cool features that you can do by owning one of these affordable little Smart Devices to your house, which only consumes a bit of desk space to sit on.

But overall, the improvements in this generation of the Echo Dot at the same price tag has further established its life in many homes all around the world.

And at the end of the day, it comes down to one exact point. And that's all of these smart home devices made to make your own life more comfortable if you can afford which I guess at the same time is why these are so affordable. It's the right product with many useful features to control your smart home gadgets and help you with your day to day life, and it just does justify that its worth the upgrade to be in your home soon.