New Amazon Echos: A guide to all the Alexa products that were just released
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Your support makes all the difference.Amazon has revealed a whole host of new Echo devices, as well as products that you can control by talking to the Alexa assistant that lives inside them. In all, it announced more than 70 updates – which touched on almost every part of its Alexa line-up.
The very short version is this: Amazon updated just about every Echo to give it a better-looking grey mesh on the outside and to make it louder and better sounding on the inside.
If you want the slightly less short version of each of the updates, then read on. Here's what happened to each of those products in slightly more detail.
All the new devices are available for pre-order now and will arrive next month.
New Echo Show
Perhaps the most profoundly changed of the new line-up is the Show. It keeps the general idea – a screen-based Echo that can show information as well as say it, and is perfect for uses in the kitchen – but packs it into a vastly improved new box.
The screen is now much bigger and crisper: it's now 10-inches and HD. The speakers have had the same changes, making the sound louder and more detailed.
At the same time, Amazon has redesigned the software to make the screen on the Show more useful. It will show information before people ask for it, as well as offering new ways of watching videos and checking information.
One of the central things the company showed off about that new design is cooking. It can guide people through recipes, step-by-step.
Echo Dot
Amazon's smaller speaker gets a little more bigger, as well as new design.
Rather than the shiny plastic around the edges, it's now got a mesh grille in a range of different colours. And on the inside, the speakers are much louder and better-sounding, though of course in a limited way because of the tiny size.
It costs £49.99 – the same price as the old one.
Echo Plus
The bigger, posher version of the Echo was released last year as a more premium version of the normal Echo. And now it's better than it was.
It, too, has had the same external redesign: a soft grille on the outside and a slightly more rounded look. And it has the same sound improvements on the inside.
It is also even better as a smart home hub, with a range of hardware improvements that include a temperature sensor to allow you to keep an eye on conditions in your home.
It costs £139.99, like it did before.
Echo Input
This is meant as an addition to existing speakers. Amazon says that many people simply use their Echos to plug into something else – and now you can do that with the cheap and small input.
It doesn't have speakers inside. Instead, it sends all of its sound out to whatever speaker is plugged in, allowing people to talk to their hifi even if it is decades old.
Without the space required for speakers, the Input can be tiny. It's only 12.5mm tall and has rounded edges that help it blend in.
Amazon refers to this as a companion device – and it's one of three new things that has that name.
It costs £34.99, making it £15 cheaper than the Dot, which was the previous Echo device people used for this purpose.
Echo Sub
This is a wireless speaker that attaches itself to another existing Amazon Echo (or two, if you have them). It will work in partnership with other speakers to take on some of the load, and improve things like the bass response.
It costs £119.99.
Amazon Smart Plug
This exists to make every device in your house smart, even if it was created before the internet. It sits between the device and the real plug, allowing it to connect to the internet and turn power on and off.
In turn, that helps get things into the internet of things, and allows them to be controlled by talking to Alexa.
Amazon revealed new software technologies that allow it to do this by connecting straight to an Echo in your house. As soon as it turns on, it will look for your smart speaker, and then take you through the process of setting it up and allowing it to be voice-controlled.
It costs £24.99.
Everything not available in the UK
Amazon announced plenty of new products that are not available yet in the UK – and even some that are not available anywhere.
They include a special microwave and a wall clock, both of which connect to and are controlled by Alexa. You can read about them here.
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