I have the Echo and (5) five Dots. The Echo is close to 10″ tall. It has a really good speaker (which is why the unit is so much taller than the Dots). The Echo doesn’t have an external jack to connect an external speaker, which is ok since the speaker in it is really good. The Dots speaker has a much lesser quality sound. It does has a jack for you to connect a cable directly to a bigger speaker or use Bluetooth to connect to a Bluetooth speaker system. Amazon created the Echo to be your main unit with the hopes that you would purchase Dots for each room throughout your house. You cannot stream the same item to all of your Dots at the same time (like an automated home stereo system) but you CAN use the Dots in each room to listen to different music at the same time. Another great thing is that when you connect other home devices (ie locks, lights, etc) you can connect your Echo and Dots to these devices (wirelessly). You can be in the bedroom and speak your Dot in the bedroom and tell it to turn on lights in the Kitchen or Living room, etc (depending on how many digital lights you have purchased). Keep in mind the other home kits are not cheap, but do onlinee in handy. It may be a novelty for some and wear off but others may find the automation to be extremely handy. This is a fantastic price on the Dots, as when I bought my five, I paid $39.99 each. My whole family loves the Echo and Dots. Alexa onlinees in handy sooooo much. If you have Pandora, iHeartRadio, or possibly a few other streaming accounts (iHeartRadio and Pandora are free) you can link them to Alexa and have her play you music through these devices. Dots sound decent for a small device, but if you like quality sound, you will want to connect them to another speaker source. The great thing is that the Dots and Echo do the same exact thing.