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Digital assistants are the next big thing in home technology. Google was first out of the gate with its Home device (watch my review and how-to here on the YouTube channel) and now Amazon's popular Echo is available.

Echo and the smaller Dot connect to Alexa—an intelligent cloud-based voice service—to allow you to play music, make calls, set alarms and timers, ask questions, check your calendar, get weather, traffic, and sports scores, manage to-do and shopping lists, and control smart home devices. You can even place Amazon.ca orders just by asking. As an aside, the device is called the Echo, and Alexa is the name of the digital assistant that's at your service 24/7.

At it's core, Echo is a speaker; a 360 degree/omnidirectional speaker so you get audio in every direction, no matter where you place it.
Amazon Echo Dot is a smaller version of the Echo. It provides all the same functions as the Echo but with a much smaller footprint, and a much smaller speaker.


The built in microphone (seven microphones, actually) is always listening and waiting for you to call on it, and it uses the speaker to respond to you. Alexa can even hear you and respond while music is playing.

So what’s the difference between Echo and Dot? In a word: size. Echo is a more full size speaker while Dot is about a quarter the size. For the most part they can execute all the same tasks, however, so your choice will come down to how much room you have and how much speaker power you want.

A neat feature of the Echo devices is the ability to use them as in-home intercoms between rooms. You can speak from your phone to an Echo device, or from Echo to Echo.

Using this feature isn’t exactly intuitive. To make a call from your phone tap the Conversations bubble again and then tap the blue bar at the top of the screen that says Drop In. Here you’ll be able to select which device you want to drop in on specifically from your phone.
You can also just ask Alexa to Drop In on another device.

You can also use your Echo devices to make calls to Echo devices in other locations.

A feature I really appreciated was the ability to add my Apple (and Google or Microsoft) calendar so I could get appointments and info from the Echo.

You can ask Alexa to re-order things you need from Amazon. To do this, you'll need to ensure 1-click payments are enabled in your Amazon.ca account. You can also add a 4 digit pin to prevent the kids from ordering stuff without your permission.

I'd say the sound quality of the Echo speaker is just fine. It's not as good as something like a Sonos, but in my opinion, its primary function is to be a digital assistant, not a finely tuned audio device.

I feel like there's a bit more you can do with the Echo over something like Google Home, like use the device as an intercom, a phone between devices (yes you can make calls to landline numbers on Google Home using Wi-Fi too) and it's possible to add Apple and other calendars to Echo. Throw in the fact you can also reorder stuff from Amazon.ca and you're getting a lot of services in one device. Otherwise, many of the basic tasks Echo can do are identical to what Google Home does.

Overall, I think Echo is a good device. But it does indeed do a bit more than Google Home. When you factor in price (Echo is $99 and Home is $179), Amazon Echo is indeed the superior pick.
The Dot by the way is about $49.