Amazon’s 2020 Echo Dot has changed the design of the little speaker wholesale.
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(Pocket-lint) — Amazon’s line of Echo Dot speakers was one of the more settled and consistent in tech over the last few years — its puck-shaped design was clearly doing something right as the Alexa speaker sold in its multitudes.
However, few things in tech last forever and Amazon switched to an entirely new look for the Echo Dot in 2020, very much a shrunken-down version of the 4-gen mainline Echo. It’s a radical departure, and with the 3-gen Echo Dot still on sale, you might be wondering which of the two you should pick up. We’ve compared them in detail across a few categories, to help you decide.
With the Prime Early Access Sale approaching, there’s likely to be some great deals on the Echo Dot models.
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squirrel_widget_2683192 Design
4th gen: 100 x 100 x 89mm
3rd gen: 43 x 99 x 99mm
There’s no getting around it — Amazon changed the Echo Dot’s design pretty radically, going from that distinctive puck shape to a globe of a smart speaker in the 2020 version. That has also had an inescapable impact on the Dot’s size — it’s got a lot taller, effectively. The actual footprint of the speaker is very similar to the previous version, but with a lot more height.
While that’s given Amazon a bunch of space to fit in more tech, as we’ll show later, it does mean that the newer Echo Dot won’t necessarily fit in as many nooks and crannies as its predecessor.
