Amazon has announced a slew of new hardware including a new Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 11, and a new lineup of Fire TV devices, all built with Alexa+ at their core. Here’s everything to know about the latest lineup of Echo products by Amazon.
Amazon has powered the devices with two custom-designed silicon chips—AZ3 and AZ3 Pro—with an all-new AI Accelerator designed to run AI EDGE models. Echo Dot Max uses AZ3 to enable better conversation detection, as it powers the company’s best microphone array yet, supporting even more natural, free-flowing interactions with Alexa+, filtering out background noise and improving Alexa’s ability to detect the wake-word by over 50%.
Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11 include the more advanced AZ3 Pro, which builds on the power of AZ3’s audio capabilities, adding support for “state-of-the-art language models and vision transformers.”
Built on top of this silicon is Omnisense, the company’s own custom sensor platform designed for ambient AI. Omnisense leverages a range of Sensors and signals—the 13-megapixel camera on its new Echo Show devices, audio, ultrasound, Wi-Fi radar, accelerometer, and Wi-Fi CSI. This technology allows Alexa to intelligently act on various events happening in and around your home, enabling more personalized, proactive, and helpful experiences, such as delivering a reminder when a specific person walks in the room, or a proactive alert that your garage door is unlocked and it’s after 10 p.m.
Amazon Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio
The first-ever Echo Dot Max features nearly 3x the bass compared to Echo Dot (5th gen) with room-filling sound that automatically adapts to your space. For the first time, Echo Dot has been engineered from the ground up with two speakers. Echo Dot Max features a two-way speaker system with a high-excursion woofer optimised for deep bass and a custom tweeter for crisp high notes.
Amazon also re-architected the sound system. The new design eliminates the separate speaker module, integrating the speaker directly into the device housing to double the air space for fuller bass. The result is a compact speaker that packs a huge punch. The Echo Dot Max costs $99.99 (approx Rs 8,870).
For the $129.99 (approx Rs 11,500) Echo Studio, Amazon made it 40% smaller than the original. The new Echo Studio combines a high-excursion woofer that delivers deep, immersive bass and three optimally placed full-range drivers to create immersive sound that fills the room. Plus, it supports spatial audio and Dolby Atmos for a true surround sound experience.
In addition to premium audio, this new smart speaker features a new modern spherical design and premium material. The fabric has been knit in 3D to maintain acoustic transparency. And, it has added an engaging visual understanding model to the familiar light ring.
The company adds that you can connect up to five Echo Studio or Echo Dot Max devices with compatible Fire TV sticks for an immersive surround sound system. With Alexa Home Theater, you plug in your speakers, and Alexa takes care of the rest—automatically tuning them to the room.
The new Echo devices are available for pre-order today and U.S. customers will get Alexa+ Early Access out of the box with the purchase of any new Echo. The all-new Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio will be available on October 29.
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Echo Show 8, Echo Show 11
The displays on the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 combine in-cell touch and negative liquid crystal design paired with ambient visuals that adapt to the environment. “This approach allowed us to reduce layers of lamination and maximize the viewing angle. The picture quality is exceptional with improved clarity in both bright and dimly lit rooms,” said Amazon.
With the 13-megapixel camera, Alexa recognizes when you walk up to the device, greets you, and shows you the information you want. Further, you can see Alexa’s more visual conversational responses, view your favorite photos, manage new color-coded family calendars, or get intelligent summaries of your Ring video footage. These all-new high-density, high-definition displays pack in over a million pixels, and the company adds that it has also maximized the viewable screen area. Amazon also designed the UI to fit better into the new screens, such as:
- A new media control center that puts all your entertainment options at your fingertips. Browse music, ambient sounds, podcasts, and books in dedicated pages, play content with a single tap, and easily manage playback across multiple devices.
- The new Alexa+ smart home experience makes it easy to control all your connected devices at once, see event summaries from your Ring camera feeds and more, all in one place. Each of these new devices also includes a built-in smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread to control thousands of compatible smart home devices.
