New Echo Dot now just $30: should you buy it or the new one?

On October 11th the brand new Echo Dot will touch down offering a significant upgrade to its predecessor. It looks a hella lot more stylish too.

Of course the older Echo Dot is now on sale for just $30, vs the $50 price that you’ll pay to pre-order the brand new Echo Dot. So which do you buy? And if you already have older generation Echo Dots littered around your house – do you upgrade?

Don’t have an Echo Dot? Then it’s an easy answer! Get the new Echo Dot. The new Echo Dot is only $20 more and paying this small premium gets you a better design, better sound, and a few other improvements. Pre-order the new Echo Dot now. 

Already have an older Echo Dot? Tougher to answer. The new Echo Dot might be a slightly harder sell if you already invested in a few older Echo Dots. Ask yourself: do you care about sound quality? If your answer is no, or you are already using the Echo Dot with an add-on speaker – the upgrade probably isn’t worth it. But if you want a sound upgrade and a mic setup that can hear you better across another room, the new Echo Dot is worth the upgrade.

New Echo Dot vs new – what’s changed?

The new Amazon Echo Dot is 70-percent louder. The original Echo Dot wasn’t very loud, and the sound quality left a lot to be desired. Not only is the new model louder, but there’s a new sound driver that is bigger, delivering more robust sound with less distortion. Anyone who has used an Echo Dot vs the Google Home Mini is likely aware the latter is much better in the speaker arena. The new Echo Dot should finally even things up a bit.

The new Amazon Echo Dot has a fabric design that looks much more modern. It also comes in charcoal, heather gray, and sandstone vs the more ordinary black and white options of the older Echo Dot.

A better microphone setup. The older Echo Dot has a seven-microphone array. The latest Dot has less mics but the four far-field mics are actually significantly better at picking your voice up from a difference.

New Amazon Echo Dot vs new – what remains the same

The ability to add a speaker to your smart speaker. You still get Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack, meaning you can upgrade the sound if you outgrow the internal speakers.

The same starting price. While the older Dot is now $30 in an attempt to get it off the shelves, it was $50 for the longest time.

The new Echo Dot finally catches up with the rest of the lineup

Next, to the Amazon Echo (2nd gen), the Dot felt like it was pretty behind the times. This issue was worsed by the arrival of the Google Home Mini, with its much more attractive design and better speaker setup. Whether you prefer Alexa or Google Assistant, the Amazon Echo family remains the most popular among mainstream buyers and so it’s nice to see the Echo Dot finally jumping forward in a big way.

If your an Alexa user and want to extend the ecosystem into more rooms we absolutely recommend waiting for the new Echo Dot over picking up the older model on discount. What do you think?