In the recent Amazon Prime sale we decided to buy one of these:

An Amazon Echo (2nd Gen) with Alexa built in. Currently priced at £89.99 we managed to get it for £54.99. I don’t think the full price is worth it but even at the previous sale price of £59.99 it definitely is.

So far I’m very impressed. We have been looking to replace a very large CD/Radio in the kitchen for a while now but wanted Bluetooth connectivity and FM radio. The Echo connects to any radio station via their Internet stream and also connects to any Bluetooth enabled device and a choice of music streaming services via inbuilt Amazon Music Unlimited or Spotify (haven’t tested this out yet). Amazon Music Unlimited setup required the intervention of Customer Service to overcome a payment setup issue but once sorted it is working well.

As a Bluetooth speaker it’s also great, giving much better sound and more power than expected from a speaker of this size. If the streaming services work out as expected though I have a feeling I won’t use the phone connection as much as I expected to.

Alexa is also fun. We’ve had a play with it and I think we probably will use it as an alternative to “OK Google” but as we’re not yet a connected home her usefulness will be limited. The voice activation and control of the system is very useful and quite impressive though.

Overall, very pleased and surprisingly so. I’d give it 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 to date.