

If you’re using it with an iPhone, you have to tap “Start Navigation” on your phone to get things going, an extra step. While Alexa can find things such as local gas stations and pizza places, it doesn’t have a native mapping service, so it falls back to either Siri and Apple Maps if paired with an iPhone or Google Assistant and Google Maps when paired with an Android smartphone. (Why it hasn’t slapped 360 cameras on all its delivery vehicles yet is beyond me.)

Spoken turn-by-turn directions could be more seamless, but would require Amazon to invest in its own mapping service. You can use Alexa in the Echo Frames as you would with any of Amazon’s other smart speakers, such as asking for news and weather, playing music, and controlling smart home devices.ĭon’t want to use Alexa? iPhone owners can summon Siri, and Android smartphone users can call up Google Assistant by pressing and holding the touchpad. I found Alexa responsive, and especially liked that the Frames have Amazon’s ESP technology, which means that the Echo Frames - and not all the other Echo speakers scattered through my house - responded to my voice. I simply asked Alexa to dial up one of my contacts Amazon’s assistant first asked me which of my contact’s phone numbers I’d like to dial, and then she (it) made the connection. Phone calls made using the Echo Frames were pretty good. That wasn’t the case with the Bose Frames. It’s as irritating as if you were sitting in the same room as a kid playing a game on their parent’s iPhone.īecause of the Echo Frames’ open design, those around you are much more likely to hear what you’re listening to, especially if you’re playing something at a higher volume.

Anything louder, and she could hear what was coming out of the speakers. I found setting the volume to around 60 percent was ideal, not just for myself, but also for my wife, sitting about 15 feet away in our attic-turned-office. Midrange tones were pretty good, and the stereo speakers gave the impression of distinct instruments. If you listen to music that doesn’t go too far in either extreme, you’ll have a mostly pleasant experience. and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP were not nearly as wet as I’d like. I could make out all of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics in the Hamilton soundtrack, but vocals were compressed, and there was no lower range to back them up. After streaming some jazz tunes via TuneIn as well as rock, hip-hop, musicals from Spotify and podcasts from iTunes, the biggest thing I found lacking was bass, which deprived most tunes of their punch.īruce Springsteen’s Born to Run was extremely tinny it felt like I was listening to a first-generation Echo Dot.īruce Springsteen’s Born to Run was extremely tinny it felt like I was listening to a first-generation Echo Dot.
