Eufy Genie Review | Gadgets 360

Eufy, a sub-brand of Anker, makes a number of good house merchandise akin to good mild bulbs, good switches, good plugs, and even robotic vacuum cleaners. The corporate has lately launched the Eufy Genie in India, which is a petite, puck-shaped machine with far-field microphones that permits you to harness the ability of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

The Amazon Echo Dot various is formally priced at Rs. 4,999 however could be found for Rs. 2,199 online. Is the Genie a viable various to the Echo Dot? Now we have been placing it by means of its paces for the previous few weeks, and here’s what we predict.

Eufy Genie design and setup

The design of this machine is easy. Whereas the Echo Dot has a utilitarian and no-nonsense design, the Genie provides some curves to the combination and has a extra homely aesthetic. It’s barely bigger than the Echo Dot, however the construct high quality is suitable at finest. The plastics really feel chintzy, and one thing began rattling inside our unit inside a couple of days of use.

There are 4 buttons on the highest; two to regulate the amount, one to set off Alexa manually, and one to mute the microphones for individuals who are fearful about privateness. The buttons have little to no journey and are fairly laborious to press. There’s additionally an LED ring, paying homage to the one discovered on the Echo collection of units, which lights up blue while you activate Alexa and crimson when the machine encounters an error.

Similar to the Echo Dot and Google Home Mini, the Eufy Genie could be powered by an influence financial institution due to the Micro-USB port on the again, proper subsequent to which is a 3.5mm auxiliary output jack that permits you to join better-sounding audio system. The Eufy Genie, after all, comes with a bundled adapter and a Micro-USB cable.

Establishing the Eufy Genie is an easy affair. Simply obtain the Eufy House app from the Play Store or the App Store, enter your Wi-Fi password, register by way of your Amazon account, and you might be good to go. Alternatively, you need to use two functions – the Alexa software and Eufy’s personal – to handle the machine and alter varied settings, which does get annoying.

Eufy Genie options

Because the Genie is powered by Alexa, its capabilities are kind of precisely the identical as different Alexa-powered units just like the Echo Dot. Alexa understands Indian accents effectively and in addition recognises Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi, and Malayalam correct nouns in English sentences.

Alexa may not be as context aware as Google Assistant however can deal with duties akin to setting alarms, studying out the climate, suggesting eating places primarily based on delicacies and placement, and answering trivia questions, with ease. Alexa also can play music on request by way of Amazon Music, Saavn, or TuneIn Radio, and skim your Kindle Books aloud.

Alexa has a couple of nifty tips up its sleeve. The primary, known as ‘Flash Briefing’, is a information bulletin of kinds which you can set off at will. You may customise information sources throughout the Alexa software and alter the order during which it reads them aloud. There’s a ‘Sports activities Replace’ as effectively, which works a lot the identical means. You may monitor totally different sports activities in addition to your favorite groups.

Then there are ‘Abilities’ that will let you increase Alexa’s performance. There are a large number of abilities on supply together with ones for main providers together with Uber, Ola, Ixigo, GoIbibo, Freshmenu, Cleartrip, and UrbanClap. You can too purchase merchandise immediately from Amazon by way of Alexa, which may come in useful in a pinch.

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The Genie can be utilized to play video games too. On the time of writing, the Alexa software had 4,666 abilities listed beneath the class of ‘Video games, Trivia & Equipment’. What mars the expertise considerably is the Genie’s gradual response time, which makes enjoying turn-based video games gradual and attempting. The Echo Dot, compared, is way snappier.

The Eufy Genie didn’t help Alexa messaging and calling initially however a current software program replace has added that characteristic. We have been capable of name and message our Alexa contacts with none challenge by any means. The Genie and all third-party Alexa units initially lacked a characteristic known as Echo Spatial Notion, which permits solely the closest Alexa enabled machine to reply to voice instructions. Amazon has now moved ESP to the cloud, permitting any third-party Alexa machine, together with the Eufy Genie, to reap the benefits of its performance, which ought to assist when you’ve got a number of Alexa-powered units in your own home.

The Genie is supposed to be the voice command centre for all of Eufy’s good merchandise, however they’re suitable with each Alexa and Google Assistant. Alexa-compatible good house merchandise made by Syska, Oakter, TP-Link, D-Link, LIFX, and Philips are additionally supported.

Eufy Genie efficiency and sound high quality

Whereas the Echo Dot permits you to change its get up command to “Echo”, “Amazon”, or “Laptop”, the Genie is caught with “Alexa”. The Genie can be gradual to reply to instructions, when in comparison with the Echo Dot, and infrequently simply provides up altogether.

Though the 2W speaker within the Genie is extra highly effective than the one discovered on the Echo Dot, it’s nonetheless not minimize out for something apart from podcasts and voice instructions. Listening to music is kind of an disagreeable expertise. Bass is skinny and weak, and mids are closely suppressed.

There’s a 3.5mm output to attach higher audio system, however Bluetooth connectivity is lacking. The shortage of Bluetooth is a significant annoyance as many transportable audio system nowadays are absolutely wi-fi and do not even have auxiliary inputs.

The Eufy Genie doesn’t help Amazon’s multi-room audio characteristic, which helps you to play music on a number of Alexa units on the identical time, so long as they’re related to the identical community. The Genie additionally doesn’t help the 5GHz Wi-Fi band, which is supported by the Echo Dot.

Whereas the Echo Dot has seven far-field microphones, the Eufy Genie makes do with two. In consequence, the Genie struggles to choose up voices from throughout any room. In our expertise, we needed to shout on the Genie to register any command whereas it was enjoying music at full quantity. This challenge received even worse when the Genie was related to bigger audio system.

Verdict
The Genie just isn’t a nasty product per se and would make for a good purchase if the Echo Dot didn’t exist. The Genie lacks Bluetooth connectivity, wants two functions to regulate all its settings, and has simply two microphones in comparison with seven on the Echo Dot. The Genie’s built-in speaker is barely extra highly effective however continues to be not minimize out for music.

The Eufy Genie is cheaper than the Echo Dot however is compromised in some ways. We advise you spend the additional cash and purchase the Dot, which is a much more succesful and versatile product. The Echo Dot is priced at round Rs. 4,000 however is commonly available at round Rs. 2,500, which makes it a no brainer over the Eufy Genie at that value.

Worth: Rs. 2,199 (MOP)

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