Echo Dot (newest model - 2024) Charcoal

The Echo Dot 5th Gen Charcoal is the small one, and the one most people should start with.

• Why the Echo Dot 5th Gen Charcoal is where most people should start
• The sound is better than the size suggests
• Read this: there is no Zigbee hub inside
• Charcoal, and why the colour is the easy decision
• The two features you will use daily

Why the Echo Dot 5th Gen Charcoal is where most people should start

It does everything the expensive Echo does with your voice, for a fraction of the money. Music, radio, timers, alarms, questions, reminders, calls to another Echo in the house, and control of every smart plug, bulb and switch you own. The only thing you give up is how much air a 1.73 inch driver can move. Buy one, live with it for a month, and then decide whether you want a bigger speaker in the sitting room; most people find they want three more Dots instead.

The sound is better than the size suggests

Amazon call this their best sounding Dot and the jump from the older generations is audible rather than marketing: voices are clearer and there is bass you can actually hear coming out of something the size of a grapefruit. It will not fill a large sitting room and it is not meant to. In a bedroom, a kitchen, an office or a bathroom it is comfortably enough.

Read this: there is no Zigbee hub inside

The Dot controls Wi-Fi devices and Matter devices, and that is where it stops. There is no Zigbee radio in it, so Zigbee bulbs, plugs and sensors still need a gateway alongside. If your plan is built around Zigbee, either budget for a gateway or buy the Echo 4th Gen, which has the radio inside. Worth settling before the sensors arrive.

Charcoal, and why the colour is the easy decision

Charcoal is the one that stops being noticed. On a bookshelf, a bedside table or a kitchen counter it reads as a dark object and your eye moves on, which is what most people want from a device that lives in the room permanently. The white and the blue are for when you want it to be seen.

The two features you will use daily

Tap the top to snooze an alarm or pause music without saying a word, which is the one you use every morning. And the temperature sensor inside, which lets a routine start a fan or an air conditioner once the room passes a level you set, with no separate sensor to buy or mount.

The same Dot comes in glacier white and deep sea blue. For a bedside version with a clock in the fabric, see the Echo Dot with clock. Wikipedia has the full range history if you want to compare generations.