Amazon Echo Pop (1st Generation) Smart Speaker
Here is my review of the Echo Pop, 1st Generation.
As someone who has dabbled in audio recording and now writes reviews of consumer electronics, it was a natural progression for me to do a review of a smart speaker. After all, ultimately (outside of live performances) speakers are responsible for the final delivery of recorded music; that is, the playback of streamed music, mp3, etc. The following is my mostly positive review of a great device, the Echo Pop smart speaker 1st Generation.
First, here’s the bad part I discovered about this device. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to stream your iTunes library on the device without an Apple Music subscription. This means any music you’ve purchased on your iPhone isn’t available for playback on the device, at least very easily. There may be a workaround, but I haven’t found one. Similarly, both Youtube and YouTube music apps on my iPhone aren’t supported as streaming options on the Echo Pop. The apps that I see you can stream from via the Alexa app are as follows: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM, Tidal, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Vevo (all for music) and Audible (for audiobooks). I haven’t signed up for any of these services since purchasing the Echo Pop. One reason I haven’t decided to sign up for an Amazon Music subscription is because of how glitchy my Amazon Music app is when used with the Echo Pop. I find roughly half of my purchased music library won’t play and displays an error message saying to try again later when I tap on the track or album I’d like to play. To be fair, I’m not sure if this is a problem with the Echo Pop or the Amazon Music app, but it doesn’t encourage me to sign up for a paid subscription, so I haven’t tried using the speaker with a streaming service as of yet.
Now for the good parts of the device. A solid part of the speaker, truly, is how absolutely great it sounds for its small size. It takes up very little space on my desk yet it delivers excellent sound quality. The bass and treble are good, but the midrange is where this thing really shines. Its sound is as good as speakers nearly ten times the Echo Pop’s price tag.
Alexa as a smart assistant just works. Alexa does everything I need it (or her) to, including schedule alarms, tell me the weather, select tracks, and more. I don’t find myself using Alexa as a smart assistant very often, but when I do the feature delivers. If you are someone who likes talking to your devices instead of always pressing buttons to get what you want, the Alexa feature won’t disappoint as far as I can tell.
The simple design of the speaker is also a definite plus. It features three buttons, volume up, volume down, and microphone mute. I find the microphone mute to be useful when I want privacy, which is something that tech companies think about a lot. It’s not exactly breaking news that privacy concerns have become a major issue for tech companies, but this concern is why the smart speaker has a microphone mute button.
The speaker doesn’t have a battery so you have to have it plugged into an outlet to use it. This isn’t much of a surprise to me as it is a device that is meant to be used mainly at home.
Before I end this review, I want to mention that the negatives I mentioned at the beginning of this review (that the speaker doesn’t stream all apps) actually can be viewed as a positive. This is because the speaker doesn’t simply perform a basic Bluetooth function, it seems to stream only certain apps over Bluetooth. So when you get a call, you don’t have to take the call on the speaker. It also eliminates notification sounds from being unnecessarily played back on the speaker. I also found that exploring tracks in the Amazon Music app was a fun and enjoyable experience and one that took me back to old memories of listening to music in the past. This may just be my experience but it goes to show that limitations aren’t always bad; sometimes they can provide for an engaging user experience.
Overall, if you are looking for a budget-friendly smart speaker that gets the job done and sounds great, I’d recommend the Echo Pop 1st Generation.
Overall Satisfaction - 4/5
I found I was happy with the speaker even with its limitations. I would purchase it again if I needed to, without hesitation.
Performance - 5/5
The sound quality of the device is outstanding and Alexa is a solid assistant.
Features - 5/5
The features of the speaker (Alexa, buttons, etc.) are as close to perfect as I’ve seen in a speaker, smart or otherwise.
Ease of Use - 4/5
The speaker is generally pretty easy to use in my experience but it does take some time to figure out.
Quality - 5/5
This is a high quality product. I have no complaints about the quality of this speaker.
Durability - 5/5
From what I can tell, the Echo Pop (1st Generation) is built to last.
Value for Money - 5/5
The low price of the Echo Pop shows how far tech has come and the speaker is worth the price tag in my opinion.
Customer Support - N/A
I haven’t contacted Amazon about the Echo Pop so I can’t comment on customer support.
Design - 5/5
The Echo Pop (1st Generation) is thoughtfully designed and built beautifully.
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