The New Amazon Echo Plus: A Smart Speaker with a Smart Home Hub

The new Amazon Echo Plus looks familiar, well that's because it looks from the outside exactly like the original Amazon Echo, which was recently replaced by this new Echo, which is smaller and has more buttons. Confused yet? Don't feel bad; we were too, until we learned from Amazon that the plus includes among other things a new smart home hub built right inside.

So, what's new for the speaker? Well, it's supposed to sound better as well. We'll see if that plays out in our Amazon Echo Plus review.

Here's the Echo Plus and the original Echo side-by-side, as you can see, almost exactly the same. You still have just one control button, a mute switch up top, volume dial, and of course, the blue LEDs around here. The one difference you can spot from the outside is the addition of this new audio output jack right behind this little door. It's a 3.5 millimeter output, so you can connect the Echo Plus to a more powerful speaker or a full-on home theater system.

The folks at Amazon seem to have taken a page from the Sonos simplicity playbook when it comes to setting up a smart home system. Because this is extremely easy once you've connected the Echo Plus to the internet and Alexa is up and running, you just hit the smart home tab and the setup menu, and you can start adding devices. Click "Add device" and it's going to find that lamp or a smart plug that you may have plugged in, and then you just start grouping them together.

You can actually make groups like this one, which is going to group all three different smart lighting devices together. We've also created a media room audio group, so we have two speakers paired for multi-room audio. There's also a scene section where you can sort of set up certain scenes. You can tell Alexa to start this scene, and it's going to dim the lights.

This is a new feature that hasn't been released yet, but it is on the way, says Amazon. Once you set up your smart home devices, you can control them with your smart speaker. You can place this behind your TV as an ambient light, or put it under your kitchen cabinetry if you want to. From there, you can change the color and dim it.

Alexa turn on lights, trip now! You can also invest in Philips hue bulbs, Alexa can control those too. Alexa turn on window lamp, Alexa dim window lamp by 50%. Alexa turn off the lights in the media rooms that will shut off all the lights. Alexa turn on the lights in the media room and then all the lights will come on in the room including that light strip which we made part of the group.

So, as a smart home hub, Alexa works really well. I'm pleased with how simple it is to set things up and control them.

But, how is the new Echo Plus as a speaker? Well, I have some bad news, and I give it no pleasure to say this, but the new Echo Plus doesn't sound nearly as good as the original Echo. The sound quality has gone downhill. There's not as much bass, it's not as rich of sound, and the treble sounds a little bit brittle. Also, it doesn't get as loud.

Frankly, I don't think the small downturn in sound quality is a problem here. It still sounds respectable, it's a decent sounding speaker, and you can connect it to a better speaker or speaker system if you want to.

What's more important, though, is that the new Echo Plus has more functionality. It's an excellent smartphone hub. It's a really easy way for you to get into some of these smart home devices. And the price came down by about $30 over the original $180 price that the original Echo came out at. So, it's less expensive. The high-performance sound quality is still totally fine for me.

