Key Takeaways

• The 5th-gen Amazon Echo Dot maintains its iconic status as an affordable and convenient portal to the Alexa universe, with new features like temperature sensors and gesture controls.
• The latest model offers speedy responses to Alexa commands and relatively good sound quality, making it a solid choice for a smart speaker.
• While it may not be necessary to upgrade from the 4th-gen Dot, the 5th-gen model is worth considering for its zippy Alexa access and useful built-in features, especially if you want the convenience of the clock.

Amazon's Echo Dot has long been a smart-home power player, and the 5th-gen Echo Dot keeps the status quo while adding some new tricks. The latest Echo Dot doesn't reinvent the wheel (or ball?) but keeps its iconic status as an affordable and utterly convenient portal to the Alexa universe.

The Echo Dot's move from the 3rd-generation puck design to the 4th-generation sphere is Amazon's biggest design change to its entry-level smart speaker. The fifth model looks the same as its predecessor, with nearly identical dimensions and controls. But it does tack on some new features, including new sensors and a sound upgrade.

As with its predecessor, there are multiple versions of the 5th-gen Dot, including the Echo Dot with Clock (which I'm evaluating here), a Kids Edition Dot with animal designs on the exterior, and a cheaper standard model without a clock. Whichever model you choose, the Dot remains one of the best smart speakers you can buy.

What's New in the 5th-gen?

The most notable new feature in Amazon's latest Echo Dot is the temperature sensor. You can now ask Alexa to check the temperature in a given room, which is snappy and makes for a nice addition to outdoor weather queries. It's even better for those with compatible smart thermostats, from Amazon's in-house smart thermostat to Google's Nest or an array of third-party models, allowing you to adjust heating or cooling with voice commands, or program routines in the Alexa app to do so automatically.

Also new is a built-in accelerometer for gesture controls. You can tap your Echo Dot to hit the snooze if you're using it as an alarm clock, for instance, as well as stopping timers, pausing music, and ending calls. This can come in handy if you're in a rush, though asking Alexa is so speedy you may not find it saves you much time.

While I wasn't able to test it against the Echo Dot 4th-gen directly, the latest model is refreshingly speedy in response to Alexa commands, too. It matches up well with Apple's lightning-quick HomePod 2nd-gen when pausing audio over Apple Music (once you've enabled it in the Alexa app), and it's even a hair faster than Apple's pricier device over Spotify.

The 5th-generation Echo Dot with Clock also adds the ability to see other information scrolling across its blimp-style digital display, including weather information and song titles. (Thankfully, this eventually returns to the clock display, as it gets a bit distracting over time.)

A Simple Setup Procedure

The Echo isn't quite as easy to get started as Apple's HomePod and HomePod Mini, which require little more than walking toward the speaker with your iPhone. That's the detraction of a speaker that isn't interconnected to your mobile device in an enclosed ecosystem.

On the other hand, not only are Echo speakers much more compatible with third-party devices and smart skills, but you also don't need a specific smartphone to get started, just the Alexa app for Android or iPhone and an Amazon account. The app quickly walks you through setup, and after typing in your Wi-Fi password, you'll be up and running in minutes.

Those brand new to Alexa may find some learning curves in the app when it comes to locating the Add Device tab, but overall it's a quick and painless process.

All the Alexa Smarts

Alexa has a reputation as the most useful and versatile smart home system out there, and the Echo Dot gives you the keys to that kingdom for as low as $50 (for the model without a clock).

Once you're online, you'll be introduced to a few of Alexa's many "skills," some of which work better than others as anyone familiar with smart assistants might guess. Alexa started by locking in my voice recognition to offer tailored information (you can add as many as six individual users). The assistant also suggested its latest skill, "Smart Tub," which, she explained, allows you to regulate hot tub chemicals and temperature when using third-party devices from Jacuzzi.com.

Maybe it was all the ChatGPT weirdness going around the week of my review, but this was one of those eerie smart home moments, as I was just speaking to a rep about an issue with our Costco hot tub an hour earlier. The speaker was still in the box at the time, so chalk it up to a creepy coincidence. It does make me glad Echo speakers offer a physical mute button to quickly cut the mic whenever you want.

Fears of the eventual reign of Skynet aside, the Dot allows for a world of convenience via Alexa, especially if you add other smart devices. For example, like the 4th-generation Dot, the 5th-gen's built-in motion sensors can be programmed to turn on compatible smart lights when you enter a room. For Eero Wi-Fi router owners, the new Dot can also be utilized as a mesh Wi-Fi extender, improving Wi-Fi trouble spots in larger houses. (This feature was also recently added to the 4th-gen Echo speaker, and Amazon says it's coming to the 4th-gen Echo Dot, too.)

There are tons of other ways to use the Dot with Alexa, of course, including the ability to make calls to anyone in your contacts list, make intercom calls to other Echo devices throughout your home, create shopping lists, play games, check your calendar, and connect and control an ever-expanding array of other devices, from robot vacuums to Fire TV streaming sticks and garage door openers. You can also connect two Echos as a stereo pair or add more as part of a whole-home audio system.

Thanks to Amazon's compliance with Matter---a unified protocol designed to connect devices across smart ecosystems like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri---it's becoming easier than ever to link up any smart device with an Echo speaker, too. While the Dot works fine as a standalone smart speaker for playing your favorite tunes, the more you put into your smart home aspirations, the more you'll get out of it.

Solid Sound for a Small Ball

The Echo Dot has always been the speaker to buy if you're first and foremost looking for a great way to initiate Alexa on a budget, or to spread out a lot of smart speakers throughout your home. Music is an afterthought at this size and price point, and especially with all the other things the Dot can do, that's understandable.

That being said, Amazon wants you to know it's still tooling, and the 5th-generation Dot gets improved sonic skills, including a slightly larger driver inside. This is generally listen-while-you-work sound quality, but it does a great job for that purpose, particularly in the middle of the sound where the majority of your favorite instruments excel.

The upper bass and midrange are warm and relatively clear, letting stringed instruments, drums, and vocals pop with some pleasant flavor. Lower bass frequencies don't make the cut, and the speaker appears to roll off the higher frequencies pretty heavily, too, meaning instrumentation like cymbal crashes and whistling synthesizers sound tinkly and lacking in resonance. But distortion is minimal, and there's a bit more breathing room for instruments to expand than in previous Dots I've heard.

Keeping expectations in check is key---there's only so much you can do to combat physics. With that in mind, I think most will be satisfied with the latest Dot as a go-to podcast and musical companion in the bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom. It's especially handy for those times when you just want to play some tunes without having to track down your phone.

Should You Buy the Amazon Echo Dot 5th-gen Smart Speaker?

Standing on the shoulders of smart-speaker giants, the 5th-gen Echo Dot is a versatile little smart home portal, with zippy Alexa access, relatively good sound quality, and some useful new built-in features that make it worth considering over its predecessor.

This isn't a "must-upgrade" situation for those with an Echo Dot 4th-gen, and those looking for better sound quality in a speaker that does pretty much everything the new Dot can will want to consider investing in the pricier 4th-generation Echo speaker. But if you're looking to grab the best budget smart speaker, and especially if you want the convenience of the clock, the 5th-generation Dot is a great buy.