Amazon Echo Pop Review: The Latest Echo Flops Rather Than Pops

Let’s simply reduce to the chase: With its new Echo Pop, Amazon has delivered an Echo speaker that appears worse, sounds worse, and does lower than the one barely bigger and costlier Echo Dot. 

I’m probably not positive what the pondering was behind Amazon’s newest Echo speaker, or who it’s presupposed to be for. If the half-spherical gadget was considerably smaller than the Echo Dot, which the Pop replaces because the smaller and least-expensive Echo speaker, I’d be extra forgiving.

However the Echo Pop is nearly exactly the identical dimension because the Echo Dot, and at $39.99/£44.99, its checklist worth is simply $10 much less within the US. Within the UK, now that the Echo Dot has come down in worth, the Pop is definitely £10 extra. You’ll be able to learn our evaluation of the Echo Dot 5, which we rated fairly extremely, to search out out why you may wish to purchase that as an alternative.

The Echo Pop additionally drops a few the Echo Dot’s key good house sensors, whereas its flat audio efficiency makes the Echo Dot’s middling sonics sound significantly better as compared.

On the plus facet, the Pop does include Alexa and her typical bag of tips, and in addition to supporting the brand new Matter normal and Amazon’s Sidewalk neighbourhood networks, the Pop doubles as an extender for Amazon’s Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers.

However the Echo Dot does all these issues too, and whereas it’s a tad deeper in dimension than the Echo Pop, it has a way more premium really feel; the Pop, then again, feels low cost.

So, on the danger of sounding glib: the Echo Pop flops greater than it pops. 

How massive is the Amazon Echo Pop?

Measuring 9.9 x 8.4 x 9.1cm (WxDxH), the Amazon Echo Pop is roughly the identical dimension because the Echo Dot. With its half-spherical design, the Echo Pop definitely appears considerably smaller than the Echo Dot, however virtually talking, the Pop’s slice-in-half design solely shaves a few half and inch of depth and a hair off the peak. So sure, the Echo Pop is a tad smaller than the Dot, but it surely’s not that a lot smaller.

Alternatively, the Echo Pop is significantly lighter than the Dot, with the audio system weighing in at 195g and 303g respectively. Sadly, that loss in heft makes the Pop really feel low cost in comparison with the weightier Dot. Making issues worse, the Pop is nearly all plastic save for the flat, fabric-covered entrance, whereas the extra good-looking Dot has a extra expansive cloth protecting, giving it a extra premium really feel.

Ben Patterson/Foundry

The place is Alexa’s gentle ring on the Echo Pop?

The Echo Pop truly doesn’t have an Alexa gentle ring, per se; fairly, it has a skinny Alexa indicator gentle that sits alongside the highest fringe of the speaker. 

Behind the Alexa gentle are a trio of buttons for quantity up, quantity down, and microphone mute. Eagle-eyed Echo Dot customers will discover that the Pop lacks an Motion button, which lets you (amongst different issues) silence alarms and put the speaker in setup mode. For the Echo Pop, the standard operate for the Motion button – snoozing alarms – could be carried out by merely tapping the highest of the gadget.

On the again of the Echo Pop is a port for the roughly five-foot charging cable, which terminates in a (sometimes, for Echo audio system) chunky wall wart. 

There’s no 3.5mm audio-out jack on the again of the Pop – not an enormous shock, on condition that the fifth-generation Echo Dot jettisoned the auxiliary audio jack, too. However whilst you can’t join a secondary speaker to the Echo Pop utilizing a wire, you possibly can nonetheless achieve this through Bluetooth.

How do you arrange the Echo Pop?

Getting the Echo Pop up and working is a snap for many who already personal different Echo audio system. You merely plug within the Echo Pop, wait a couple of minutes till Alexa says the speaker is prepared for setup, and fireplace up the Alexa app; inside a number of seconds, a immediate to pair the Echo Pop ought to seem.

When you’re new to the Echo scene or Alexa as a complete, you’ll have to obtain the Alexa app and (for those who haven’t already) register for an Amazon account. You’ll even be prompted to enter the credentials to your house Wi-Fi router, though as soon as that step is finished, you received’t have to repeat it for including future Echo audio system.

Can the Amazon Echo Pop management good house gadgets?

With the assistance of Alexa, the Echo Pop can take cost of your appropriate good house gadgets through voice instructions, and the pool of supported good gadgets simply bought wider due to Matter, the brand new normal that guarantees to (ultimately) unite the massive good house ecosystems, together with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google House, and Samsung SmartThings. 

Just like the Echo Dot and most different present Echo audio system, the Echo Pop acts as a Matter controller, permitting it to attach different Matter gadgets in your house collectively. The Pop can’t join Matter gadgets to the web, nonetheless; for that, you’ll want a Thread border router, comparable to an Amazon Echo speaker; an Apple HomePod, HomePod mini, or third-gen Apple TV 4K; or a Google Nest Hub Max, second-gen Nest Hub, or a Nest Wifi Professional.

When you’re within the US, you’ll wish to know that Echo Pop additionally works with Sidewalk, Amazon’s budding neighbourhood community that enables a number of Ring, Echo, and different appropriate gadgets to work collectively, making a low-power, long-range community massive sufficient to cowl a whole neighbourhood. 

