Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: Echo (4th generation) | With premium sound, smart home hub and Alexa

Premium sound, smart , elegant. Check pros and cons below

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2020

Colour Name: Glacier WhiteStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

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I love technology and was looking for release date long time. Arrived well packed, in nice presentable and protective box.
Is shape is elegant with modern look, well better looking and complete major renovation in shape compare to all previous models.
Sound quality outstanding to its value range. Due to its upward firing large 3” woofer and dual 0.8” tweeters it delivers outstanding detailed sounds. Makes great sound quality , dynamic mids and clear highs on classic opera music and on heavy rap with powerful deep bass.
One of the most important parts it very responsive to voice, even while producing high volume music it can detect and responds to commands.
The other nice feature it can be pair with many other devices, such as other echo or Fire TV and helps create home cinema atmosphere.
For privacy it has mute button on top which stops all voice tracking functions.
It’s extremely easy to set up, if you already Alexa device holder it will auto connect , just plug to electric, no need to set up wifi, all done automatically. If first time user then it will step by step navigates how to activate it. Very clear and straight forward instructions.
It possible to link other account to it such:
- Apple Music,
-Spotify,
-Amazon Music,
-Deezer
-Audiable , broadcasts, radios etc.
It also has build in Zegbee smart home hub and also it’s own temperature sensor. Can be set up reminder , alarm day plan.
Generally fund to use, ask any questions and I get great knowledge answer , sometimes funny answers as well, builded with humour.

It has also 3.5mm audio line in/out. Volume control via voice or manually by pushing top “+” and “-“ buttons. Action command button and mute button. Size around 14.5cm wide and 13.5cm hight. In imperial it’s size 5”x5”x4.7” .
Connection 2.4 and 5ghz dual connection and advance Bluetooth connection.
Cons :
-Power cord could be longer, it came with 1.45m which is around 57” long cable. Could be better if it was longer , it could give us opportunity to better position it.
- Currently only 3 colours available, could be better to have more bright light colourful colours as well for kids room.

Overall well done to Amazon, amazing music quality to its price range and grate shape and response. Definitely worth getting one or upgrading old one to this.
Have a look to my pictures , to compare to echo Plus 2nd generation. Hope this will be help to decide if it’s suitable for personal needs or not.

502 people found this helpful

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Customer

Problems

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

She's deaf as a post. Unless I look right at her and RAISE MY VOICE she does not get triggered. Way worse than my Echo 3rd generation. If I play music I have to RAISE MY VOICE to get her to trigger. It is extremely annoying. I feel like I downgraded and wasted my money. EDIT: Now when I ask her "ALEXA do I have any alarms" she can cancel it in mid request and the log says it was not intended for alexa... I play it back and she hears her wake word, she hears me start asking a question and then cancels it before I can finish asking. JUNK. Now it gets a 1 star rating. I am really REALLY annoyed.

I have this for the built in hub so things work flawlessly without extra devices/hubs and expense. I bought this as the package that comes with the Hue bulb. But what have I found out after 2 hours of calls to Amazon support? The reason I am having problems is we have different profiles on the echos (the AMAZON feature so we are not having things popping up and mixing things up, we have our own devices for our own purposes but the smarthome control works everywhere) and it seems what ever I attach via the hub in my echo 4th gen is totally invisible to all other echo devices unless they are in my profile. So I figured Ah! I know the issue I need the Hue skill. NO. That wants to link to a Hue Hub (which I do not have). This is a massive blunder and after searching for ages on google other people have complained about this from the other echo with the hub built in and it's still a problem. FIX IT. I really feel like I wasted my money. I am so furious. I am waiting on another call back from support. If this gets fixed and the DEAF AS A POST problem, I will be more than happy to erase this and put my actual experiences from actual use down, instead of these extremely big problems.

370 people found this helpful

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Great stylish device improves on speech recognition, response time and sound quality vs previous gen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

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- Initial set up is a bit of a faff like with every other echo, having to connect to it via your phone, then set up wifi etc. This connectivity step is a bit hit and miss and I had to try it a couple of times before it finally worked.

Main changes vs previous generation Echo
- First thing you notice is the shape. This is approx 13cm diameter sphere rather than a 9cm diameter x 15cm tall cylinder of old. It has definitely grown on me and I think it probably looks much better with other furniture in a living room than the cylinder shape.
- Speech recognition microphones. Even when blaring away at top volume, it will still recognise your voice without you having to raise your voice over the music - very impressive!
- Speech response time. More importantly, it now responds much quicker than before, I'd say around a second quicker. Reading through specs, it would seem it now does the speech parsing locally where possible rather than having to send the sound pattern across the internet for processing.
- The sound quality. When playing music is doesn't necessarily seem any louder than the previous generation Echo, but when playing the two back to back, the quality is better, with greater clarity and less distortion on the new Echo.

