Amazon Echo: The Ultimate Guide to Setting up and Maximizing Your Smart Home hub

The Amazon Echo can easily be mistaken for a Bluetooth speaker. While you can use it as one, there is more it can do than its appearance portrays.

The Echo is a personal digital assistant. And it's powered by Alexa, which lives in the cloud and is maintained by Amazon. Alexa can read more.

Alexa requires internet connectivity for functionality. Alexa is powered by the cloud for real-time synching. Current models do not have inbuilt batteries yet since but amazon has hinted going the battery direction in the future

Alexa is always listening to a wake word, which is Alexa. And she springs to action the moment she hears her name.

The Echo has not been blessed with a lot of buttons, this makes sense since it is meant to be operated by voice. At the top, you will find two buttons. The one with the mic is for muting the microphone. Press it and Alexa will go to sleep. The second button is the action button. Press this when you want to give Alexa a command without having to use the wake word.

Also at the top are 7 microphones which are hidden. These can pick sound from any direction. And they have excellent noise filters to enable them to hear voice from across the room. Even when the Echo is playing music, these microphones will hear your voice clearly.

Another feature worth knowing is the volume ring also at the top, and its presence is less obvious. As the name suggests, this is used to raise or lower the volume. Turning it clockwise raises the volume and turning it counter-clockwise lowers the volume.

The moment you turn your Echo on, you will immediately notice its colorful light ring at the top. A blue light means the Echo is awake and you can talk to it. A cyan light will point in the direction the Echo believes your voice is coming from. If you see orange, your Echo is connecting to the internet. And if you see purple, know that it has encountered an error. When changing the volume, the light will turn white. And when you mute the mic, it will turn red.

 Inside the Echo is a 2.5'' woofer and a 2'' tweeter. The sound from these speakers is obviously not that impressive. Still, it's enough for casual music listening. And as far as talking with Alexa goes, it is simply awesome. With the volume turned all the way up, the Echo is uncomfortably loud.