[tubemonkey]

Amazon Echo Dot review (2016): Forget the Echo. Buy this instead.

You’ll get Amazon’s Alexa assistant in a smaller, cheaper form factor

The robot assistants we were promised as children are finally ready for the home. Well, sort of. Instead of walking, talking humanoid automatons like Rosie from The Jetsons and Robby the Robot from Lost in Space, our well-spoken helpers are housed in plastic and sit on tables. They answer our questions, control our homes and sometimes tell us a story. The most ubiquitous assistant so far has been Alexa, an Amazon-powered attendant that has made the jump from a $180 tower to the $50 Dot, which isn't much bigger than a hockey puck. That sort of drop in size usually results in a loss of features. In this case, you're going to want to go tiny.

Summary

The Dot is a smaller yet just as powerful version of the Amazon Echo. What it lacks in an internal speaker system it makes up for with an audio-out port and Bluetooth connectivity. While the app and inability to route queries to a single Alexa device within close proximity of each other can be annoying, the $50 price and Alexa's usefulness make the Dot a solid option for anyone who wants to start building a connected home on the cheap.