Amazon Echo (4th Generation)
The new spherical Amazon Echo gives us the news and controls our home, but can we trust it with our music?
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Wireless speaker | £90 whf.cm/Echo-4thGen |
Amazon’s inaugural smart speaker is back with a new look, a Zigbee smart hub built in and more potential under its 100 per cent recycled hood. You don’t need an especially keen eye to note that for this fourth-generation Echo, Amazon has decided to start from scratch.
The cylinder design has gone, in favour of a Magic 8-Ball-like sphere, and perhaps fittingly, you can ask it any question you want – as long as it’s plugged in and linked to your wi-fi.
Amazon is transferring its onceexclusive flagship Echo Plus features – greater audio power and a built-in smart home hub – to the overhauled Echo. This new Echo essentially usurps the Plus model in that it offers the ability to control Zigbee devices, promises better audio over its predecessor, and, of course, a more nuanced Alexa voice assistance. That’s a better proposition than you'll get from other smart speakers in the sub £100 price, er… sphere.
Sphere of influence
The Echo measures 13cm tall, 14cm wide and is near spherical (the base is flat surface to stop it from rolling) and is available in black, dusky blue or white. Amazon’s trademark smart speaker light ring has been relocated from the crown of the speaker to the base, providing a glow that now reflects nicely off surfaces. It lights up blue when you utter your chosen Alexa wake-word, yellow when grouped with another Amazon speaker and orange in set-up mode.