Launching at the same budget-friendly $50, the new Echo Dot aims to bring Alexa into all homes, making asking questions, smart home controls and listening to music a breeze.

Amazon update their best selling smart speaker with a fresh design. Echo Dot 4th-generation comes in three varients:

  • Echo Dot: $49.99 – Charcoal, Glacier White or Twilight Blue
  • Echo Dot Charcoal
  • Echo Dot Glacier White
  • Echo Dot Twilight Blue
  • Echo Dot with clock: $59.99 – Glacier White or Twilight Blue
  • Echo Dot Tiger
  • Echo Dot Clock Twilight Blue
  • Echo Dot Kids Edition: $59.99 – Tiger or Panda
  • Echo Dot Tiger
  • Echo Dot Panda

While not the best sounding music speakers, the Dot line has always focused on providing the Amazon smart assistant at an affordable price. With the new Echo Dot, Amazon are moving away from the flatter puck design seen in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation models, in favour of a new spherical design, that measures 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.5-inch.

The new Echo Dot still has all the same great smart features as before, with support for all major music, podcast, audiobook and radio platforms such as Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, Audible and more. Multi-room audio support makes playing music in all rooms easy. The same size 1.6-inch speaker should produce comparable sound to the current Dot with impressive volumes that can get distorted when loud. This lends the speaker to smart assistant features more than music playback. The 3.5mm line out makes hooking up a traditional hi-fi setup easy and is a port missing on Google’s budget-end Nest Mini. The same four buttons atop the speaker wake Alexa, volume up, volume down and turn the mic off.

On top of the new kid designs, Amazon are launching kids features available on all speakers at no extra cost. Kids mode can be automatically enabled when it recognises the childs voice. Kid-friendly responses filter explicit songs, block shopping and lets kids call approved contacts. Parents can set time limits and review activity on their kids speaker. A Kids+ subscriptions gives access to more content such as Audible books from the likes of Disney, Nickelodean, National Geographic and more, with interactive games, education skills and Reading Sidekick.

Features:

  • Meet the all-new Echo Dot – Our most popular smart speaker with Alexa. The sleek, compact design delivers crisp vocals and balanced bass for full sound.
  • Voice control your entertainment – Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, SiriusXM, and others. Play music, audiobooks, and podcasts throughout your home with multi-room music.
  • Ready to help – Ask Alexa to tell a joke, play music, answer questions, play the news, check the weather, set alarms, and more.
  • Control your smart home – Use your voice to turn on lights, adjust thermostats, and lock doors with compatible devices.
  • Connect with others – Call almost anyone hands-free. Instantly drop in on other rooms or announce to the whole house that dinner’s ready.
  • Designed to protect your privacy – Built with multiple layers of privacy protections and controls, including a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphones.

The Echo Dot 4th generation will be released on October 22nd. Pre-order the Echo Dot, Echo Dot with clock and Echo Dot Kids Edition today. Amazon are offering $20 off packs of two with the code DOT2PACK.

Prime Day is scheduled for the October 13th and 14th in the US and UK. If you don’t fancy the new Echo Dot, Amazon are selling two 3rd generation Dots for just $39.98 to Prime members as an early Prime Day deal. See all Prime Day deals here.

Prime Day Deal

For more smart speakers such as something with a bit more oomph or with Google Assistant, find our top smart speakers here.