Amazon Tap: Alexa-Enabled BT Speaker

Amazon Tap: Alexa-Enabled BT Speaker

The only official Alexa you can walk around with. I’ve had one for about six months now, and I couldn’t live without it. Best alarm clock ever, to start with. Weather, sports info, movie times, random questions… Big enough that it sounds decent, too.

I grabbed a refurb a few weeks ago when Woot offered them. For reference, I’ve got 2 2nd Gen Echos, 2 3rd Gen Dots and 3 2nd Gen Dots.

I could not be happier with the Tap! If I’d gotten one earlier, I would not have so many Dots. I’d just bring the Tap with me into those rooms!

The sound on it is quite good for a speaker of this size and definitely better than anything you’re going to pick up for less that $90-$100.

Walmart had the Amazon Sling (silicone carrying case) for $5 when I got my refurb Tap a few weeks ago with free shipping, and I’d recommend picking that up. Makes it easier to carry the Tap around with you and if you put a carabiner through the hole at the top of the Sling, you can hang it off anything for carrying or listening.

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I bought one of these a couple years ago and love it. It can work in two modes: One that requires you to “tap” a button before it begins listening for a command (therefore saving battery life) and another that constantly listens like any other Alexa device. I love that it has a dock that it can be dropped into and it begins charging no matter what direction you place it in. very clever design in that regard. The only drawback of this device versus some of the other Alexa devices that I’ve noticed, is that it doesn’t support the “drop-in” feature where you can use it as an intercom.

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Be sure to do a little research before you get one of these. I got one last time around, and it was good as a stand-alone device, but you can’t sync this with the other echos (among other things). I also thought I would like to be able to move it around, but found it was just a lot more convenient to have extra dots/echos.

I bought the refurbished one last time & I really like it! Once it updated, I was able to use it hands free. I just bought two more for grandkids birthdays. The sound on these is good.

Jim

Bought a refurb one a couple weeks ago. Sound is good for the 30 to $40 price, not much bass, but clear and will go loud enough to fill a room. It is not any better than my old Amazon basic bluetooth speaker box, which sounds good for the price of $20.
It would have been a better design if the recharging cord plugged into the small round portable base of the unit rather than the unit itself. I think I get about 3-4 hours maximum on a charge. They state 8 hours, so I am not sure if I have a bad unit or what.
When connected to your wifi it can also locate and play radio stations from TuneIn radio, which I appreciate. I am not willing to give it access to my contact list so I cannot comment on how it functions dialing out numbers. Overall, it is worth purchasing.

I got a refurb one of these when it was around $80, and while it was useful, after using it for a while with the Dots in my house, the Alexa functionality is sorely lacking. It can’t be added to Multi-Room Music, certain Skills won’t run on it, I don’t think you can use Drop In or calls with it, and lately the WiFi has been dropping on it repeatedly, forcing me to powercycle and/or reconnect it. I’ve since replaced it with another Dot. The speaker is better than the Gen2 Dot, and it’s portable, but beyond that I’m not sure I can recommend it.

It depends on what you want out of an Echo device, I guess, but I’d treat it like a third-party device with some Alexa features rather than a full-fledged Echo.

It plugs into either- the base is a charger.

It does plug into the dock. Then you put the Tap on the dock. You also have the option to plug the charging cord into the back of the Tap itself if you have a cover on the device or you’re away from the dock but need to charge it.

I finally figured out how to hook this up to my phone’s hotspot and now I can use it in my car. I love it!

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I think the Tap can only connect to the 2.4 ghz wifi channel of your router (instead of being able to connect to both the 2.4 and the 5 ghz like Echo devices), so maybe there are too many items running on your 2.4 channel that could be moved to the 5ghz.

Right, it’s not part of the Echo family. It’s an Alexa-enabled speaker and is missing some Echo functionality. I think that caused a lot of confusion, especially when the Tap was priced at $130, and killed the market for it. New features like hands-free operation also weren’t really promoted the way they should have been as they were added.

I got one of these when they first came out, along with a sling cover.
I like being able to carry it around hooked on a finger since I’m likely carrying other stuff as well.

I’m tempted to get another but I do have Dots around the house as well.
I find the speaker more than adequate since I’m usually just playing news or other voice stuff or music at very low volume.

You can purchase either the 8" or 10" fire tablet and it has Alexa and it is even easier to walk around with.

I have one that I got thru Amazon, it’s certified refurb, I paid $55, so this is a deal.

It’s so cool to sit outside on the porch and have my Prime Music without having to tie up my phone. I think if it is viewed it as a bluetooth speaker that has pretty good sound, and can do some Alexa stuff, it’s a good purchase at this price.

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