The Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 is a budget-friendly speaker with a similar design to the Amazon Echo Gen 4, though it's a bit smaller in size. It has an outstanding voice assistant performance with Alexa built-in and can easily understand you even if you aren't close by or if you're in a noisy setting. You can even mute the microphone if you want privacy. However, its sound profile is a bit dark and dull, and it also lacks low bass. Fortunately, there are bass and treble adjustments in the Amazon Alexa app.
Our Verdict
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is middling for music. Its balanced mid-range reproduces vocals and lead instruments clearly, but it also sounds a bit dark and veiled. Like many of the small speakers we've tested, it struggles to reproduce low-bass, and it doesn't get very loud. However, the Amazon Alexa app offers bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Lacks low-bass.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is disappointing for videos and movies. It can reproduce voices clearly, though they may sound a bit dark or veiled. However, it lacks low bass, so you don't feel the thump and rumble in action-packed scenes. It doesn't get very loud, either. While its latency with Android devices may be too high for watching videos, it performs better with iOS devices. Some apps compensate for latency, so your experience may vary.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Lacks low-bass.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is acceptable for podcasts. It has a neutral mid-range that can reproduce voices clearly, though they may sound a bit dark or dull. However, it doesn't get very loud. You can stream podcasts from your phone or tablet to the speaker wirelessly via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but you can only pair it to one device at a time, which can be disappointing.
- Bluetooth and Wi-Fi compatible.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is amazing for voice assistant support. It has built-in Alexa capabilities, and the speaker is voice-activated. It can understand you even if you aren't close to it or if you're in a loud setting. There's also a mic mute feature, which is handy if you don't want the speaker to listen to you. However, it doesn't get very loud.
- Has mic mute button.
- Excellent ambient noise performance.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen isn't suitable for outdoor use due to its wired design.
Changelog
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Updated Feb 03, 2026:
We added a reference to the Amazon Echo Dot Max in the Frequency Response Accuracy box.
- Updated Aug 21, 2023: Updated the Portability picture for greater clarity and consistency between reviews.
- Updated Jan 06, 2022: Updated review for accuracy and clarity.
- Updated Jan 12, 2021: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 4th Gen variant of the Amazon Echo, which has a smaller spherical design that sets it apart from the previous generations. This speaker is available in several different colors, including 'Glacier White', 'Charcoal', and 'Twilight Blue'. We tested the 'Charcoal' variant, and you can see the label here. We expect the other color variants to perform similarly.
Amazon also offers an Echo Dot variant with a digital clock feature, which is available in 'Glacier White' and 'Twilight Blue'. Unlike the variant we tested, it has an LED clock display to help you keep track of the time. Also, there's a Kids Edition of this speaker, available in 'Panda' or 'Tiger', that comes with additional parental controls.
If you come across another version, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is a small, budget-friendly speaker with a built-in Alexa voice assistant. It has a similar design to the Amazon Echo Gen 4 that can produce a more extended low-bass, though the Dot is smaller in size. It offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa built-in and can easily register your commands if you're far away from the speaker or in a noisy room. However, like most speakers its size, it struggles to reproduce low-bass, and it doesn't get very loud. Also, unlike the Amazon Echo Studio (1st generation), it doesn't support Dolby Atmos.
Check out our recommendations for the best Alexa speakers, the best smart speakers, and the best home speakers.
The Amazon Echo Gen 4 and the Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 are both excellent voice assistant speakers; however, the Echo is a better choice for listening to music. The Echo has a better-balanced sound profile out-of-the-box, and it can reproduce a more extended low-bass. Also, it gets louder, though it has some more compression at max volume. It's a bit bigger than the Echo Dot, too.
The Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 offers similar sound performance to the Amazon Echo Pop. In many regards, the Echo Pop is the successor to the discontinued Echo Dot. They're both Alexa-enabled voice assistant speakers with a small and compact design. The Echo Pop is a little smaller, though, and it has a half-sphere design compared to the full-sphere design of the Echo Dot. The next generation boasts a 3-band graphic EQ, so you can control the mid-range, bass, and treble.
The Amazon Echo Dot Max is a little larger than the older Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4, and as a result, is able to put out more bass and get a touch louder. Other than that, the speakers are very similar. In practical terms, perhaps the main reason to choose the Echo Dot Max is that you can use the physical controls to skip tracks and answer the phone. The newer Dot Max is also designed to work with newer technology like Alexa+ and Alexa Home Theater, which might be important to you if you like to future-proof your devices.
The Google Nest Mini (2nd Gen) and the Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 are similar speakers, so depending on your usage habits, you may prefer one over the other. The Amazon is better for voice assistants since it has a better ambient noise performance, so the voice assistant can understand you better in noisy settings. While the Amazon speaker has built-in Alexa support, the Google speaker has built-in Google Assistant. Unlike the Amazon model, the Google one also supports Chromecast.
Test Results
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