The Amazon Echo Gen 4 is a small, spherical speaker with built-in Alexa capabilities. You can activate Alexa using your voice or with a button on the speaker, and it has a built-in Zigbee hub that lets you control compatible smart home devices like light switches. There's a mute microphone button to control when the speaker is listening to you. However, because it's powered by AC, it isn't suitable to bring outdoors. This small speaker can't fill large rooms with sound but gets loud enough for the average living room.
Our Verdict
The Amazon Echo is passable for music. Out-of-the-box, its sound profile is a bit boomy, and higher frequencies sound veiled and dark. Like many small speakers, it also lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump in bass-heavy music genres. There are bass and treble adjustments to help you customize its sound to your liking, which is nice. However, this speaker can't get very loud, which might be disappointing if you want to use it for music.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Not quite loud enough for large rooms.
The Amazon Echo is mediocre for videos and movies. It's not meant for setting up alongside your TV and has a boomy, dark sound profile. It lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep rumble in action-packed scenes. It doesn't get very loud, either. On the upside, its latency with Android and iOS devices is low, so you won't notice much audio lag if you use it to watch an occasional video on your phone.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Not quite loud enough for large rooms.
- Lacks low-bass.
The Amazon Echo is acceptable for podcasts. Its balanced mid-range can reproduce voices clearly, though speech in higher frequencies can sound a bit veiled. It doesn't get very loud either, and some compression artifacts are present when you play it at max volume. On the upside, it has a Multi-Room feature, so you can pair two Echo speakers and bring your podcast from one room to the next.
- Bass and treble adjustments.
- Not quite loud enough for large rooms.
The Amazon Echo is amazing for voice assistant support. It has built-in Amazon Alexa capabilities, which you can activate using your voice. The speaker can understand you even if you aren't very close to it or in a noisy environment. You can also mute the microphone when you don't want it to hear you, and there's a built-in Zigbee hub you can use to control compatible smart home devices like lightbulbs and thermostats across your home.
- Built-in Alexa support.
- Mic mute button.
- Not quite loud enough for large rooms.
The Amazon Echo has to be plugged into an outlet to work, so it isn't suitable for outdoor use.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 30, 2026:
We've added a comparison to the Amazon Echo Studio 2025 in the Frequency Response Accuracy box.
- Updated Aug 28, 2023: Made minor edits to the text to bring it up to date.
- Updated Aug 22, 2023: Added market comparison with the Amazon Echo Pop in the Portability box.
- Updated Feb 28, 2023: Added a market comparison for the Apple HomePod (2nd generation) to the Frequency Response Accuracy box.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This speaker comes in several color variants: 'Glacier White', 'Twilight Blue', 'Charcoal', and a special edition in collaboration with the global health charity 'PRODUCT(RED)'. We tested the 'Twilight Blue' variant; you can see the label for the model we tested here. We expect other color variants to perform similarly.
If you come across another version, let us know in the forums.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The Amazon Echo is a small speaker with built-in voice assistant capabilities. It has a similar design to the smaller and more budget-friendly Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4, but a better-balanced sound profile and a more extended low-bass for music-listening and watching videos. You can activate Alexa using your voice, which it does an excellent job of picking up, even if you're far away or in a noisy place. Like the Amazon Echo Studio (1st generation), it has a built-in Zigbee hub to control compatible smart home devices like lightbulbs and thermostats across your home. However, like many small speakers, it doesn't get very loud.
For other recommendations, check out the best home Bluetooth speakers, the best small speakers, and the best Bluetooth 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.
Depending on your listening habits, you may prefer either the Amazon Echo Gen 4 or the Apple HomePod (2nd generation). Both smart speakers offer excellent voice assistant support through their respective assistants. Only the Amazon speaker can playback stereo content without downmixing it to mono, and its bass and treble adjustments make it more customizable overall. That said, the Apple speaker brings more rumble in the low-bass, which is great for fans of EDM and hip-hop.
The Amazon Echo Gen 4 is larger than the Amazon Echo Dot Max. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the Echo Gen 4 gets louder and puts out more bass. Beyond that, there's little to choose between these speakers. If you want to future-proof your device, the newer Dot Max is perhaps the better choice, as it supports next-gen Alexa features like Alexa Home Theater. The Echo Dot Max also has easier-to-use physical controls, but there's not much to it.
The Amazon Echo Gen 4 is a better voice assistant speaker than the Apple HomePod mini. The Amazon has better ambient noise performance, so it can understand you more clearly in noisy settings. It also comes with bass and treble adjustments to customize its sound and can produce a deeper bass than the Apple. It comes with built-in Alexa, but if you prefer Siri, go for the Apple instead.
Test Results
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