The new Amazon Echo Plus is a great smart speaker.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the new Amazon echo plus look familiar well that's because it looks from the outside exactly like the original Amazon echo which was recently replaced by this new echo which is smaller and has more buttons confused yet well don't feel bad we were too and then we learned from Amazon that the plus includes among other things a new smart home hub built right inside so now you can use alexa to control devices directly you can even set up routines and scenes what else is new for the speaker well it's supposed to sound better as well we'll see if that plays out in our Amazon echo Plus review okay so here's the echo plus and the original echo side-by-side as you can see like I said almost exactly the same you still have just one control button a mute switch up top volume dial and of course you'll see the blue LEDs around here a little bit later the one difference you can spot from the outside is the addition of this new audio output jack right behind this little door is a 3.5 millimeter output so you can connect the echo plus to a more powerful speaker or a full-on home theater system the folks at Amazon seemed to have taken a page from the Sonos simplicity playbook when it comes to setting up a smart home system because this is extremely easy once you've connected the echo plus to the internet and Alexa is up and running you just hit the smart home tab and the setup menu and you can start adding devices click Add device and it's going to find that lamp or a smart plug that you may have plugged in and then you just start grouping these together you can actually make groups like here we have the media room group and this is actually going to group are three different smart lighting devices together we've also created a media room audio group so that we have two speakers paired for multi-room audio there's also a scene section where you can sort of set up certain seas you can tell Alexa start this scene and it's going to dim lights and you can also set up routines soon that's a new feature that hasn't been released yet so we can't show it to you but it is on the way says Amazon once you set up your smart home devices you can't start controlling them with your smart speaker Alexa turn on lights trip now you can place this behind your TV as a sort of ambient light as we have here or you can put it under your kitchen cabinetry if you want it and from there you can change the color and dim it Alexa make the light strip blue Alexa dim the light strip by 50% now if you want to invest in Philips hue bulbs Alexa can control those as well Alexa turn on window lamp Alexa dim window lamp by 50% Alexa turn off the lights in the media rooms that will shut off all the lights Alexa turn on the lights in the media room and then all the lights will come on in the room including that light strip which we made part of the group so as a smart home hub Alexa works really really well I'm pleased with how simple it is to set things up and then control them but how is the new echo Plus as a speaker well I'm afraid I have some bad news and gives me no pleasure to say this but the new echo Plus doesn't sound nearly as good as the original echo the sound quality has gone downhill there's not as much bass it's not as rich of sound and the treble sounds a little bit brittle also it doesn't get as loud here's a comparison between the two I've got both speakers set to the same volume playing the same clip of music Alexa play so side by side the sound differences are pretty obvious but you're not going to listen to them side by side frankly I don't think the small downturn in sound quality is a problem here it still sounds respectable it's a decent sounding speaker and you can connect it to a better speaker or speaker system if you want to what's more important here is that the new echo plus has more functionality it's an excellent smartphone hub it's a really easy way for you to get into some of these smart home devices plus the price came down by about $30 over the original 180 dollar price that the original echo came out at so it's less expensive it's higher performance sound quality is still totally fine for me the new Amazon echo plus is a great smart speakerthis is the new Amazon echo plus look familiar well that's because it looks from the outside exactly like the original Amazon echo which was recently replaced by this new echo which is smaller and has more buttons confused yet well don't feel bad we were too and then we learned from Amazon that the plus includes among other things a new smart home hub built right inside so now you can use alexa to control devices directly you can even set up routines and scenes what else is new for the speaker well it's supposed to sound better as well we'll see if that plays out in our Amazon echo Plus review okay so here's the echo plus and the original echo side-by-side as you can see like I said almost exactly the same you still have just one control button a mute switch up top volume dial and of course you'll see the blue LEDs around here a little bit later the one difference you can spot from the outside is the addition of this new audio output jack right behind this little door is a 3.5 millimeter output so you can connect the echo plus to a more powerful speaker or a full-on home theater system the folks at Amazon seemed to have taken a page from the Sonos simplicity playbook when it comes to setting up a smart home system because this is extremely easy once you've connected the echo plus to the internet and Alexa is up and running you just hit the smart home tab and the setup menu and you can start adding devices click Add device and it's going to find that lamp or a smart plug that you may have plugged in and then you just start grouping these together you can actually make groups like here we have the media room group and this is actually going to group are three different smart lighting devices together we've also created a media room audio group so that we have two speakers paired for multi-room audio there's also a scene section where you can sort of set up certain seas you can tell Alexa start this scene and it's going to dim lights and you can also set up routines soon that's a new feature that hasn't been released yet so we can't show it to you but it is on the way says Amazon once you set up your smart home devices you can't start controlling them with your smart speaker Alexa turn on lights trip now you can place this behind your TV as a sort of ambient light as we have here or you can put it under your kitchen cabinetry if you want it and from there you can change the color and dim it Alexa make the light strip blue Alexa dim the light strip by 50% now if you want to invest in Philips hue bulbs Alexa can control those as well Alexa turn on window lamp Alexa dim window lamp by 50% Alexa turn off the lights in the media rooms that will shut off all the lights Alexa turn on the lights in the media room and then all the lights will come on in the room including that light strip which we made part of the group so as a smart home hub Alexa works really really well I'm pleased with how simple it is to set things up and then control them but how is the new echo Plus as a speaker well I'm afraid I have some bad news and gives me no pleasure to say this but the new echo Plus doesn't sound nearly as good as the original echo the sound quality has gone downhill there's not as much bass it's not as rich of sound and the treble sounds a little bit brittle also it doesn't get as loud here's a comparison between the two I've got both speakers set to the same volume playing the same clip of music Alexa play so side by side the sound differences are pretty obvious but you're not going to listen to them side by side frankly I don't think the small downturn in sound quality is a problem here it still sounds respectable it's a decent sounding speaker and you can connect it to a better speaker or speaker system if you want to what's more important here is that the new echo plus has more functionality it's an excellent smartphone hub it's a really easy way for you to get into some of these smart home devices plus the price came down by about $30 over the original 180 dollar price that the original echo came out at so it's less expensive it's higher performance sound quality is still totally fine for me the new Amazon echo plus is a great smart speaker\n"