Amazon announced a refresh to its smart speaker line on Thursday. Amazon Echo speakers arguably brought the smart home trend into the mainstream. The announcement brings an update to the series with four new devices, and more importantly, a dramatic design departure from what we know and are familiar with.
Amazon completely redesigned its flagship Echo speaker (4th Gen) into a spherical shape that comes in three colors — charcoal, glacier white, and twilight blue. The Echo (4th Gen) is covered in a fabric finish and will cost $100. Pre-orders start today and will ship later this year.
The New Echo promises better sound with a 3-inch subwoofer, dual firing tweeters, and Dolby processing. The New Echo also carries the feature introduced by the Echo Studio, which analyzes the acoustics of the room and fine-tunes the audio playback for optimal results. It’s powered by a new AZ1 Neural Edge processor that can help shave milliseconds off of Alexa’s response times. Additionally, each Amazon Echo functions as a built-in smart home hub with Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Amazon Sidewalk.
Moving right along, the Echo Dot (4th Gen) and Echo Dot with clock follow the same design elements with the same shape and colors as the new Echo (4th Gen), but at a more compact size. The prices for those will be $50 and $60, respectively. Both are available for pre-order today shipping later this year.
Both devices feature a 1.6-inch front-firing speaker. The LED Display on the Echo Dot with Clock can show you time, temperature, timers, and alarms. Plus, it adds a tap-to-snooze feature. The Echo Dot with Clock only comes in Glacier White and Twilight Blue.
For the kids, there’s the Echo Dot Kids Edition, which has the same spherical shape and comes in panda and tiger designs. Each also comes with a one-year Amazon Kids subscription. Those are also priced at $60. Pre-orders start today and ship later this year. Echo Dot Kids Edition comes with a new feature called Reading Sidekick. The feature will allow your child and Alexa to take turns reading from a supported book. Alexa will also listen for the quality of reading and offer encouragement or support depending on your child’s needs. Reading sidekick will be available in the coming months.
Soon, parents will be able to set up voice profiles for their children which will allow Alexa to recognize your child’s voice. When recognized, your Echo will automatically shift into Kids Alexa mode, regardless of the Echo to which your child is speaking.
Amazon has been a major player in the smart home market for years, but fresh competition from Apple may have lit a fire under it. The company has just unveiled a new lineup of Alexa devices, including Echo speakers, a smart alarm clock, a photo frame, and the Echo Show 16. On the software side, Amazon also introduced Alexa Home Map, which puts your connected devices on an interactive 3D model of your house, letting you monitor and control them from one place.
Your entire smart home on a 3D map
Our phones have made it easy to capture our lives in beautiful photos. But that also means we shoot hundreds of photos every year and don't look at them, as they keep collecting the proverbial dust in our phone's gallery. Amazon’s new Alexa Photo Frame wants to put those forgotten shots on your shelf instead.
Amazon revealed the frame alongside several new Alexa devices, including a new smart alarm clock and a 16-inch Echo Show. It pulls pictures from Amazon Photos, which Prime members can fill up without paying extra for storage.
Amazon has unveiled a new Alexa lineup featuring the Echo Show 16, Echo Time smart clock, and Alexa Photo Frame. Two speakers join them: an upgraded Echo Dot with a built-in smart home hub and the Echo Studio with Home Camera, which lets Alexa+ see its surroundings. Both are available now for $99.99 and $249.99, respectively.
The Echo Dot does more than play music