Reviews Introducing Echo Flex - Plug-in mini smart speaker with Alexa

Another customer Joseph Siegler said Very small footprint Echo - size impacts audio fidelity.

I got this for one of the primary reasons I suspect most multi-echo households will. The size. My house has a large central room that all the other rooms feed off of. We have echoes in just about every room in the house, except the central room. The main reason for that is the cords that are on the dots. I would have loved a 3G dot in this central room, but the location of all the power outlets make it visually unappealing. I'd have to run a cord to where I could put the dot, and that would just look bad.

So when Amazon announced this little item, it was an automatic purchase. Now I know we don't have it for music - my office setup handles that (Two Echo 2.0's & the echo subwoofer). But my wife does not have a particularly loud voice, and when she tries to issue commands to turn on lights in other rooms, it frequently mishears her.

So I wanted one for this central room, but didn't want a cord. This is perfect. The voice isn't as good as a regular speaker, but that's to be expected. But it does work as something for light conversation - or commands to turn lights on and off.

One goofy thing about this, I have it on an outlet near the floor, and to that, our cats checked it out immediately upon installation. There is a skill you can do to make your device meow like a cat, and it was most enjoyable.

Anyway, the device is small - I have pictures below of the thing in my hand before I installed it.

Bottom line is - this does what it says. Adds Alexa to areas where it wasn't before via a very small footprint device. It lacks sound fidelity due to its size, but if you know that going on, and don't plan on this to be your primary music source, then you're good.

This a word from C.Q. Young say It is an Alexa enabled device that you can just plug in anywhere.

 I use it outside in my caport to control all my exterior lights - I can do it from my phone, but that's a pain, especially if I am dirty, have my hands full, etc. I can get my outside lights on with ease, and I can still get time temp, time, weather, or place calls from it by just telling it to call someone on my contact list or just spout out the number. It has Bluetooth which I have tried and after figuring out how to configure it through the Alexa app on my phone, it works beautifully. Also there is a 3.5mm headphone jack that connects with ease to a speaker. Love it so far!
The onboard sound is tinny and very small sounding, but I expected that from this very small device.

This a word from woodstocksb said Sound so bad.

If it did not have a speaker, I would have rated higher. However it does and it sounds like a radio my great great grandfather would have had - very tinny and the loudest volume is limited. I was hoping to listen to talk radio in the morning, but it sounds horrible even for that. With all the inexpensive small Bluetooth speakers out there, they certainly could have fit a better sounding speaker in this small footprint and a low cost. I love the idea of this, especially the USB port where I can plug something else in (my electric toothbrush uses USB) and turn my 2 socket outlet into a 3 socket unit. But the bad sound trumps all - making this great idea a very poor execution.

Review Sonnig Freitag experience Another great Echo device.

Wow! They are finally letting me review this. It arrived several days ago and when I tried to review it earlier today it said it hadn't yet been released. So here are some random thoughts.

It is a nice addition to my 1st gen and 2nd gen Echo family. I've added this to my kitchen where my greatest need was a timer. No need to go to (or yell to and wonder if she really heard) the living room to set timers anymore.

Set up was easy as usual through the Alexa App.

Alexa's voice sounds off, so I was surprised to find the music comes through quite well. Not great, but surprisingly good for the size and just fine for a noisy kitchen.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Flex, but I'm very pleased I got this Price-wise it is a great deal!

My friend TXEggplant say Not My Favorite Echo Device but Not My Least Favorite Either!.

I'm a HUGE fan of Echo devices. I have one in nearly .... *thinking* ... yes, nearly every room (I don't have one in the dining room but only because the ones in other rooms can pick up my voice while I'm in the dining room). I even have a car one so ... when I saw this one ... I was PRETTY intrigued. I bought it to go in the bathroom, to replace my Dot that I have in there, plugged into and hanging on the wall via a bulky thing made just for it that you can find on Amazon (that I don't mind ... I'm just saying it's bulky).

The set up on the Flex is just as easy as the set up on other devices. You plug it in, it starts up and if it's registered and you have an Alexa account on your phone, you're set to go.

PRO - there's a USB port on the bottom of the Flex, so you can plug in a charger cord or a fan cord or whatever you want that is USB powered. Nifty! I was going to plug in a night light.

But, the sound. So, the sound is not as good as the most recent generation of Dots (pre the one with the clock, I haven't tried that one yet). It's a much smaller speaker, obviously, and the sound isn't as rich. I plugged it into the outlet in the bathroom, turned on the shower and hopped in for a listen. Even at the highest volume, it wasn't really the sound I was looking for to get me going in the morning. Boo. So, I replaced it with my bulky Dot and took the Flex into my computer room, where I don't really NEED an Echo device because I have a Fire TV with Alexa built in but ... my family can't drop in on that (NOT a bad thing, right?).

