It's Christmas. That means it is time for Amazon to update its range of gadgets, just in time for the festive market.
Generally speaking these overhauls are minor enough, a tweak to some hardware, or possibly a new colour or two.
But in the case of Amazon’s smart speaker, Echo, the changes this time are a bit more meaningful.
DESIGN
The old Echo was a cylindrical design.
The new one has been fairly radically remodelled, into a sphere shape.
A soft fabric mesh covers most of the front of the device (if there is such a thing on a sphere) with a plastic covering the rear.
Underneath the flattened bottom is surrounded by a ring of light that changes colour depending on whether Echo is listening, muted or not connected to the internet.
On top are four discrete buttons – for volume up and down, for activating Alexa and for muting the mic.
The device is just over 5 inches tall and 5.7 inches wide.
There’s a 3.5mm line in/out socket to the rear, next to the power port.
The Echo comes in four different colours – charcoal, glacier white, a limited edition red and twilight blue.
Overall it looks good, and represents a fairly meaningful update to what had become a well worn design.
SET UP
Setting up the device is pretty straightforward.
You simply plug it in and then go into the Alexa app on your phone or tablet, making sure you have Bluetooth on.
There you add a device and follow the instructions to get it all up and running.
You may need to wait for updates to install which is always a bit of a pain and slows things down.
But once that’s done you’ll be good to go.
We found the new Echo to be quick and responsive in testing, helped no doubt by a new processor which has speeded up its reaction time.
It picks up your voice commands accurately and is capable of cutting through reasonable levels of background noise.
SOUND
The number one use for the Echo is probably to listen to music.
In this regard it does a decent job.
With a 3 inch woofer and dual front-firing 0.8 inch tweeters, it pumps out pretty good quality sound.
It also supports Dolby audio which helps.
You can adjust the equalizer through voice control for more refined sound, but this is limited in scope.
Echo is also able to analyse the acoustics of a room and continuously adjust its audio filters during playback to optimise sound output.
If you have more than one, it is possible to combine multiple Echos for multi-room music across different rooms or together in one room for a richer experience.
Using the 3.5mm audio jack an external speaker or an external audio source can be connected to the Echo.
A high-end speaker it isn’t. But the Echo does pump out pretty decent quality sound and at a level that will be more than enough to satisfy most users.
SMART HOME
The other big change is that Echo now has a built in smart hub which supports the ZigBee standard used by most smart home devices.
So you will be able to use it to integrate your smart lights, plugs, cameras sensors and more, and control devices like Alexa enabled smart TVs.
It will also soon work with Ring Smart Lighting.
A clever addition is Alexa Guard. Set it up in the app, and Echo will send you mobile alerts if it detects the sound of a smoke alarm or glass breaking while you are away.
If you take out a subscription to Guard Plus, you also get access to additional features, like an Emergency Helpline that you can call with your voice.
Unfortunately though the Guard feature is not yet available here.
OTHER FEATURES
Those two main features aside, there is of course many other things that Echo can do.
The basics that previous users are already used to, like news and weather updates, access to podcasts and audiobooks, as well as voice calls and announcements to other devices are also possible.
You can also do some shopping, set timers, make lists, create calendar events and reminders.
There are also now over one hundred thousand "skills" or individual third party functions that you can add to it.
And if you need entertaining, there are lots of quizzes and other games available.
Alexa also has a kid friendly version, call Amazon Kids, which once turned on will provide kid friendly responses, filter out explicit lyrics and block shopping.
Unfortunately it still isn’t available to Irish users.
PRIVACY
Privacy is always a concern when you have a device sitting in your house that technically is listening to every word you say.
You can view, hear and delete your voice recordings at any time on the app.
And if you really don’t want Echo to listen, you can mute the microphone.
But that won’t be enough for many who still hate the idea of a Amazon eavesdropping on conversations, despite assurances that it only begins recording when the wake-word is heard.
CONCLUSION
The new Echo is a genuine upgrade.
You get that new design, quicker performance, an enhanced audio experience, as well as that smarthome control functionality.
At €66, it’s keenly priced too.
The sound isn’t the highest quality available though, and privacy remains a worry.
But overall, the new Echo has much to offer and keeps Amazon near the top of the ever growing pile of smart speakers.
If you are looking for a smaller version, then the Echo Dot has also received a refresh.
It too has become spherical in shape. The big differences between it and the full Echo is that it includes a single 1.6 inch front firing speaker.
You can also manage your smarthome devices using it, but it won't act as the connectivity hub that the larger Echo will.
If knowing the time is important to you, there is also a version with a built in clock display.
The new Dot is currently available for around €33, which represents good value if you want a basic device for a less used room.
The Dot with Clock costs about twice that.
