The Amazon Tap is the mid-sized offering in Amazon's Alexa-enabled speaker line, sitting between the $179.99 Echo and the $49.99 Echo Dot. The Echo was one of last year's surprise smash hits, introducing thousands of people to the usefulness of the Alexa voice assistant. The tiny Echo Dot offers the same Alexa voice control features, but is too small to make a good music speaker so it also includes an auxiliary audio output. It is best viewed as a way to inexpensively add Alexa voice control to a room, or to play music through a separate speaker or sound system.
Both the Echo and Echo Dot do not have batteries and must be plugged in to operate. The Amazon Tap includes a rechargeable battery so it can be used in places where AC power is not available. There is a MicroUSB charging port on the back of the speaker, and it also comes with a charging cradle that looks like a drink coaster with a lip around the edge. I found the cradle to be a great accessory and it made charging quick, effortless and convenient. The cylindrical speaker itself has a tough fabric covering with soft-touch controls on top, offering an attractive appearance with a premium feel.
Unlike most speakers in its price range, the Amazon Tap has WiFi connectivity as well as Bluetooth. Setup is extremely easy using the Alexa app for either iOS or Android. Once you are set up with Alexa and your WiFi network, the fun begins, and fun it is.
The Echo and Echo Dot are always listening for a wake word, usually "Alexa." They must be plugged in all the time because they are constantly on, waiting to hear the wake word. Unlike the Echo models, the Tap does not offer control via a wake word and you must push a button to give commands. Once activated, the speaker interacts using prompts if it needs additional information.
Alexa is an extremely fun and well-implemented voice assistant, and you will soon find yourself talking to it all the time. I am an iPhone user and found Alexa to be much more useful, accurate, flexible and satisfying than Siri, even before I added additional skills to the Tap. Using generic commands such as, "Play Christmas music by Elvis Presley," or "Convert one US dollar to Russian rubles" or "Set timer for 12 minutes" always yielded the desired result. Music can be streamed from services such as Pandora, Spotify and Amazon Music and you can also add skills to your Tap by visiting Amazon's Alexa Skills Store. There are currently more than 1,000 skills available and the list is growing every day, ranging from getting airport information to playing Jeopardy. The 6-question Jeopardy game in particular was extremely impressive in both the concept and implementation. Of course, you can add smart plugs and WiFi thermostats to control lighting and climate within your home, all with the sound of your voice.
At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, many new products were announced with Alexa integration. One announcement was from DISH, who introduced Alexa integration with all of their Hopper DVRs. I am also a DISH subscriber so I had the opportunity to test the Tap with the Hopper DVR. For example, you can say, "Ask Hopper to go to CNN" or "Ask Hopper to show the guide" to control your DVR. It's a little bit slower than using the remote, but it does work and it is only going to get better as DISH and Amazon refine their applications. Though I could control the Hopper by pushing the button and talking to the Tap, I do think this feature would be better if it was totally handsfree with a wake word, as it would have been with an Echo or Echo Dot. I can see this being especially useful in a kitchen, allowing you to channel surf without touching the remote with dirty or wet hands.
Quibbles are minor and few. The sound quality is outstanding for Alexa's voice and the spoken word, but with music the speaker does not go especially deep into the bass and the highest treble is also a bit soft. Despite this limitations, it still makes for a fine music speaker and I found that careful placement of the Tap near a wall made the bass stronger and spread the sound out even wider, making a noticeable improvement. A setting so that it is listening all the time when it is plugged in and charging, like the Echo and Echo Dot, would be useful as well.
At $129, the Amazon Tap is a great value and an excellent way to get started with Alexa voice control and home automation. Don't be surprised if you start adding Echos, Echo Dots and smart plugs and switches once you've had a taste of voice-controlled home automation. It's addictive.
