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Amazon Echo (4th gen) review: Hold my sphere

The fourth-generation Amazon Echo sports a spiffy new shape, great sound quality and easy smart home setup for a reasonable price. It’s one of the best smart speakers we’ve ever tested. Check out the video for all of the details including a head-to-head sound comparison with the Nest Audio.

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25 Comments

25 Comments

  1. Bert Style

    October 23, 2020 at 8:34 am

    Ill wait until its 20 bucks

  2. Swostik Satpathy

    October 23, 2020 at 9:12 am

    @cnet Amazon’s AI-powered Magic 8 ball!

  3. Dan Miranda

    October 23, 2020 at 9:23 am

    Guy was about To make a mad peanut butter and jelly in the kitchen but remembered he’s got this to review so he went ahead and done it while high AF. Salute ????????????

  4. Shiva Sundar

    October 23, 2020 at 11:05 am

    Can it be substituted for a sound bar?

  5. Amused Apple

    October 23, 2020 at 11:10 am

    Apple be like: but that’s what i did…

  6. brandon hosein

    October 23, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    His voice

  7. Felipe Hacker

    October 23, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    This reminds me of the GameSphere

  8. Omid Yusofi

    October 23, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    Plot twist:
    Homepod mini from apple in Upside-down ????????

  9. FragBoy Stewie

    October 23, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    I believe two of these can be used in conjunction with the Echo Studio to deliver an atmos experience.

  10. Nate Newman

    October 23, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    Love that Magavox Astrosonic.

  11. Yann Roger

    October 23, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    It’s not good… I have an american friend in France who has an Alexa at home. It can’t even speak several languages, once you choose one it understand only this one.
    I asked her something very easy. We had a number and we needed to know which part of the country it was (which department). This is a simple contextual question regarding the fact that we are in France. It gives us some answer about some american stuff which has nothing to do with the question, then we precised the question and asking about the France. The dumbest thing then talked about Paris… France… Paris is the only stuff the poor thing knows (Again nothing to do with the question).
    Then I took my phone and ask the same thing in French to Google assistant… Miracle… The correct answer.
    My Friend told me… “it”s because you talked to him in french” . Then I ask him exactly the same thing I asked to Alexa in English… : First he understood me perfectly and second, gives me the good answer too in English. Yeah! this is what contextual is.
    I asked the same kind of question about USA and he answers very well too in any language I asked.
    Alexa was just useless. Just a nice stuff with an empty brain, just a bit better than Siri. I’m surprised they sell any.

  12. cjxgraphics

    October 23, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    Sad Nexus Q noises.

  13. Gregory Tessensohn

    October 23, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    Sphere is a good movie. Under-rated.

  14. P.Q. Row

    October 23, 2020 at 5:44 pm

    Good sound quality??? Compared to what… an ant fart?

  15. Amjid Khan

    October 23, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    I’ll wait for the HomePod mini – will also be $99

  16. Adrian Abshire

    October 23, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    If you shake it you will know the future!

  17. Taran Agnew

    October 23, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    can you set the default speaker as a sonos speaker and what was the 1st track you played?

  18. Mike EL

    October 23, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    That’s not hip hop that’s hip not?

  19. Adam A

    October 23, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    I legit think spheres are the future. They soon, follow you around and talk to you and even steps wont be a problem. I have a solution for that too.

  20. Ace s

    October 23, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    Copies apple people still amazed

  21. R H

    October 23, 2020 at 11:11 pm

    The Nest seems like a pretty good deal for the price. It just depends on your other devices and what you use. A year and some change back I bought a new phone on Amazon and it was an Amazon edition and priced very reasonable (less than half the price of the Non-Amazon version) so it came with Alexa and that’s where it started…. Then I got a fire tv stick and some echo buds and i had been watching the echo dots and echos for a while and was waiting for a deal. Which prime day just came around and I got an echo dot 3rd gen along with a smart plug for free. Then I ordered a couple more echo dots for 18 dollars each and pre-ordered a couple echo 4th gens. I also bought some smart lights and a smart 6 outlet adapter. So I’m set now for a while anyway.

    I am disappointed in amazon’s smart plugs and only get them when discounted to a few bucks at the most. They are way to big for what they are and for that size it should have two outlets not one. Meanwhile third party companies sell smart plugs that are less than half the size. The 6 outlet smart outlet adapter was only 18 dollars which is less than amazon’s retail price for their ugly smart plug. It has 3 individually controlled outlets and 3 that are always on… It also has 3 usb ports that can be turned off or on (not individually)

    For 18 dollars it’s a fantastic deal and has been working great. It worked with Alexa just fine too and was no hassle to connect.

    Amazon needs to step it up heck Amazon bundled a smart light with one of my echo’s and it doesn’t even work right with Alexa.. You would think the company that made Alexa would be sure to sell smart lights that work properly with Alexa that’s the only reason I bought it because I figured it has to work. Nope I was horribly wrong the lifx light has issues on its own app as it is and has issues setting up as a new device because a most of the time it claims to not be connected to wifi after you finish the setup and hit finish and you have to go through the process again. But when pairing with Alexa you have like a 15-20% chance of it pairing and even then if you unplug the light or your wifi drops or your power goes off and on off whatever reason it won’t reconnect and will stay listed as unresponsive. You have to reset the light and set it back up in the lifx app again and then try to pair with Alexa again and hope it works.

    Oh did I mention if it doesn’t pair with Alexa the first time you have to reset the bulb add it back to the lifx device and try again? You can’t just disable the skill re-enable and try again because it will never discover the device. It’s pathetic that Amazon would support a light like this and it seems like lifx is more interested in trying to push their product on their app versus ensuring it works properly.

  22. Pro Player

    October 23, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    would be cool if it can also be a router or a wifi range extender

  23. 1984

    October 23, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    I still use a first gen Echo, don’t really feel any need to upgrade it.

  24. Tony Agnew

    October 24, 2020 at 12:46 am

    It’s spherical! SPHERICAL!!!

  25. Ted Brock

    October 24, 2020 at 1:26 am

    What was that acoustic track?

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The new iOS 27 Shortcuts make it easy to program your own iPhone tricks with natural language. Bridget Carey explains how she used it to wean her from compulsively opening social media and getting lost in scrolling. You might find it better than other apps that limit screen time (and it’s certainly cheaper than using a Brick).

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