Amazon is back to launching a new set of Echo devices. The company announced in an official statement that it is rolling out several new Echo devices, including the Echo Show 5, Echo Buds and Echo Auto. From the vibrant color options of the all-new Echo Pop to the immersive audio experience of the next-generation Echo Show 5, Amazon is pulling in all stops with Echo devices, yet again.
Speaking more about the devices, we find that the new model of the Alexa-friendly Echo Buds come with a complete redesign and other features. As per Anuj Dron, senior product manager on Amazon’s Echo team, the new Echo Buds “give customers easy access to audio content and Alexa anywhere they might be” and “deliver high-quality audio, long-lasting battery life, and premium features at an unbelievable price.”
Amazon describes its design as “lightweight and compact,” and it is more affordable too – $50 a piece. They are available for pre-order now, while the “release day delivery” has been set at June 7. The wireless earbuds, according to Amazon, will let users bring Alexa with them everywhere with a hands-free experience, while 12mm drivers inside the Echo Buds offer “rich sound and balanced bass.” The devices also come with a multipoint pairing feature, where users can pair Echo Buds to two devices simultaneously. The Echo Buds, Amazon says, will automatically recognize which device is playing audio and switch to that device, allowing users to multitask and attend online meetings or video calls and switch to listening to music on your phone seamlessly.
Amazon has also unveiled the expansion of Echo Auto’s availability to several countries, including Australia, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. The latest version of Echo Auto features a sleek design and offers greater flexibility in terms of placement within the vehicle, thanks to its adhesive mount, and boasts of being equipped with five microphones.
Coming to the Echo Pop, Amazon updated its Echo lineup with the Echo Pop – a new $40 model with a semi-spherical design. The company’s newest entry-level Alexa-powered device, the Echo Pop comes with “more value,” Amazon noted. The company added that the device can support eero Built-in, which means it can add up to 1,000 square feet of coverage to your existing eero Wi-Fi network. Amazon said that the Pop is in addition to its existing Dot lineup.
“It was a big challenge to imagine and deliver a powerful smart speaker at this price,” said Rajesh Parthasarathy, principal product manager on the team that built Echo Pop. “We designed a unique form factor and added two new color options—we think customers are going to love it.” Powered by Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor for on-device ML tasks, the Echo Pop comes with two eye-catching color options, Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal.
Along with the new Pop, the $89.99 Echo Show 5 smart display is getting a refresh. The third-gen model of the smallest of Amazon’s smart speakers now comes with better sound and improved processing power. Its design is nearly similar to that of the previous generation model, including a 5.5-inch screen. Howeve, the improved processing power enables it to be 20% faster than the previous model, while it also comes with an upgraded speaker system that “doubles the bass.”
In a nod to younger audiences, Amazon also introduced a new Echo Show 5 Kids (which is the kid-friendly version, basically), which has no hardware changes but comes “with an out-of-this-world space-themed galaxy design, and kid-friendly Alexa responses, jokes, homework help, and explicit lyric filtering.” It costs $99.99. “We did a lot of customer opinion research and learned that sound is one of the most important elements of this kind of device,” said Christina Cao, senior product manager at Amazon. “So we took that customer feedback and delivered our best-sounding and fastest Echo Show 5.”
