Review of the Amazon Echo Pop: more style over substance

(Image credit- TechHive) The Amazon Echo Pop, with its smaller size, better color options, and lower price, will fit in perfectly if you want a smart speaker to listen to podcasts, operate smart home devices, and answer the occasional math question in smaller rooms like a bathroom, laundry room, or guest room. For just $10 more, the Echo Dot can do more functions and produce better sound in more spaces in your home. The semi-circular Echo Pop smart speaker has three physical buttons (volume up and down, and mute), a barrel plug, and a lengthy white power cord that plugs into a 15-watt power brick. (Amazon has not yet made any of its Echo smart speakers powered by USB-C.) It includes Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and can perform all of its features, including playing stupid games and cracking even sillier jokes. It can also stream music, set multiple timers, start Alexa Routines, command linked smart home devices, and control connected gadgets. It can also be used as a telephone and house intercom. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2040"] Image credit- The Verge[/caption] The Pop lacks some of the Dot's more sophisticated sensors but has all of the smart home radios. The Pop is also only the second speaker to be equipped with Amazon's AZ2 Neural Edge processor, which enables more local processing of voice commands and speeds up the response time to questions like "What time is it?" and "Turn off the lights" compared to Echos without the AZ2 processor. It is also present in the most recent Echo Dots and the Echo Show 15 smart display. Also read: Amazon Launches New Echo Pop Speakers With A Rock-bottom Price Tag Of $40 With a list price of $40, the Echo Pop is the most affordable speaker available. As with all Echo speakers, there will probably be significant price reductions as part of Amazon's strategy to introduce its intelligent voice assistant into every room of your home. But keep in mind that low-cost hardware sometimes comes with several sales pitches. I created an alarm that offered to upsell me on a louder alarm sound as I was testing the Pop. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit- TechHive[/caption] However, if you use Alexa, you are aware of this, and if you are comfortable using it, you likely want Alexa and its more practical, less obtrusive capabilities in every room (for more information on these aspects, read my review of the Echo Dot with Clock). The Pop's flat front makes it easier to place on a bookshelf or table, despite being only slightly smaller than the Echo Dot. It feels less like a piece of technology in a room and more like a design choice thanks to the addition of teal and purple color options in addition to black and white. And it looks considerably prettier than Amazon's earlier attempt with a low-cost speaker to bring Alexa into every room, the awful Echo Flex. The Pop lacks some of the Dot's more sophisticated sensors, but it contains all the other smart home radios, including an extender for an Eero mesh Wi-Fi system, a Matter Controller, and a Sidewalk bridge. The accelerometer that powers the tap-to-snooze feature only works for alarms; unlike the Dot, it cannot pause and resume music. There is also no temperature sensor or ultrasound motion detector. I also unintentionally learned that if the internet is down, you cannot snooze or dismiss an alarm by tapping or voice, so that will be another reason to pull the plug.