Amazon introduced an all-new line-up of Echo devices and a range of new Alexa features that give you even more ways to add Alexa to your daily life. New Echo devices include:
· All-new Echo: Featuring an updated fabric design and premium sound, for the same price as previous generation Echo i.e. ₹9,999.
· Echo Dot with clock: This new variant of Echo Dot includes a bright LED display that shows the time, outdoor temperature, timers, or alarms for ₹5,499.
· Echo Studio: Our best-sounding Echo ever, with five directional speakers for immersive studio-quality sound, room adaptation technology, and a built-in smart home hub for ₹22,999.
“Customers across the country have given feedback on how they love using Alexa – whether it is listening to their favorite music, playing a game with kids, watching videos on Echo Show range of devices, or controlling their smart home appliances,” said Parag Gupta, Head of Amazon Devices India. “We are introducing new Echo devices and features to give customers even more ways to access Alexa— whether that’s through our best-sounding Echo device yet—Echo Studio, or the reimagined Echo and Echo Dot.”
New Additions to the Echo Family—Even More Ways to Add Alexa to Your Day
All-new Echo—Premium sound, updated fabric design, and a new blue color variant, still only ₹9,999
The next-generation Echo has the same audio architecture as Echo Plus, including a 3-inch woofer and increased back volume so that the bass feels stronger, and the mids and highs are clearer. It also features an updated fabric design with color options suitable for any style—including Blue (new), Black, Grey and White.
Echo Dot with clock—Now with a simple, bright LED display for ₹5,499
Echo Dot, our best-selling device, now has a new variant that comes with a bright LED display that makes it the perfect addition to a bedside table or kitchen counter. The LED display automatically adjusts based on the brightness of the room, so you can easily see the time or just ask to see the outdoor temperature, or to set a morning alarm or cooking timer. Plus, you can tap the top of the device to conveniently snooze an alarm.
Echo Studio—Immersive studio-quality audio with Dolby Atmos, pairs with Fire TV Stick 4K for audio playback, room adaptation technology and a built-in smart home hub for only ₹22,999
With five built-in directional speakers, Echo Studio has been purposefully engineered to create studio-quality sound with space, clarity, and depth. Its 5.25-inch woofer and 330W of peak power produce deep, rich bass by using the bass port at the bottom to maximize airflow and bass output from the woofer. Echo Studio has a 1-inch tweeter and three 2-inch midrange speakers that deliver dynamic midranges and crisp, high frequencies. Plus, it has a 24-bit DAC and a power amplifier with 100 kHz of bandwidth for high-res, lossless music playback. Echo Studio also automatically senses the acoustics of your space and fine-tunes audio playback to deliver optimal sound—no matter where you put the device in the room.
The Echo Studio smart speaker delivers an immersive audio experience using advanced processing from Dolby Atmos.
One or two Echo Studio devices can be paired with the Fire TV Stick 4K for audio playback with multi-channel sound and support for Dolby Atmos, Dolby Audio 5.1, and stereo audio. Echo Studio also has a built-in Zigbee smart home hub which can be used to control compatible smart home devices—making it the perfect addition to your family or living room.
Availability
The all new Echo, Echo Dot with clock, and Echo Studio devices are available for pre-order on Amazon.in and select offline stores starting today and will start shipping later this year. Customers who pre-order can avail of a smart bulb at no extra cost and a smart plug at ₹199 only.
The new devices announced today join Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Show, Echo Show 5, and Echo companion devices – Echo Sub, Echo Link, Echo Link Amp – to create the Echo family of devices.
New Alexa Features
Alongside a new lineup of Echo devices, Amazon today announced ways that Alexa is getting smarter, making life more convenient and giving customers even more control over their experience.
Users can enjoy these Alexa features from today:
Interact with Alexa in Hindi or Hinglish
Alexa can now understand customers speaking to her completely in Hindi or Hinglish, in multiple contexts, and varied regional accents and dialects. You can enjoy asking Alexa for diverse Hindi content such as jokes, shayaris, games, Kabir ke dohe, Panchatantra stories, Bollywood dialogues, more than 500 Alexa skills, and even spellings of words in Hindi. Get started with commands such as “Alexa, Bollywood ke latest gane sunao”, “Alexa, cricket score batao”, “Alexa, sher ki aawaaz sunao”, or “Alexa, apne baare mei batao”.
Alexa can now adjust how fast (or slow) she speaks
Customers can now ask Alexa to speak slower or speak faster, depending on your preference, enabling Alexa to adapt to a diverse set of customer needs. Whether customers ask Alexa for the weather, the latest news, a sports update, about an upcoming event on their calendar, and more, they can now choose from seven speeds – Alexa’s standard speaking rate, four faster speaking rates, and two slower speaking rates. Simply say “Alexa, speak slower,” or “Alexa, speak faster” to adjust Alexa’s speech to the preferred pace on any Alexa-enabled device. To reset Alexa’s speaking rate, simply say, “Alexa, speak at your default rate.”
Alexa can Recommend Routines
Customers around the world regularly use routines to execute multiple smart home commands with a single voice command, and now Alexa is able to recommend routines that you may want to set up based on your daily habits. For example, if a customer sets their alarm for 6 AM and then immediately ask for the weather every day, Alexa will suggest setting up a routine so that the alarm is always set and the weather plays as soon as it goes off. When Alexa asks if you would like a routine set-up, just say “yes,” and the routine is ready to go.
Alexa can tell you about her responses
Alexa will soon offer two new voice-based features that provide customers with more transparency over the responses they get. If a customer is curious to understand what Alexa heard when you asked her to tell you the news or play a specific song, soon you will be able to ask , “Alexa, tell me what you heard” and Alexa will read back your most recent voice request.
