This is a We Own it review of the Kiwi Design Alex – an Echo Dot battery base.

What does Alex do?!

Alex is a is a battery base for a second-generation Echo dot.  It is only for the second generation because the Amazon Echo Dot fits perfectly inside Alex.

Alex has an impressive 10,000 mA/h battery – this means it can power the Echo Dot for 12 hours play time and 24 hours standby time. Standby is when it is just listening and waiting for you to invoke her.

Alexa is the super smart home assistant by Amazon, our favourite voice assistant in fact.

Until now Alexa has been stuck to where you have power as the Echo Dot requires mains power. Kiwi Design have just released Alex to fix that problem with their portable Alexa battery base.

It has four LED’s on the front to show how charged it is:

• LED 1 – Low
• LED 2 – Medium
• LED 3 – High
• LED 4 – Full

When empty it takes 8 hours to fully charge.

Once the Echo Dot is turned on the functionality of Alexa is the same, surprisingly music plays the same with no ‘muffling’ or distortion from the case. This is probably as the case is solid and doesn’t vibrate to the music.

To charge Alex you use the original Echo Dot cable and it can be on charge when in use.
The case does not cover the 3.5M audio jack so you can still use that when using Alex.

Dot 2 Battery Base, Charger for Dot 2nd Gen. 10000mah 17 Hours Continues Playing Music by Kiwi Design

How easy is it to setup?

Very easy, you place your dot into Alex – making sure they are aligned.

Connect the power connector.

Press power button and done. It comes partially charged, LED 2 lit, so it can be uses straight away.

How much does Alex cost?

The RRP is £59.99 and can be purchased via Amazon, we have an exclusive Amazon Discount code to save 20% SJLG4TQO  

What’s it like living with Alex?

Alex is handy as you now have a portable Alexa you can easily take from room to room without worrying about wires.

It was also handy to take to the garden to use as a voice control for the garden tech. However, neither Amazon Echo Dot or Alex are waterproof or at all IP rated so it cannot be left outside or used in the wet.

What are our final thoughts?
Alex is a well-designed bit of kit, care has been taken with the build and the design. Its handy now being able to take Alexa with you.

Alex the Amazon Echo Dot Battery base can be purchased from Amazon

Here is what each of the new products does and how it fits into the impressive range.

PS. We recommend buying your Echo devices directly on Amazon, currently starting from under £50.

Improved Amazon Echo

The improved Echo is slightly smaller than the first generation Echo, introducing a more subtle design. It also features a removable cloth cover with additional designs going on sale soon – this is a great addition as the previous Echo did look a little industrial compared to other Smart Home Tech.

One other big change is the tech inside, Amazon has added a dedicated base speaker and improved the microphone to allow it to be activated from even further away and generally improve activation. It also now supports Dolby Audio so music should sound better.

The new Echo will be available in packs of 3. This is a clever move and has obviously been done to push their new multi room music solution using Alexa. As we said before, be afraid Sonos!

They have also dropped the price, it is now £90!

Shipping Starts October 2017 – just in time for Christmas.

Echo Plus

Amazon has obviously realised that the way to dominate the Smart Market is to release a platform or Hub that properly integrates other tech. Meet Echo Plus the smart hub.

It integrates with other smart tech via ZigBee. ZigBee really seems to be the protocol of choice with Philips Hue and IKEA Smart Lighting both using it as well over 100 supported tech.

The Echo Plus even comes with a Philips Hue lightbulb.

Amazon Echo Plus costs £140 and ships 31 October 2017.

Echo Spot

Recently Amazon Released the Echo Show and it received a very mixed response. Echo Spot is their second attempt at a Alexa with a screen, however it is much smaller than the show. It’s the equivalent of a Amazon Echo Dot of the show.

With design similar to a Nest Thermostat the Echo Spot has a 2.5 inch round screen with a camera on top.

The Echo Spot also doubles up as an alarm clock with the screen displaying a clock face. Somehow I think Amazon are telling us this is the one for the bedroom.

It supports video calling as well as all the standard Alexa features and Skills. You can connect it to your speakers via Bluetooth or an old fashioned cable.

At present only a USA ship date has been confirmed, that is 19th December 2017 and no prices.

Echo Connect

The Echo Connect requires a landline and becomes a speaker phone. Allowing voice dialling as well as the normal Alexa features.

We assume this is to try and introduce Alexa to a generation that might otherwise not fit into the existing range.

As yet no release date or prices on the Echo Connect.

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