Do note, although the sound quality is superb for a £90 device, something like a £160 Sony SRS-XB33 bluetooth speaker does sound better side by side.

Pros
- Looks great
- Very good sound quality for the money, definitely a decent step up from the previous gen Echo
- Response time seems better than before.
- Can hear you without you needing to shout, even with loud music
- Has a Zigbee Hub
- Has a builtin temperature sensor

Cons
- The power cable comes in white with a black Echo
- Wider than old Echos, so just make sure you have space for 13cm sphere
- Would have been nice with an optional time display like the Echo Dot
- Max volume seems fractionally less loud than the previous Echo

Tip:
- By default, you probably get the "English" voice, which has what some people might consider an annoying American accent. You can change the language in the Alexa App to "English (UK)" for the traditional voice for the UK. Or other languages to get a different voice.

Overall, so far I'm seriously impressed with this one, and consider it the best of all the Echo and Echo dot devices so far that I've tried (I've not tried the Studio). Has my full recommendation for anyone looking for a new Echo device and my rating is based upon that.
However, If you already have the previous generation Echo and are looking to potentially replace it (rather than an additional one), the previous generation is sufficient good that I don't think the improvements sufficient to be are worth spending £90 on for an upgrade.
Note the video was taken on my phone, so the microphone really doesn't do justice to the sound quality, but hopefully it was helpful anyway.

Update 26 Mar 2021: Having used this for a few month, pretty much daily, everything seems to be working as well as, if not better than before. Other people are saying it doesn't respond. Other than the odd time when you have to call out a second time, I've not noticed any issues, certainly nothing worse than the previous generation ones. Still very happy with it.

293 people found this helpful

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Matt

Damn thing doesn't listen!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

I'm seriously not impressed... So my experience today, launch day for the new Amazon Echo 4th gen. I've been so excited as I had the Echo 2nd gen before this. I was watching the tracking. 6 stops away, then my tracking says 'parcel handed to residen't', huh, not to me it wasn't! Turns out the driver gave it to someone outside who luckily brought it to me. Not the best start. I opened the bag, took out the box, inspected it, and the security seal was fully broken. This had been shipped like this. So someone's had their grubby hands on it because it would have been sealed when it left the factory. Mega disappointed. At this stage mega unhappy but if it worked I'd keep it, but 3rd time unlucky it seems as it doesn't respond well at all. 3rd gen echo dot is way more accurate and responsive. There is an annoying delay when you ask alexa something like volume 4, then you say play U2 and the thing just stays unlit. Seems when you give it a command you have to wait. One, two, then you can give it another command. This OS has gone backwards, not forwards. On the plus side the audio is loud, but it's not improved noticeably over the Echo 2nd gen in terms of quality. A blind fold test and I doubt you'd be able to say which device the audio was coming out of. I like the shape but that's about it. I dunno maybe I got a duff one. But having to pause for a few seconds after each command frustrates the hell outta me. So it's going back :(

135 people found this helpful

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McB

I wouldn't bother (as yet)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

The sound quality is an improvement on 3rd Gen and most other Echo devices not dedicated to Hi-Fi quality music playing.

However, the much vaunted quicker response time via the new AZ1 Neural Edge processor seems either missing or unnoticeable - perhaps we are awaiting an activating software update from Amazon, I don't know, and they're not saying so it's anyone's guess.

The wake word detection is AWFUL and much worse than a 3rd Gen - almost have to face the Echo and scream at it before there's an acknowledgement.

The temperature sensor is next to useless also - the sampling period is far too long to be of an practical use and I've yet to have a routine triggered by it to function.

All that being said it DOES look good. So if you're concerned more with the aesthetics than the functionality go for it.

I'm giving it another week to see if anything improves - otherwise it's going back for being decidedly NOT what was advertised.

99 people found this helpful

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Marcel M

Surprised...in a bad way

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

As I can’t give 7 stars out of 5 to my Echo 3rd generation I’ll give 3.5 to this one...
In terms of sound 3 & 4 are the same (I’m not a specialist). About asking Alexa anything...that’s big difference. Say “Alexa” 2-3 times in order to listen to you which is frustrating. As a design I like it except the 4 buttons which looks like cheap plastic glued on fabric. Wanted to order one more 3rd generation but for some reason is not available...on Amazon.
Overall, personally, I’m disappointed about 4th generation as I was expecting to have Everything that 3rd has plus something.

90 people found this helpful

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Jimbo Walker

Not At All Impressed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2020

Colour Name: CharcoalStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

The product looks ok, but isn't exactly ideal with the control buttons set slightly towards the back/top and you could find yourself having to actually tilt the device to see the buttons (which also look cheap and cheerful).

The sound is no way better than the latest gen Echo Dot from my perspective and is quite bassy, so being put on a computer desk only emphasised this. However, worst of all is the delay when acting as (for example) a speaker for your pc (my Echo Dot didn't have any such delay).

