#Amazon flex portable
#Amazon flex password
#Amazon flex Bluetooth

The poor quality of the internal speaker is almost irrelevant, as the real strength of the Echo Flex is that it provides an incredibly affordable and convenient way of bringing the Alexa voice-control technology into your home - or extending an existing Amazon system into even more rooms. As you’d expect, the app can connect to Amazon Music, along with Spotify and Apple Music, but a Tidal account and the music stored on an iPad required having to switch back to the limited range and sound quality of Bluetooth. The only minor criticism here is that the Alexa app doesn’t support a very wide range of music streaming services. These accessories only cost £14.99/$14.99, so the Echo Flex could easily be used to build a low-cost home security system that monitors all the key locations within your home. But the final stroke of genius is the little USB port on the bottom of the Echo Flex, which provides 7.5W power output that can be used to charge a smartphone or other mobile device, or to connect additional accessories such as the night-light or motion-sensor that Amazon has already developed in conjunction with a company called Third Reality (opens in new tab).

#Amazon flex portable

We had no trouble connecting the Echo Flex to a portable Libratone Zipp speaker, and it can also use Wi-Fi to connect to multi-room speaker systems from Sonos or other manufacturers (although the instructions for connecting to Sonos speakers do state that this particular feature is still an ‘open beta’, and seems to focus on a handful of models, such as the Sonos Beam soundbar).Īnd, of course, the Alexa app can be used to control a variety of other smart devices too, including Philips Hue lights, Hive thermostats, a wide range of security cameras, and even Eufy robot vacuum cleaners.

#Amazon flex Bluetooth

If you want to boost the sound quality for listening to music then you can simply connect the Echo Flex to an external speaker using either Bluetooth or the 3.5mm audio connector tucked over on the right-hand side of the device. The real strength of the Echo Flex lies in its connectivity. The app then offers advice on ‘things to try’ so that you can get used to Alexa’s wide variety of voice commands, and asks if you want to create a ‘voice profile’ so that Alexa will only respond to your particular voice, or those of other members of your family.

#Amazon flex password

The app initially uses Bluetooth to pair with the Echo Flex and set everything up, so all you need to do is to enter your Wi-Fi password in order to connect it to your home network. The Echo Flex installation process is relatively simple - the Alexa app smoothly guides you step-by-step, in no time at all.

Can be used to play music over Bluetooth.

As such, don't go buying the Flex for its music-playing capabilities, but instead, consider it as a supplementary smart home voice controller. It’s fine if you just want to check the weather forecast, but asking Alexa to play some music results in an anemic plinky-plunk sound that reminds me of those old Stylophones from the 1970s (millenials can just Google ‘David Bowie Stylophone’). You can tell from the tinny voice that emanates from the speaker grille when you first plug it in that the sound quality isn’t exactly great. The final detail on the front of the Echo Flex is a little grille for what Amazon refers to as its ‘mini-speaker’. Right below the LED are two buttons - one of which turns off the microphones when you want a little privacy, while the second button allows you to activate Alexa without saying the name itself (although, of course, you still have to speak to the Echo Flex to get it to do anything, so we’re not entirely sure what the point of that is). There’s a little pair of microphones nestling at the top of the front panel, with a blue LED sitting between them, which lights up when you recite the ‘Alexa’ mantra to let you know that it is listening.

Despite its low cost, the Echo Flex supports dual-band Wi-Fi, so it can connect to your home router on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequencies. The Echo Flex measures just 72mm high and 67mm wide, and protrudes just 40mm from the wall once it’s been plugged in.