Amazon’s compact Dot speaker is getting an upgrade, while its big Studio speaker is being resized and reshaped.
It’s a bit of a busy week for Amazon, with new gear on the way for the home. There are updates to its doorbell cameras from its Ring brand, and updates to its budget Blink security cameras.
But let’s not forget the gear in its Echo speakers, because they have some changes coming shortly, as well.
Smart speakers have long been one of the gateway gadgets to entering the smart home, joining smart lighting (light bulbs) as one of the easiest ways to see what the whole “smart home” concept was all about.
With smart speakers, the idea is simple: talk to a speaker and have it do things on your behalf. Play music, listen to the news, answer questions, or even have it automate parts of your home.
Amazon’s smart speaker ecosystem runs on its “Alexa” platform, and is easily one of the more popular around, programmable with routines and competing with Google’s Nest system, which hasn’t seen updated speakers or smart displays for quite a while, at least since the Nest Hub’s last update, or even the Pixel Tablet from 2023.
But Amazon is at least giving its smart speakers an update this year, launching four new Echo models, two of which have screens and two which do not.
They’ll all run on new hardware from Amazon, variants of its AZ3 chip, which are built to run AI, because almost everything has AI support in it these days, including these speakers. That not only means running AI from Alexa, but also using sensors as part of Amazon’s “Omnisense” platform to use that in the AI responses.
Echo speakers sans-screen
Of the models that don’t have screens, there’s a little and a big, and the little is actually a little bit bigger than it’s ever been.
Previously, the Echo Dot has been the baby of the bunch, and one you might even run in rooms for your baby, handy for white noise and music.
A new model is arriving in the Echo Dot Max, a slightly bigger take on the Echo Dot that has been built with two speakers including a woofer for bass and a tweeter for highs, using an adapting system to make the sound adapt to your space.
The Echo Dot Max will be a little more expensive than the standard roughly $100 Echo Dot, fetching $199 in Australia and $229 in New Zealand.
Next up is the other screen-free speaker, the Echo Studio. We’ve seen two variations on this big speaker before, but its previous fat cylindrical design didn’t really match Amazon’s spherical speakers.
The latest does, with the Echo Studio designed to be 40 percent smaller and placed inside of a ball. It includes a woofer for bass and three full-range drivers for mids and highs, plus still supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio just like its predecessor.
Expect this one for $429 in Australia and $499 in New Zealand.
Echo smart displays
Then there are the screen-based models, what are essentially smart displays of different sizes. There’s the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, models that follow the same design — a screen mounted to a speaker ball — with the 8 and 11 telling you the size in inches.
They both include a 13 megapixel camera for video calls and thin-ish bezels for the display, while the speakers inside use a combination of stereo speakers with a custom woofer for the lows, both offering support for spatial audio, as well.
If movie watching is supported on that display, it could provide a little bit better audio for folks watching in their kitchen, or where ever the Echo Show models are placed.
Both new Echo Show models are set for release in Australia and New Zealand, the 8 inch Echo Show 8 priced at $349 AUD and $399 NZD, while the 11 inch Echo Show 11 is priced at $429 AUD and $499 NZD.