All in all, really disappointing - £90 for this?!!!! Going straight back.......but might give the Echo Studio a go.

90 people found this helpful

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Video demonstration

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 November 2020

Colour Name: Glacier WhiteStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

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I have got 2 first generation and a second generation echo, and each generation has improved. The same goes for this fourth generation Amazon echo with premium sound.There is definitely a noticeable improvement over my second generation of echo. The bass sounds good whilst the vocals sound a lot clearer. This isn’t going to rock the room with the base, but the listening experience is very enjoyable. The added bonus that I have found with this fourth generation echo is it has a 3.5 mm input/ output which allows you to connect and auxiliary speaker or stereo system or earphones. I personally like the sphere upgrade design on this fourth generation compared to the three previous generations. The fourth generation has four buttons on top of the sphere which are easily accessible, which are your volume plus and minus, to mute The microphone and The other button is to activate the Alexa assistant. The assistant can be Voice activated with the trigger word which also can be changed in the Alexa app. When the assistant has been triggered The bottom of the sphere illuminates with a blue LED ring to alert you that the assistant is now listening, but also if you have someone in your family or you may be visually impaired you can make the Amazon echo play a request sound to alert them or yourself that the assistant is now listening and waiting for your command. This fourth-generation measures approximately 46 cm in circumference by 16 cm in height. The power cable plugs into the rear of the sphere near the base, and next to this is where the 3.5 mm jack is located as well. The cable length measures approximately 148 cm or 58 inches. The set up on this fourth generation was extremely easy which I used my iPhone to set this device up with. I did have a issue with the assistant not being triggered when saying it’s name but I unplugged the device left it for a minute or two and plugged it back in not had this issue anymore, and I have tested this several times now standing in all different parts of the room approximately 12 feet away and hopefully by the attached video you can see that the assistant hears me every time now. Overall a great upgrade with its sound, Modern looks and usability for entertaining with Games music and so much more. I hope you have found my review helpful thank you for reading. I

70 people found this helpful

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WOW! Love the sound and the new look

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2020

Colour Name: Twilight BlueStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

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Echo (4th Generation) - Twilight Blue

In comparison to the previous generation, this is a completely different design. It is a sphere that is a bit wider and higher than the previous versions. The bottom half is made of plastic whilst the top is covered in this lovely fabric that begs to be touched. The twilight blue is beautiful.

It has a front-facing 3" woofer and 0.8" tweeters and uses Dolby audio with four buttons on the top: Mute, Action button to wake it up, Volume up, and Volume down. Allows you to use it as a Bluetooth speaker or you can send music to your speaker via Bluetooth.

Pros
- Built-in temperature sensor that you can simply ask Alexa to let you know what temperature your room is at. This is useful for babies room
- Excellent sound quality with deep bass and clear highs
- Amazon made it super simple and easy to set up.
- Enters into low power mode when it is idle.
- Bluetooth which supports audio streaming to your Bluetooth speaker or streaming from your mobile devices to Echo.
- Built-in Zigbee smart home hub without needing another hub.
- Can pair with another echo to make a stereo sound!

Cons
- Cumbersome.
- As the shape has changed, your previous brackets purchased for your echo would now be redundant.
- Would have liked the Echo to have a clock like the Echo Dot
- Feels like a sideward step as there's no extra feature as such.

As an initial review, the sound is definitely an upgrade, with deeper bass, crisper sound. This echo also makes it easier to turn your home smarter. I like the microphone off button which gives you that extra layer of privacy. I would recommend this.

EDIT:
After using the echo for about 3 weeks, I found the Echo is actually pretty deaf, on most occasions I have to raise my voice, if not shout; There are some life noises, but nothing too loud.

I have tried moving the Echo around the house, with no success; I never had this problem with Echo 3rd Gen, and have dropped the star to 1, until Amazon fixes this issue.

37 people found this helpful

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Dave

Updates Review!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

Colour Name: Glacier WhiteStyle Name: EchoVerified Purchase

I really like the design. Sound is probably on par with the last gen echo which is good and has a nice level of bass.

I am however disappointed with the response times which is longer than my 3rd gen dots and echo. I would say it's probably worse than the echo studio as well which was pretty bad.

Still a good product and I like the aesthetics but disappointing when it is advertised to be quicker and is in fact slower. It also seems harder to activate than the last gen...I have to shout at it sometimes whereas our dots upstairs pick up normal activation requests that are made in the same room as this product.

UPDATE** so about a month in it looks like there must have been an update rolled out to my device as response times have suddenly become as quick if not quicker than the 3rd gen echo. This now makes the new echo a great addition to our device network. It's a shame it wasn't like this from launch for me but it now is as it should be.

29 people found this helpful

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5 star		79%
4 star		14%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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