- There are new color-coded calendars make it easy to track family activities, while Alexa helps manage scheduling conflicts. Alexa will also help organize your to-do lists by assigning tasks to different family members and suggesting actions she can take on herself based on her capabilities.
- With the new Alexa+ shopping widget, you can keep track of your Amazon, Whole Foods, and Amazon Fresh shopping activities in one place—from tracking your deliveries, to reordering everyday essentials with a simple tap or voice command, and viewing detailed product information right from your Echo Show home screen. Alexa+ can also help you discover the perfect gift for any person or occasion across Amazon’s vast catalog—asking intelligent questions to narrow down the search, and offering personalized recommendations based on the information you’ve shared.
- Amazon is now working with Oura to help you achieve your health and wellness goals. If you choose to connect your Oura account, Alexa can provide personalized suggestions like getting in a quick workout based on your schedule or nudge you when you’re nearing your optimal sleep window. It Will be adding more partners including Withings and Wyze to expand the health metrics you can surface soon.
The new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 feature a new audio architecture as well, where both devices include new front-facing stereo speakers and a custom woofer for room-filling spatial audio. The full-range drivers are strategically placed under the floating displays and are meticulously designed to fire audio frontwards to deliver clear sound directly toward the customer. Echo Show 8 will be available for $179.99 (approx Rs 16,000) and Echo Show 11 will be available for $219.99 (approx Rs 19,500).
Already up for pre-order, the new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 will be available on November 12 in the US.
Alexa+ Store
The company will also soon debut the Alexa+ Store which will serve as a central destination where you can explore, discover, and enable tens of thousands of devices and services from well-known brands like TaskRabbit, Fandango, Priceline, Uber, Lyft, Thumbtack, GrubHub, and Yahoo Sports; manage new or existing subscriptions like Amazon Music, Amazon Kids+, Alexa Emergency Assist; and further personalize your Alexa experience.
Additionally, companies including Bose, Sonos, LG, Samsung, and BMW will be adding Alexa+ to their speakers, TVs and In-Car experiences too.
New Fire TV Lineup with Alexa+
All new devices are available for pre-order today and starting to ship next month in the US. The Fire TV Stick 4K Select is $39.99 (approx Rs 3,500). The Omni QLED Series comes in 50″, 55″, 65″, and 75″ models and starts at $479.99 (approx Rs 42,500). The 4-Series comes in 43″, 50″, and 55″ models and starts at $329.99 (approx Rs 29,200) while the 2-Series comes in 32″ and 40″ and starts at $159.99 (approx Rs 14,200). You can get access to Alexa+ when you purchase any of these TVs and additional select Fire TV devices, including Panasonic and Hisense models.
Amazon’s new flagship Omni QLED Series delivers a 60% brighter display than previous models. With nearly double the local dimming zones, users will get to see brighter whites and crisper blacks, while Dolby Vision and HDR10+ Adaptive technology makes content appear more vibrant. Plus, an upgraded Processor makes it 40% faster than before.
The Omni Series further has the ability to automatically adjust the display colour based on your room’s lighting, and with Amazon’s Omnisense technology, the TV turns on when you enter the room. It displays your photos or artwork and powers down when you leave to save energy. Interactive Art responds dynamically to your movements, and when you want to watch something, talk directly to Alexa+ through the TV.
The redesigned 2-Series Fire TVs delivers HD while the 4-Series offers 4K resolution. Both feature ultra-thin metal bezels, and are 30% faster than before with a new quad-core processor. For the first time, Amazon has added Omnisense technology to these models too, so you get intelligent experiences at every price point. And with Dialogue Boost, a new feature coming to all of Amazon’s new TVs, you can turn up voice volume without increasing background noise.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Select offers 4K picture quality with HDR10+ support and apps that launch faster than before. The performance comes from the brand’s new operating system, Vega, which is responsive and highly efficient. Everything you need is right in the box—it works with the mainstream streaming services, and will soon support Xbox Gaming, Luna, and Alexa+.