Pricing and availability
A familiar design
It features a fabric mesh coating and is available colours – Charcoal, Heather Grey, Sandstone and Twilight Blue – but be sure to select your favourite colour as, unlike its predecessor, the Echo 3 doesn’t feature a removable case.
Although a permanent fixture, the rounded mesh fabric coating gives the Echo 3 a more premium finish, putting the design in line with premium smart speakers like Apple’s HomePod and Google’s Home Max. But unlike Apple’s premium speaker, you won’t find a touchscreen at the top – just buttons to control the speaker and the familiar array of beamforming microphones and, of course, a ring light to let you know when Alexa is listening, when you’ve got a notification and more.
In terms of connectivity, you’ll find a power connector on the side of the speaker alongside a 3.5mm aux output, allowing you to plug in any speaker for audio playback, and of course, you’ll find Bluetooth support too.
Improved performance
While the design is familiar, the setup process has been improved with the third-generation Echo speaker. Previously, you had to open the Alexa app, navigate to the Devices menu, select the product and connect your smartphone to the speaker manually via Wi-Fi, and it was all a bit of a faff.
The beamforming mics work well, even in challenging environments where multiple people are talking or when music is playing. You’ll find the occasional activation based on TV audio, but we’ve found that Alexa is generally smart enough to realise that it’s not a genuine request and shuts itself back off within a few seconds.
Where the Echo 3 truly excels is in the audio department; as mentioned above, it uses the same 3in subwoofer and 0. 8in tweeter speaker setup as the second-gen Echo Plus. While we compared the audio quality of the Echo 2 to a £40/$40 Bluetooth speaker, the same can’t be said for the Echo 3.
Working with Dolby to produce and tune the speakers, the audio quality of the Echo 3 is impressive; vocals are crisp and defined, the bass is strong and punchy, and the improved back volume helps produce room-filling audio. The volume is decent too, although you do begin to lose clarity as you approach the maximum volume.
You’ve also got the option of pairing another Echo 3 or Echo Plus 2 for stereo playback which improves the audio experience tenfold, but there are bugs at the time of writing. During testing, we’ve found that music randomly cuts out on one of the speakers, and only pausing and resuming the song will fix the issue.
Verdict
If you’re still undecided, take a look at our selection of the best smart speakers for inspiration.
Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You’ll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
