Amazon has unveiled its first-ever Echo Dot Max, and we’re keen to see how it compares to one of our favourite alternatives, the Echo Dot (5th Gen).
Not only does the Echo Dot (5th Gen) boast a 4.5-star rating, but it also has earned a top spot on our best Amazon Echo guide and is praised as being the “best budget smart speaker”.
So, how does the Echo Dot Max look in comparison? Do you need to splurge on the newer model, or is the Echo Dot (5th Gen) still a household staple?
We’ve compared the key differences between the Echo Dot Max and the Echo Dot (5th Gen) below.
Price and Availability
At £99.99/$99.99, the Echo Dot Max is the most affordable of the recently announced Echo lineup. The device is now available for pre-order, ahead of its official release on October 29.
The Echo Dot (5th Gen) is considerably cheaper at just £54.99/$49.99; however, as it’s an older device, it’s not uncommon to find a deal, especially during events such as Amazon Big Deal Days. In fact, at the time of writing, the Echo Dot is available for just £29.99 in the UK.
Echo Dot Max promises nearly three times the bass
Amazon promises that the upcoming Echo Dot Max will feature nearly three times the bass compared to the Echo Dot (5th Gen), with “room-filling sound that automatically adapts to your space”.
This is aided by the Dot Max’s rearchitected sound system, which integrates the speaker directly into the device housing to “double the air space for fuller bass”.
Although we found the Echo Dot (5th Gen) to offer more bass than the previous generation, we found it still struggled with particularly bass-heavy tracks. Even so, we concluded that the “vast majority of songs sound pretty good”. With this in mind, we can expect the Echo Dot Max to offer an even slicker bass experience, but we’ll have to wait until we test the smart speaker to confirm this.
Echo Dot Max is built for Alexa Plus
AI is, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the heart of the entire Echo line-up. While both the Echo Dot Max and Echo Dot (5th Gen) are fitted with Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, the Echo Dot Max will eventually benefit from Alexa Plus.
Essentially, Alexa Plus builds upon the foundations set by Alexa, promising to be more intelligent, more conversational, and more capable. However, despite its announcement back in February, Alexa Plus is yet to make its way to the UK, and we still don’t have an exact launch date either. Customers in the US who buy the Echo Dot Max, however, will benefit from Alexa Plus straight out of the box.
Echo Dot Max has a new design
The Echo Dot has maintained its compact, baseball-shaped design for a few generations now, but this has seen a slight tweak with the Dot Max.
Rather than sporting buttons on the top of the device and the ring light at the bottom, like its Echo Dot (5th Gen) sibling, the Dot Max’s buttons and ring light are housed at the front of the sphere.
Echo Dot Max features a two-way speaker system
In a first for Echo Dots, the Dot Max is fitted with a two-way speaker system with a high-excursion woofer and a custom tweeter. This, Amazon explains, should result in crisper high notes and deep bass as we’ve mentioned before.
Instead, the Echo Dot (5th Gen) sports just one 1.73-inch front-firing speaker. Even so, we were still impressed by the Echo Dot’s audio capabilities, especially when considering its bargain price. Sure, the range isn’t as good compared to more expensive Echo speakers, but it certainly works for everyday use.
Echo Dot Max runs on the AZ3 silicon
Amazon has introduced two new chips with its Echo series: AZ3 and AZ3 Pro, with the former powering the Echo Dot Max.
According to Amazon, AZ3 powers its “best microphones yet,” supporting better conversation detection and more natural, free-flowing interactions with Alexa. In fact, Amazon promises that Alexa’s ability to detect the wake word is improved by nearly 50%.
In comparison, the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is powered by the AZ2 processor, which we found enables Alexa and any paired smart home devices to run quickly and efficiently.
Early Verdict
With a promise of deeper bass, faster performance, and Alexa Plus (once it becomes available in the UK), the Echo Dot Max is a promising smart speaker. However, considering the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is still a solid device and can be picked up for a great price, it remains a brilliant choice for budget-conscious individuals.
We’ll update this article once we’ve reviewed the Echo Dot Max.
