Eufy Genie - Review 2022

Eufy isn't a new company. It's the smart home brand of Anker, a well-known bombardment maker that's trying to become the next big home electronics purveyor. The $34.99 Eufy Genie is the kickoff in an upcoming wave of speakers from various companies that use Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and cloud service, with its thousands of third-party skills that practise everything from playing radio stations to educational activity kids math. The Genie sounds better than Amazon'south $50 Echo Dot and costs less. But it doesn't play near also with other Alexa devices. That makes information technology a expert way to dip your toes into vocalization control, as well as a bang-up little standalone alarm clock or timer, but a less appealing participant in a bigger smart home ecosystem.

Design and Setup

The Genie is a bulbous little matter, two inches high and about the size of your palm effectually. Information technology has the standard Alexa mute, trigger, and book buttons on top; they feel a little squishy. A blueish ring lights up on top of the speaker when you say "Alexa." On the back is the micro USB power port and an aux output jack; in that location is no battery.

You lot gear up upwards the Genie in Eufy'due south Android or iOS app, non Amazon's. (Yes, you need a smartphone.) The Eufy Dwelling app is designed to collect and operate diverse Eufy products, like the company's RoboVac 11c robotic vacuum and smart lighting solutions. In the app, you hook the Genie upward to your local Wi-Fi network (2.4GHz only; 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth aren't supported) and link your Amazon and Pandora accounts. The app has a few typos in information technology, but otherwise functions well. You lot tin can then movement to the Amazon Alexa app to configure the Genie equally one of your Alexa devices.

At that point, the Genie just functions every bit an Alexa speaker. Whatever skills in your Alexa account apply to it, and you can ask it anything you lot would ask Alexa, with a few exceptions (noted below). It tin control smart home devices, play music from Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn, or other supported services, set timers, respond questions, and use third-party skills.

Speaker Quality

The Genie but has two microphones to the Dot's seven, but they had equal sensitivity in our tests. Neither could hear a asking if the other was playing loud music right next to it. Both could hear a asking if the other was playing music 6 feet away. And both could hear requests in a placidity room from 35 anxiety abroad, although at more than 25 feet, I sometimes had to ask the Genie twice.

The Genie is a better speaker than the Repeat Dot is. That isn't saying much, however, because the Dot is a pretty poor speaker. But with 2 watts compared with the Echo Dot's i.two, each of the Genie'due south ten volume settings is most 2dB louder than the Dot's when measured from about ii feet away. The Genie also gives music a little scrap more depth, and makes information technology sound less tinny than on the Dot. I'm non saying the Genie produces anything resembling substantial bass response, but at least it has a faint shadow of information technology.

The Genie doesn't have Bluetooth, and so you can't beam music to information technology from your telephone. Merely information technology does have a standard aux output, and it comes with an aux cablevision. We hooked the Genie and Dot up to a Klipsch The Three speaker and got much, much better audio quality than either speaker can produce on its own, with rich bass and far more power all around. The but noticeable difference between the 2 speakers in terms of aux out is that the Genie outputs at a considerably higher volume than the Dot does.

Missing Features

The Genie is missing several features that are disquisitional in multi-Alexa-device homes. Y'all tin't change the wake word, for starters; you're stuck with "Alexa" rather than "Computer" or "Echo." The Genie also doesn't have Repeat Spatial Perception, the ability to non wake up if another Alexa device is closer. That means you lot'll take to proper noun nearby Alexa devices with a not-Alexa wake give-and-take to prevent them from competing with the Genie.

It too doesn't back up Amazon's multi-room sound characteristic, which lets you lot synchronize music playback across speakers in different rooms. And you lot can't use the Genie for Alexa telephone calls or controlling Spotify via vox, although there'southward an awkward workaround for that latter involving your telephone'due south Spotify app. Eufy says those features are coming before long.

Every bit mentioned before, the Genie doesn't support 5GHz Wi-Fi, which can oft be found in more advanced domicile setups and can solve some connectivity bug in crowded urban areas. The Repeat Dot has all of these features.

Conclusions

Nosotros've been hearing nigh a lot of third-party Alexa speakers coming shortly. The Eufy Genie is the first, and it fills a niche by being the least expensive Alexa speaker bachelor. It sounds better than the Repeat Dot, but it tin can't do quite as much. If you're just dipping your toes into voice command, it's a decent start. But if you're looking for function of a multi-room system or Bluetooth, the Echo Dot is a meliorate bet, and our Editors' Choice.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/review/17494/eufy-genie

Posted by: rickjobill.blogspot.com

Share this post