Amazon Echo Pop - Just a Mini-Review

This'll only take a few minutes of your time, so bear with me.

I'm pretty much running an Alexa household, certainly when it comes to streaming music on smart speakers, anyway.

I've always found the integration with my preferred music streaming services works well and I like to be able to use Amazon's Echo Show devices as digital photo frames.

I've also used Alexa's various skills and routines to automate several lights, cameras and other sensors around my home to make life just a little bit easier.

Then, just when I thought I'd tried every Alexa device out there, I got my hands on the smallest one yet.

Actually, that's not quite true. The Echo Auto is probably the smallest Alexa device but today I'm focusing on smart speakers and while pretty tiny, it turns out the Echo Pop is just as clever as the rest of them.

What's more, it comes in a selection of colours; Charcoal, Glacier White, Lavendar Bloom and Midnight Teal.

I'm not going to do a deep dive on all the various ways this speaker can help you access information and connect to the vast majority of IoT devices you have in your home. We've already been there and done that for many Echoes in all their various shapes and sizes.

All you need to know is the Pop works exactly the same way, controlling smart lights, air conditioners and countless other devices by following your voice commands.

As I demonstrate in the video below, you can also do any of the other fun Alexa stuff... set timers, ask for weather forecasts, find out how far away the nearest pizza place is, even order things online.

But perhaps the thing that has impressed me the most is the thing most smart speakers are supposed to do; play music.

In terms of audio quality, I wasn't expecting much from such a tiny little chappie and it's true, this is not a party speaker designed for bombastic beat-drops or crashing rock guitar riffs. However, at a medium volume, the Pop actually does a really nice job of creating a sonic space for a comprehensive dynamic range - especially for more acoustic efforts like Amos Lee's latest album, "Transmissions."

Instruments like nylon-string guitars and stand-up basses come across very warmly and cleanly, making the pop an excellent choice for your bedside table if you like to wake up to a bit of Sunday morning jazz.

But probably the best way to use the Pop is as an add-on speaker. If you're already using a larger Echo Show device, or maybe the truly excellent Echo Studio, which is a big speaker with genuinely decent bass response, adding a Pop or two into the mix will give you a much more room-filling sound. Recent updates to Alexa's ability to group several Echoes together mean this feature is much more dependable and really makes creating an affordable, multi-speaker system very easy.

In fact, with two Echo Pops you can create a stereo pair and I imagine the result is a much bigger sound overall. (I haven't tested this myself but I'm confident in recommending the setup as I've tried it with the slightly bigger Echo Dots and it works insanely well)

There's also the option to use the Pop as a kind of intercom. You may or may not be aware when you have multiple Echo devices set up on the same Wi-Fi network you can make "Announcements" on all of them simultaneously. This is a great way to get everybody to the dinner table at more or less the same time, something that always seems to be a constant challenge in my house.

The point is, for around NZ$85.00 you can add onto your existing Alexa setup very easily and affordably. I've found the Pop does everything you'd expect it to, sounds better than you'd expect it to and I do believe, given its prompt responses demonstrated in the video below, it may even be the best listener of all the Echo devices to date.

    

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Amazon Echo Pop.