Amazon Echo 2 Review 2019

We look at the second- gener Amazon Echo, a smart speaker powered by the Alexa voice assistant. It's smaller and cheaper than the original shells, so you can change the look.

The first generation Amazon Echo was the first smart speaker in the UK but nowadays the choice is much wider. Google has a range of home speakers covering just about all budgets( and matching the Echo Dot with its Home Mini at £ 49) and Apple has the HomePod of high quality.

The Echo 2 is essentially a lower - priced version of the original with a softer, less industrial style. It has interchangeable shells that enable you to change your mind about its color or finish: fabric, metal and wood options are available. Are you familiar? This is because it is what you can do with the Google Home.

 

Price and availability of Amazon Echo 2

The original Echo (now discontinued) costs £ 149.99/US$179.99, so the second - generation model costs £ 89.99/US$99.99. The original can be purchased at £ 54,99 or $ 69,99. However, you can buy an Echo 2 from Amazon. Certified Refurbished models are already available for £ 79.99 (not currently in the USA), which is very important given that they look brand new and have a full year warranty.

There are differences between the new and the original models that we will come up with at a time. Don't forget to choose between other Echos, including the new Echo Plus (£ 139.99) and Echo Dot 3 (£ 49.99/US$49.99). In a YouGov survey published in April 2018, it was found that the Echo family of Amazon owns 75% of the UK smart speakers market. 

How different is the echo 2 from the original?

Although similar in characteristics, the Echo of the second gene was completely redesigned. It's still a cylinder – a bit bigger than a glass of pint– but it's a much nicer gadget to put on a bedside table or a shelf.

The volume ring at the top is gone and the Echo Dot is replaced by volume buttons. There are seven small holes at the top for the array of microphones, plus a micromute button and an action button, which can among other things be used to silence alarms. The microphones have been improved to better recognize the voice and work better when the music plays in higher volume. Amazon says that they better shape (working out where your voice comes from) and cancel noise to better hear What you're saying when the room contains other noise.

Speakers are also new: as before, there is a 2.5 in woofer, but a new tweeter. These can be seen when you pop off the shell, a simple process of grasping the body and pushing the center below. The power connector is on the side instead of below, but the addition of a 3.5 mm minijack to the output is a bigger change. That means that you can plug into a speaker that has no Bluetooth.

The Echo 2 also works like the original as a Bluetooth speaker. Since last year, Alexa's capabilities have improved somewhat, and Echo 2 benefits from them and all the features added throughout the year, such as multi- room audio, voice and messaging.

This means that the Echo 2 ca n't be more or less than the original or cheaper Echo Dot. Everyone can do the same things. Other Echo models have additional features and you can read about them in our Amazon Echo speaker comparison. We also have a wish list of upgrades that we would like to see in the next Echo.

Performance of Amazon Echo 2

The microphones seem to work better than the original Echo and Echo Dot, especially when other people talk or the Echo 2 plays music already loudly. I really couldn't notice the difference in how well the' Alexa' wake word was recognized, although it could be that there are fewer ' false positives. ' First-gen devices often answer when they hear something like Alexa, but it doesn't.

You could have read that the Echo 2 sounds worse than the Echo. Although this was true when it first started, Amazon quickly pushed out a software update that improved things noticeably. The Echo 2 also sounds good if you listen to a podcast or a flash. Admittedly, you can get similar sound quality from a £ 40 Bluetooth speaker like the Aukey Eclipse, but the point is missing: Alexa and voice control are all about Echo 2. And it's a great purchase with Amazon constantly improving it and adding new capabilities.