The smart home is well and truly upon us, though it varies for how you may want to enter it. Replacing a light bulb is an easy way to connect, sending light control to your phone and voice, but a smart speaker may still be the most obvious approach, and it is getting more ways to do it.
Most people like music and we all have the internet, so a smart speaker does make sense in most homes, or even most rooms of the home. But smart speakers can clearly do more, and so making that gadget more capable than just a speaker is clearly something manufacturers are working on.
Think cameras to help you talk to friends and family, or clocks to keep you aware of the time. Some may include both.
We’ve certainly seen Amazon dabble in both with previous models, such as the Echo Dot with Clock, offering an LED clock on a small speaker for people who wanted the time, or even the Echo Show with a camera and screen.
Amazon’s latest generation does feel like it could hit both categories, albeit in slightly different ways. It’s almost like the company is taking both in minimalist directions, and thinking of a world where less is more. It might even work as an assistant of sorts.
Take the next generation of the Echo Studio, a version of speaker that’s less a barrel and more a big sphere, albeit one with a 13 megapixel camera inside. Think of the 2026 Echo Studio as the 2025 edition but with a camera, and one there not just as a way not just to talk, but to use Amazon’s AI for other purposes: identify a product in your home, have it explain the rules of a game, and generally use AI to assist.
It might even work as a makeshift security camera for when you’re not home, with the camera-equipped Echo Studio giving you eyes-on when out and about.
That’s distinct to the Echo Time, a speaker that goes without the camera, but instead includes another item beginning with “c”: a clock.
A little like the modern alarm clock, the Echo Time is a camera-free smart speaker that instead incorporates a clock face you can change, and can brighten with the start of the day, too. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a clock in a smart display and smart speaker, and it clearly won’t be the last, but it’s definitely Amazon trying a new angle.
However, it’s one that won’t be cheap, with the newly reinvented alarm clock set for a price of $379 in Australia, making it just about the most pricey edition of the alarm clock around. Meanwhile, the Echo Studio with camera is even more, priced $100 higher at $479.
About the only new model that feels a little more wallet-friendly is the Echo Dot, though it feels higher-priced than it has ever been.
While it has been a good four years since we last reviewed the Echo Dot, Amazon’s baby of the bunch used to be $99. This year, that price doubles to $199.
It’s worth noting that the 2026 Dot doesn’t appear to be a previous generation repackaged with a new name: there’s a redesigned speaker driver for more bass, a faster chip, a built-in Eero WiFi extender (handy if you happen to use Amazon’s Eero mesh Wi-Fi system), and one more microphone for better conversations with the Alexa assistant, but it also happens to be more expensive overall.
All three are on the way to Australia, set for release in the coming weeks.