With assist from a Sidewalk community (and plenty of US neighbourhoods are already blanketed by Sidewalk protection), customers can set up (for instance) appropriate movement sensors, good lights, and different gadgets exterior of their houses with out worrying that they are going to be out of Wi-Fi vary. 

The advantages of Sidewalk are nonetheless extra theoretical than sensible, nonetheless, and you’ll flip off the Echo Pop’s Sidewalk performance for those who’d fairly.

Even for those who don’t make the most of the Echo Pop’s Matter or Sidewalk assist, you possibly can nonetheless take cost of greater than 100,000 good house gadgets with Alexa, both through voice instructions or Alexa routines.

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Can the Echo Pop act as an Amazon Eero extender?

Amazon just lately added the flexibility for many of its present Echo line to double as vary extenders for its Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers, and the Echo Pop isn’t any exception.

Every Echo Pop will add as much as 1,000 sq. toes of protection to your Eero mesh setup, a pleasant bonus given the Pop’s discount worth.

Does the Echo Pop allow you to chat with Alexa?

As with different Echo audio system, the Echo Pop allows you to communicate with Alexa. You’ll be able to ask Alexa a broad vary of questions, something from “Alexa, what’s the climate?” to “Alexa, do I’ve any appointments right this moment?”

You too can set Alexa to take heed to suspicious sounds, comparable to breaking glass or smoke alarm sirens (through the free Alexa Guard characteristic, or you possibly can improve to the paid Alexa Guard Plus), set alarms or timers, and even store on Amazon (you possibly can set a PIN to maintain your youngsters from occurring Amazon purchasing sprees). 

Are you able to make telephone calls with the Amazon Echo Pop? 

Alexa affords many of the similar communication options on the Echo Pop which can be accessible on different Echo audio system. For instance, you possibly can ask Alexa to “drop in” on an Echo gadget in one other room, permitting you to listen to what’s occurring in that room or communicate to anybody close by (Alexa will warn you if somebody is dropping in from one other Echo speaker). You too can ask Alexa to make an announcement (like “Time for dinner!”) on all the opposite Echo gadgets in your house.

Apart from communication with different Echo gadgets, Alexa on the Echo Pop could make free telephone calls to landlines within the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico (free Alexa calls are restricted to 10 contacts at a time, sadly).

Are you able to play music on the Amazon Echo Pop? 

Like different Echo audio system, the Echo Pop can double as a jukebox with assist from Alexa. Utilizing the Alexa app, you possibly can signal into your favourite music streaming service, together with Amazon Music, Apple Music and Podcasts, Spotify (together with Spotify Join performance), Deezer, Tidal, Pandora, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, and TuneIn; lacking from the checklist is Qobuz and YouTube Music.

Along with your music streaming account linked, you possibly can ask Alexa on the Echo Pop to play a observe, an album, an artist, or a style (“Alexa, play Taylor Swift” or “Alexa, play traditional rock”). An alternative choice is so as to add music playback as an motion in an Alexa routine; for instance, you may make Alexa play “Pleased” throughout your morning wake-up routines.

What’s lacking from the Echo Pop? 

“Similar to different Echo audio system,” has been one thing of a chorus in my evaluation of the Echo Pop, however there are a few key Echo options that the Pop decidedly doesn’t assist.

For instance, the Echo Pop lacks the built-in movement sensor discovered within the newest (and, once more, solely barely pricier) Echo Dot, and it’s additionally lacking the Dot’s temperature sensor. Each of these sensors can be utilized to set off Alexa routines, comparable to turning on the lights when somebody enters the room or spinning up a fan when the temperature hits a sure degree.

Additionally lacking from the Echo Pop is a Zigbee good house hub that will permit the speaker to instantly management Zigbee gadgets – though, to be truthful, the Dot doesn’t have a Zigbee radio both.

How does the Echo Pop sound?

On paper, you may suppose the Echo Pop and its 1.95-inch driver has the sonic edge over the Echo Dot and its smaller 1.75-inch driver. The fact, nonetheless, is that the Echo Pop’s audio pales in comparison with the Echo Dot’s–and that’s saying one thing, given the Dot’s solely so-so audio efficiency.

Going forwards and backwards between the 2 audio system, the Echo Pop sounded flat and tinny, with only a trace of bass response. The Echo Dot, in distinction, sounded deeper and fuller, with higher high-end element.

Granted, the Echo Dot nonetheless sounds fairly meh to my ears, however no less than its audio copy flirts with precise excessive constancy. The Echo Pop, then again, seems like an affordable Bluetooth speaker, good for listening to your tunes fairly than really having fun with them.

Is the Amazon Echo Pop well worth the money?

If the Amazon Echo Pop arrived with a a lot cheaper price tag, then positive, it is perhaps price it.

However contemplating that its worth doesn’t examine effectively to the sturdier, higher sounding, extra succesful, and solely barely bigger Echo Dot, we’d counsel you cling on for a worth reduce. Proper now, the Echo Pop will get a tough “no” from us.