Because of my outlet situation, I ended up putting it in an outlet midway up the wall, behind a small lamp. I had to turn it upside down. I noticed that either because it's in a bigger space (13'x9') or because it's upside down, the sound is better but still not like a Dot but still passable. Like a first generation Dot's sound.

Anyhow, my husband dropped in on me with it last night and it worked great. It would be great for a garage or a small bathroom without a shower or somewhere where there isn't a lot of background noise. Of course, you can use the USB to plug in a speaker but ... there's already a speaker. It's literally touted as a mini-speaker!

I also found the voice pickup wasn't as responsive as my newest Dot. It responds but you have to give it a second to wake up to your voice and speak slower.

I don't want you to think I don't like this Flex ... I really do. I think it's perfect for certain spaces ... ones that don't have a lot of background noise and are smaller. I really like the added USB and I like the shape and the way it looks on the wall. I think if you're going to have Echo devices, you should have them in every room (especially as you age) and they should be the right ones for each room. This one serves a purpose for specific spaces and the price is certainly right.

While J.Essie experience Great way to put Alexa in awkward places.

I've been using Echo devices for years now and have Echos, Dots and a Show 5 around the house. But there are still places where Alexa doesn't hear me well and it's either a complete guess which device will respond to me, like in a hallway, or can't hear me at all, like in my master bathroom. The Flex is great for those spots where your need is more for a way to talk to Alexa or trigger a Routine than to rely on the device as a primary speaker.

The mics on it are very good. The speaker is clearly not the selling point of this device, but it's fine for basic questions and commands, most spoken content, communicating with a Ring doorbell, DropIn, or giving commands to another device. You wouldn't want to listen to music on it and it doesn't get terribly loud, but it's loud enough for a small space like a hallway or bath. You can connect the Flex to external speakers via aux cable or Bluetooth.

I purchased this with the nightlight attachment to use in the master bath with a waterproof Bluetooth speaker. It suits that purpose quite well. It replaced my old nightlight, so now I have Alexa access, a nightlight, and a USB charger in a single outlet and device, all with no wires or counter space used. Great if you have a smaller vanity! It's also great for hallways because again, no wires and no need for something to set it on.

The Flex and the nightlight attachment both set themselves up. If you've previously saved your wifi info to your Amazon account, just plug it in and it does the setup for you.

I can see the motion sensor being incredibly useful for kicking off Routines, but figured my dog would be tripping it all the time. For that reason, I didn't add one to the Flex for the hallway.

A review Steve Harrison experience A small Dot with an uncertain future.

This is an Echo Dot with a tiny speaker that plugs directly into the wall. That means that the sound quality is low; despite being called a "smart speaker" it can barely play music and even the voice quality is poor (Alexa's own voice is small and tinny). But it can go many more places much less obtrusively than a Dot.

It's called the "Flex" because accessories can be plugged into the USB port on the bottom, potentially giving it many additional abilities. As happens too often in the electronic-gadget market, though, those accessories mostly don't exist yet; whether more than two or three ever will remains to be seen. That is probably why at the moment Amazon's product description doesn't dwell much on the "Flex" aspects. Perhaps many useful and imaginative accessories are coming and Amazon decided to release the Flex before they are ready so as not to miss the Holiday season. Or perhaps not.

There are use cases for a small Dot with a tiny speaker that plugs directly into the wall. But that's just about all this is for now. And suggesting that this device itself qualifies as a speaker is unrealistic.

My friend BJB tell us This has its uses..

 So I wanted this for 2 reasons. One to have a night light in my bathroom that would go on at sunset and off at sunrise and the other so I can ask what the weather/traffic/news is for the day from Alexa with a quieter Alexa voice responding (regular Alexa in whisper mode was too quiet with running water and other morning routine noises.) This fit the bill for me. I'm very happy with this purchase. I've added a pic of the night light and a short video of it talking.

Another customer Michelle S. tell us Maybe you can use in small bathroom a little.

Please redo this version with a usable speaker. I wasn't expecting a big speaker but I have a tiny bathroom and was expecting to be able to hear the news and music while taking a shower, while doing my hair, while getting ready eand I was also hoping to be able to hear Alexa a little better when speaking to me this is terrible. Yes it works as an intercom but has terrible feedback which I'm thinking from the terrible speaker. I've only found it to work just OK when nothing is on in the bathroom with complete silence when talking to and mainly now finding out the weather for a second at volume 10. Disappointed. Even at $25 we deserve more from Amazon

My friend Scott Andrews Talk Sound sucks.

I bought this to replace my first generation echo do hanging in the outlet in my bathroom. I mainly use this unit for morning news while getting reading in the morning. The sound quality, in regards to volume, is terrible. With the sound turned all the way up and standing within 2 feet of the Flex, I can barely hear Alexa. I can only imagine how useless the Flex is in a larger room.