Amazon Echo Gen 4 Speaker Review

The Amazon Echo is a small speaker with a distinctive spherical design. It looks very similar to the Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4, but it's a bit bigger. It sits on its base, and there's a ring of light that surrounds the base of the speaker. The lights activate with voice commands, volume adjustments, and when you turn the microphone off. However, it doesn't flash when you play music, and you can't control the colors it displays.

This speaker has inadequate portability. It's small, and you can carry it with one hand, which is nice. However, it's powered by AC, so you have to plug it into a wall outlet for it to work. As a result, it can't be brought outdoors as easily as battery-powered speakers like the Bose SoundLink Micro.

The build quality is unremarkable. The speaker feels solid, and the fabric that wraps around it is tight and doesn't seem like it could rip easily. However, it doesn't have an advertised IP rating for dust or water resistance, so you should be careful if you plan to use it around water.

The controls are mediocre. On the top of the speaker, four physical buttons let you control the volume, mute the microphone, and activate Alexa without using the wake word 'Alexa'. You can also hold down the 'Action' button for 25 seconds to reset the speaker, or you can press it to silence an alarm. You can also tap the front of the speaker to snooze an alarm. When the microphone is muted, the base of the speaker and the mute button both shine red.

• Amazon Echo 4th Gen
• Power cable
• Quick Start Guide

The Amazon Echo has fair frequency response accuracy. Its sound profile is a bit boomy, but also dark. Like many small speakers, it struggles to reproduce low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump in bass-heavy genres like EDM. However, its balanced mid-range can reproduce vocal-centric content clearly, though higher-pitched speech can sound a bit veiled. You can use the bass and treble adjustments in the Amazon Alexa app to help customize its sound to your liking.

Update 03/01/2021: Thanks to user feedback, we discovered that this speaker does support stereo content.

The soundstage is very good. It plays stereo content, and its directivity is decent. However, its soundstage isn't perceived to be as open and spacious as some of the other speakers we've tested, like the Apple HomePod.

The Amazon Echo has middling dynamics. It doesn't get very loud, and there's some compression present when you play it at max volume. It may not be ideal to use at parties or in large rooms.

The Amazon Echo doesn't have a battery, so you have to plug it into a wall socket to get it to work. According to the manufacturer, it enters Low Power Mode when it's idle to help reduce its energy consumption.

This speaker has exceptional 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're far away or in a noisy setting. You can even mute the mic when you don't want the speaker to hear you.

The Amazon Alexa app is fantastic. There are bass and treble adjustments so you can customize its sound to your liking. You can pair two Echo speakers to create a stereo pair, which helps create a larger soundstage. Also, the Party Mode and Multi-Room features let you connect multiple speakers to play music across a large area or through multiple rooms in your house.

This speaker has a 3.5mm AUX port, which you can use to wire your smartphone directly to it to play audio.

The Amazon Echo 4th Gen has good Bluetooth connectivity. While you can only pair it with one device at a time, it has low latency with iOS devices. Its latency with Android devices is even lower, making it suitable for watching videos and movies. Some apps compensate for latency, so your real-world experience can vary.

This speaker is Wi-Fi compatible. However, it doesn't support Apple AirPlay or Google Chromecast connectivity, which can be disappointing for some users.