The answer was easy when there were just two models. Now Alexa is all over the place.
So you’ve decided to bring Alexa into your life. Good idea. Now comes the hard part: Which Amazon Echo is right for you? We’ll go over all the models, including the brand-new second-generation Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Spot that Amazon just announced.
Amazon pioneered the concept of a smart speaker, an audio device with a voice-activated digital assistant that can do everything from play music (from Amazon Music or Spotify, Pandora, and certain other services if you’re a subscriber), to recite the day’s news, deliver weather and traffic updates, and—perhaps most importantly—control virtually every element of your smart home.
Google Home might be slightly more sophisticated in terms of the commands it can respond to, and Apple’s HomePod might be the one to beat it terms of audio quality (we’ll see), but the Echo series has far more skills and third-party integrations than either of those competitors.
What’s more, Amazon has been busily signing up third-party manufacturers to integrate Alexa into their own products, with the C by GE Sol smart lamp being the most recent example.
Let’s start with the newest models, although our opinions on that score are based almost entirely on the information Amazon has provided. We won’t have an opportunity to review Amazon’s new products until they ship (some at the end of the month, others in December).
The new Echo is much shorter than the original (the older model which fostered a cottage industry of accessories to prevent it from tipping over—or to protect it from an impact if it did). The second-generation model arguably more attractive, coming wrapped in your choice of three tweed-like fabrics (the $100 models) or three smooth finishes (the $120 models). Amazon says the new Echo is outfitted with better speakers plus Dolby processing. The second-generation Echo will ship on October 31.
If you’ve been craving a smart home hub that supports voice commands right out of the box, you’ll want to take a look at the new Echo Plus ($149.99). It has a built-in ZigBee-based smart home hub and will compete with hubs from Samsung’s SmartThings, Samsung’s Connect Home, Wink, Securifi, and others. Amazon will include a Philips Hue smart bulb with your purchase for a limited time.
Amazon says the Echo Plus will also come with higher-performance speakers with Dolby processing, and it will be available in three smooth finishes—black, silver, and white—when it ships on October 31.
The third new Echo in Amazon’s lineup is only the second Echo to feature a built-in display. Available for preorder now, it will ship sometime in December. Similar in size to the Echo Dot, the Echo Spot looks something like a magic 8-ball, with a circular LCD screen that can show you the time, the weather, your calendar, and other information. A front-facing camera makes it easy to place video calls to the people on your contact list.
It sounds like the Spot’s built-in speaker will be as weak as the Dot’s, but you can pair either device with Bluetooth speakers if you want higher-quality sound. Alternatively, you can plug a cable into either Echo’s 3.5mm analog audio output. If you like the idea of having an Echo with a display, the Echo Spot is a much-less-expensive alternative to the Echo Show, which has a larger screen.
It’s a win-win: The least-expensive digital voice assistant you can put in your smart home is also one of the best. But add a speaker if you want it to play music. Read TechHive’s full review
This was the first Echo to feature a display (and we’re criminally late with our review. Sorry.) The Echo Show is also the most-expensive Echo, with an MSRP of $229.99. Outfitted with a 7-inch color touchscreen and a 5MP digital camera, the Echo Show can be used for video calls in addition to playing videos on Amazon Prime (Google recently pulled YouTube off the Echo Show, claiming Amazon’s implementation violates YouTube’s terms of service. Here’s hoping the two companies can work something out on that front, because I imagine a lot of Echo Show users use it to watch YouTube.) Play music on the Echo Show, and it will display relevant album art.
When it’s not doing anything else, the Echo Show displays the current time and temperature on its home screen, and alternates between suggesting things you can do with it (“Try asking Alexa where the nearest ATMs are”) and displaying news headlines it thinks you might be interested in reading or having read to you (“Suspected cancer turns out to be a swallowed toy.” Gotta read that! Not.) The Echo Show’s stereo speakers are marginally better than those in the first-generation Echo, but I haven’t been impressed with the audio performance of any of the Echos to date. I am looking forward to checking out the new models, though.
Announced last April, the Echo Look remains elusive: You can buy one only if Amazon decides you’re worthy of an invitation. Equipped with a voice-activated, depth-sensing camera, the Echo Look ($199.99) snaps a full-length photo of you—or even a 360-degree video—on command, so that you can see how you look before you step out of the house. Optionally, you can tap the Echo Look’s Style Check feature to use “advanced machine-learning algorithms and advice from fashion specialists” to help you decide which outfit to wear.
With Amazon’s focus on selling you things, it should come as no surprise that the device will also offer recommendations on other articles of clothing that you might like to buy. Fashionistas we’re not, but the Echo Look is the least-compelling Echo of them all in our book.
Amazon’s Echo is versatile and powerful; it’s a terrific value all around. Read TechHive’s full review
Recently discontinued, the first-gen Echo was the first smart speaker. We’d seen other voice-controlled computers before—anyone remember the Ubi?—but Amazon’s was the first that was actually good for something (even if we did dis its acoustic performance in our review). The Echo paved the way for the Google Home, Apple HomePod, and all the Echo devices that came after it.
