Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) Review: Small Speaker, Smarter Home

The Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) is the proof that a smart speaker doesn’t have to be costly to be a necessity. The new Echo Dot is both surprisingly loud for its small size and easy to control by voice with Alexa but also has seamless smart home connectivity and costs less than many wireless speakers. From streaming music to controlling connected home devices to establishing routines to having conversations with the device all day long, the Echo Dot offers one of the most comprehensive smart speaker experiences at its price point.

Setting up my Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen on my nightstand, I didn’t have high expectations. It was just the small, round object I’d seen countless times before. However, within about a week it had subtly replaced much of my daily life. Lights on. Fan triggered. Tap to snooze the alarm. If you’re one of those who have been sleeping on the Echo Dot, then the 2022 version is definitely worth looking at.

Full Technical Specifications

What Is the Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen (2022)?

The Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen smart speaker with Alexa is available from October 2022 with a price of $49 and is sold in Charcoal, Deep Sea Blue, and Glacier White color. It maintains the same spherical design as its predecessor but adds useful enhancements on the inside, including a new speaker driver, ambient temperature sensor, tap gesture controls with an accelerometer, and eero Built-in mesh Wi-Fi. The Echo Dot 5th Gen with Clock is an upgrade on the original Echo Dot, with the addition of a front LED display screen displaying the songs, time, temperature and active alarms for $10 extra.

Design & Build

The Echo Dot 5th Gen Charcoal color is not some cool, new, bright, and flashy color, it’s supposed to be that way. The sphere, wrapped in fabric, fits anywhere in your home, with no need to stand out from the crowd, a shelf in the bedroom, a kitchen counter, a corner of your home office. It blends in. That’s a design decision and it makes sense.

A real compromise with this generation: the 3.5mm audio jack is no longer there. If you have used a cable with a bigger speaker before and now you are using Bluetooth. It’s an actual downgrade for a certain type of user and will be beneficial to know before purchasing.

Sound Quality: Genuinely Better Than Before

This is where the 5th Gen gets its upgrade. The difference is heard from the first play, with the clearer audio, the bass has real tone to it and the vocals are much more clear than previous Dot versions. Amazon’s custom built full range driver, which has the maximum excursion of any Amazon Echo Dot, is reflected in this driver.

In reality, I had it going for hours, music while I was cooking and a podcast at the end of the day and never wanted to get the bigger speaker for once. It does not overwhelm a bedroom or medium sized bedroom. It will still not rock the walls and audiophiles simply shouldn’t be looking at it. But at $49, it’s more than competitive.

The real magic happens when you choose to connect two Echo Dots into stereo. Broad frequency spread, complete depth of sound and natural room sound.

Smart Home Features: The Real Reason to Buy

The audio enhancement is appreciated. However, the additions to the smart home are the ones that really impact the way you live with this speaker on a day-to-day basis.

Temperature Sensor

The inbuilt ambient temperature detector integrates seamlessly with your Amazon routines in very useful ways. Smart Fan automatically turns on when you reach a pre-selected point. Connect it to your home thermostat and it will adjust before you realize that the room is heating up. I used to have my set up to activate a fan at a certain temperature. It simply worked without me taking part.

Tap Gesture Controls

One of those features that seems insignificant until you start using it on a regular basis is the accelerometer powered tap gestures. Click on the top to stop music. Press to snooze an alarm. End a call without saying wake word. It’s quick, quiet and won’t blow up the room. I didn’t think much of this feature until one morning at 5:30 a.m., half asleep, I just tapped the top of the Dot and it stopped. No nervousness, no wake word. 

Motion Detection

The built in motion detection allows you to develop routines with the Echo Dot that respond to your movements. All the way to the kitchen, lights switched on. Leaving the room, music stops. When set up, your space begins to react to your movements before you say a word. It’s the magic of automation that will become routine.

eero Built-in

It’s a legit bonus if you already have eero routers at home. The ability of each Dot to expand your mesh network by up to 1,000 square feet and support speeds up to 100 Mbps is more than adequate for 4K streaming. During my use, I noticed that areas of my house having low Wi-Fi signals felt more subtle. Video streaming without buffering, smart home devices stayed connected, I spent less time troubleshooting coverage issues. Built in eero won’t be a deciding factor for most buyers but it can be a genuinely useful feature that adds extra value for existing eero users.

Alexa: Still the Sharpest Part

The Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen smart speaker with Alexa gets the essentials right without any hassles: timers, weather, alarms, music from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more. However, the true measure will be in the speed of its reaction. Commands are received instantly, routines are connected flawlessly and follow up questions are picked up without delay. The differences are subtle on a day-to-day basis but the 5th Gen’s new processor is definitely faster than older Dots.

This speaker can be a voice that connects several smart devices already installed in your home lights, plugs and a thermostat. And it does it consistently, without the lost connections or stalling that vied with earlier Echo devices.

Pros & Cons at a Glance

Who Should Buy the Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen?

Buy it if:

• You’re looking for a reliable smart home hub that’s user friendly but doesn’t break the bank.
• You will need a bedroom/office speaker that makes use of the counter space.
• You are using the eero ecosystem and want to fill coverage gaps for free.
• You want all of Alexa’s features without paying premium prices of Apple HomePod and Google Nest.
• You’re upgrading from an Echo Dot 4th Gen, the upgrade is worthwhile.

Skip it if:

• The audio quality is your main concern when purchasing, a Sonos Play or Echo 4th Gen will provide better audio
• If you need to connect it to an audio system via wires, you will need a 3.5mm output.
• You already have the Echo Dot 4th Gen and are not a big fan of smart home automation.
• You want a screen. The Echo Show line is designed for that.

Final Verdict:

The Amazon Echo Dot 5th Gen is one of those things you can’t appreciate until you experience it first hand. It is not trying to be a top of the line speaker and it does not need to be. While the improved sound quality takes the spotlight, the Alexa integration, motion sensors, temperature sensing automations, tap control and smart home reliability make it a daily useful experience. 

Our Rating: 4.2 / 5  ★★★★☆