Steve
A major smart-home upgrade, with better sound and one minor design drawback
I bought my first Echo in April 2015, back when it was simply called the “Amazon Echo.” Eleven years later, it’s still running strong. Since then, we’ve accumulated an Echo for nearly every room in our home.My daughter, who was born the same year as that original Echo, had been relegated to using it in her bedroom. We finally decided it was time for an upgrade. I wanted her to have access to Alexa+ so I could teach her how to use AI appropriately, and we also needed another Matter hub, as her room is tucked away in the corner of our apartment, and the smart shades in there weren’t always responding reliably.Since installing the Echo Dot Max, her room (and our entire smart home) has become noticeably smarter.The Matter-compatible shades now maintain a strong connection. We have them programmed to open every morning to help wake her up and close again in the evening for privacy. The built-in temperature sensor has also been surprisingly useful. It allowed me to create a routine that automatically turns on her otherwise “dumb” air conditioner when the room reaches a certain temperature.We’ve also been using Alexa+ for everyday questions, weather, music, and those random things families find themselves noodling over. I can monitor my daughter’s activity and help make sure she’s using it appropriately. Compared with the old Alexa experience, Alexa+ is a huge leap forward. It understands more natural questions, handles follow-ups, remembers some conversational context, and is far less likely to respond with the dreaded, “According to an Alexa Answers contributor…”For casual home use, it can answer many of the same kinds of questions I would normally ask Claude, which I pay for separately for my business. Prime members also receive access to Alexa+, which makes the Dot Max a much more capable device than the older Echo speakers we own.The sound quality is good. I still prefer the speakers in the original full-size Echo, but the Dot Max sounds much better than the various standard Echo Dots and Echo Shows we’ve owned. For a child’s bedroom, it is more than adequate for music, audiobooks, and general Alexa use.Because Wi-Fi can be spotty in that corner of our apartment, I was also interested in the built-in eero extender capability. It only becomes useful if you already have (or later purchase) a compatible eero router, which I don’t currently own. Still, I’ve been considering switching to eero, and it’s nice to know her room is already somewhat future-proofed if I do.I was also happy to see that the Dot Max comes in Amethyst (purple). The color makes it feel unique without resorting to an overtly childlike design. It looks attractive on her desk and, depending on your frame of reference, resembles either the Death Star, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, or Spaceship Earth at EPCOT.I did run into one strange problem while trying to pair an Amazon Mickey Mouse clock. No matter how many times I tried, the Dot Max wouldn’t recognize it as an Amazon gadget. I eventually paired the clock with my original Echo, left it connected for a while, and then tried pairing it with the Dot Max again. Somehow, that worked. I’m not sure whether the clock received a firmware update or whether it was simply dumb luck, but it has remained connected since then.My other complaint is the placement of the indicator light. On several older Echo devices, the light is on top, where it can be seen from almost any angle. Here, it faces forward. Unless Alexa gives an audible response, it can be difficult to tell whether she heard you when you’re standing behind or beside the device.Those are relatively minor inconveniences, though. Overall, we love the Echo Dot Max. It has improved the reliability of our smart-home devices, added useful automation through the temperature sensor, and given my daughter a much better Alexa experience.It has assimilated quite nicely into our growing family of Echo devices. Its great-grandfather, meanwhile, has been reassigned to the bathroom.Ver másVer menos
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