Amazon Echo

[thegreylady]

My dh was very impressed with an Echo at our friends’ house. Dh struggles with mobility and dexterity. He loves music an the idea of being able to just ask for a piece to be played is wonderful for him.
I want to get him an Echo for Christmas but there seem so many. Any recommendations please.

I'm looking for one too... there's something being released on November 14th and I imagine lots will be included in Black Friday/cyber Monday deals so I'm waiting

I'm getting one for my mum and her husband this Christmas. I want one with the screen on. I believe it is black Friday on 23rd November, so will wait until then.

I've got a 1st generation Echo, two Dots and Alexa on my Fire tablet - plus a smart plug and two smart bulbs - and I love them all! The equivalent of the Echo 'Show' has just become available on the Fire tablet, so I'm glad I didn't get one of those. The difference between an Echo and a Dot is mostly the sound quality - the Echo has a good speaker built in, but no Bluetooth ability, whereas the Dot is a bit tinny, but you can Bluetooth it to a separate speaker to get a good sound. I use the Echo most of the time - I think I pay something like 3.99 a month to Amazon for access to their entire music library, so I can ask 'her' to play nearly anything, and she will (can be a bit temperamental and hard of hearing at times - Alexa, not me!).

Hope that helps - and yeah, wait for Black Friday if you can, they usually have good deals on the entire Echo suite.

Thank you. I have Prime and a Fire Stick. Do I have to pay more for music?

I have two 2nd gen dots, a Kindle Fire and Amazon Firestick.

I also got a smart plug recently so my bedroom lighting and TV are voice controlled.

DD is getting the 3rd gen dot for her bedroom as her main Christmas present.

If you have Prime you will get some music included (I think it’s abiut 2 million songs). Depending on how eclectic your taste is you might want to upgrade to amazon ‘music unlimited’.

Depending on budget, I would get him an Echo (wait for Black Friday) and one of the Philips Hue starter kits - it's down to about £50 on Amazon/Currys.

It means he can control lamps etc with his voice. Alternative would be a smart plug to plug the kettle etc into, again to be controlled by voice.

I am getting excited now! I may reduce spending on dgc a bit to get the whole works for my lovely dh. He is 82, we have been married 30 years this year so it can be joint anniversary and Christmas present.