Would you like to get a loudspeaker that is connected to Alexa that will play music for you in your living room, in the bathroom, or maybe in the kitchen? Which loudspeaker should you choose? Is the Echo Show 8 the best option or is Echo Dot Generation 4 the best option? We have tested both devices and based on this, here you will find our judgment!
The Echo Show 8 is a bigger device and it takes up more space. It comes with a screen as well, meaning that this is a device meant for much more than just playing music and giving orders and asking Alexa all sorts of questions. The Echo Show can be used to watch movies on Netflix, it can show YouTube videos, and you can have all sorts of messages and reminders displayed on the screen. It can also be used for calling numbers, video conferencing, and much more.
The Echo Dot generation four is way smaller and you can place approximately two Echo Dot Gen 4 devices next to one another, and they will take up the same amount of space as one Echo Show 8. While the Echo Dot Gen looks like a tiny ball and has a very nice shape, the Echo Show looks like a small tablet, just with a big loudspeaker in the back making it stand perfectly as you place it on a flat surface.
Based on the size of the different devices, you can know for sure that the Echo Show 8 has a bigger loudspeaker and it also has more power and can give a louder volume.
Which loudspeaker will suit your needs, Echo Dot 4 or Echo Show 8?
Which one should you choose? Neither of the devices will give you a fantastic sound experience that will make your friends come over to join in for the fun. But, both devices will make you able to listen to music and make calls, without having trouble hearing what is going on. On a kitchen with a size of 15m2, an Echo Show 8 will give you more than loud enough music and you can sing along, almost without hearing your own voice as you maximize the sound. And the quality is also more than good enough.
I would say that the same experiment would suffer a bit more with the Echo Dot 4, simply because the loudspeaker lacks the strength of the Echo Show 8, meaning that the actual sound quality will be worse. It will still be more than enough for listening to your favorite radio station, hearing a podcast while cooking, or having some nice music in the background, but for a true sound experience in a larger room, it might not be ideal.
But, if you place the same Echo Dot in a smaller bathroom, or a children’s room, then it will give more than enough when it comes to sound quality and volume.
Smaller details…
Echo Show 8 has way better bass quality, and that is also what makes the quality of the music better when you increase the volume. Once again, I would say that if you buy the device to get a loudspeaker with better quality, I guess Echo Show 8 (or any newer version) will do a better job for you. But, if you don’t want a device of that size and you do not even want a monitor, and if you are on a budget, then the Echo Dot 4 will do a great job, but it will not give the same nice sound quality as the Echo Show 8 in a big room.
If you really want a device with the shape of a ball and you want to get a device with a better loudspeaker than Echo Dot Gen 4., then you could consider buying an Echo device (4th generation). This is bigger than the Echo Dot, and thus it has a better loudspeaker (but still without a monitor).
What is the price difference between Echo Show 8 (8″) and Echo Dot (Generation 4)?
I am just going to quite some prices currently on Amazon.de. Those prices will reflect the price differences you will see if you would purchase the same devices from Amazon.co.uk or from Amazon.com.
It is also worth noticing that a newer version of the Echo Show device has been released, and there will be plenty of new Echo Dot and Echo Show devices released in the future, but still, this article will still give you a feeling about what you can expect if you wonder about the price differences between the new Echo Dot and the Echo Show devices, just like it has given you a taste about the sound quality differences between the Echo Show and the Echo Dot devices.
- Echo Show 8 (8″) on Amazon.de – 102 EURO
- Echo (4th generation) on Amazon.de – 91 EURO
- Echo Dot (4th generation) on Amazon.de – 55 EURO
As you can see, it could be possible to buy two Echo Dot devices for the price of one Echo Show device (almost). If you want to, then you can also pair two Echo Dot devices and make them work together in the same room. As a result, it would be like having two loudspeakers paired in the same room, thus giving a better sound experience and having the music arrive from several locations at the same time.
Which loudspeaker will you pick?
Have you tested the Echo Dot (4th generation) and/or the Echo Show 8 (8″) yourself? What was your experience? Did you like the device you decided to use? Or are you still thinking about which device you should buy? If you have further comments or questions or an experience you would like to share, please write a comment below!
