Amazon has been trying to push its Echo device over the past few months with commercial and advertisements galore, but Echo isn’t selling as Amazon would like it to. Now the company has come out with the Echo Dot, which is a smaller version of the Echo.

The Dot does most things that the Echo does but it does it at a lesser price.

What the Dot Can Do

The Dot does not have the same room-filling capabilities that the Echo has, so don’t choose the Dot based on sound or you may wish that you had opted for something larger. But the Dot does perform all the basic tasks that the Echo does. So you can order a pizza, ask it to dim the lights, call an Uber, play some trivia, and other tasks through the Echo.

The Big Difference

Aside from the Dot not having the same sound capabilities, there’s also a major price difference. The Dot retails through Amazon’s site for $49.99. If you want to put a Dot in every room in your home (which is what Amazon would like you to do), you can buy packs of Dots through the Amazon website. If you buy a few at a time, you will get a discount for buying bulk.

So if you want to have a Dot in every room, it’s a good idea to look at the bulk options that Amazon offers. The Dot is shorter and has a simpler design than the Echo, but that’s probably to keep costs down. Amazon has also changed the design of the volume controls, but using your voice to control the volume is a better idea anyway.

Do You Want One?

Why would you want a Dot? Basically, Amazon’s whole idea behind creating the Dot or the Echo is to make your home a smart home. A home that is connected is supposed to make life a lot simpler, and that’s what the Dot and Echo aim to do. If you’re not familiar with how a connected home works yet, consider the following scenario.

You have a Dot in every room in your home. The Dot can pick up your voice commands and you can tell it to do anything you need to have done within its capabilities (order a pizza, order an Uber, turn the music up or down, and a variety of other things). Suddenly life becomes simpler thanks to the Dot or the Echo or any connected home device.

Availability

While I’m not sure about buying multiple Dots for my home, this might be a great option if you want to have a quick and easy way to control all aspects of your home with one simple voice command. If you haven’t ever had anything like this before, you may want to start with one Dot and then move into buying a bundle pack.

You can also use an Echo and a Dot or combine the two - these devices should work well enough together. The Dot will also make a pretty fun holiday gift for someone that is into connected home devices.

The Dot will be available through Amazon starting October 20th in North America. Presumably Amazon will push the device to other parts of the world following the North American release.