Amazon held an Alexa-themed event today where it announced a bunch of new products including new Echo speakers, Fire TV Sticks, Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers, Ring security products, and a new cloud gaming service. Here is everything that you need to get up to speed on Amazon’s new products.
New Echo Speakers
Starting with speakers, Amazon has launched a new generation of Echo Dot, Echo Dot Plus, Echo, and the Echo Show 10. The brand has also launched Echo Dot Kids Edition.
New Echo Dot, Echo Dot Plus, Echo Dot Kids Edition
The new Echo Dot has a spherical design as opposed to the cylindrical design of the previous generation smart speaker. This compact smart speaker packs a 1.6-inch front-firing woofer, which, according to Amazon, offers “crisp vocals and balanced bass for full sound you can enjoy in any room of your home.” As for the Echo Dot Plus, it is an Echo Dot with an LED display at the front that can show you time, temperature, timers, alarms, and things like that.
This time around, Amazon has also launched an Echo Dot Kids Edition. It is basically Echo Dot with kids-inspired color patterns over the speaker.
The Echo Dot comes in three color options, Charcoal, Glacier White, and Twilight Blue. And it is priced at $49.99 for the US market. The Echo Dot Plus is available in Glacier White and Twilight Blue color options, and it comes with a price tag of $59.99. The Echo Dot Kids Edition is priced at $59.99. All the new Echo Dot smart speakers are available to pre-order starting today and the brand will start shipping them later this year.
New Echo
The new Echo has the same, spherical design as the Echo Dot series products. It also gets an LED light ring at the base of the speaker that is designed to reflect off of surfaces to enhance the visual appeal of the smart speaker.
The smart speaker has two tweeters and a 3-inch woofer, which according to Amazon, offers “clear highs, dynamic-mids, and deep bass.”. It comes with Dolby Audio and it can tune the audio to suit the acoustics of the room.
The latest generation of the Echo is powered by the brand’s own AZ1 processor, which according to Amazon, consumes 20x less power, uses 85% lesser memory, and offers two times faster speech processing. The new Echo also has support for Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Amazon Sidewalk.
The pricing and availability details of the new Echo are yet to be revealed.
New Echo Show 10
The latest iteration of the Echo Show 10 offers the biggest generational leap in terms of design. It features a motorized, rotating base that automatically swivels the 10-inch HD display of the speaker to face you. So, no matter where you are in the room, the display of the Echo Show 10 will rotate towards you as soon as you start interacting with it. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The new Echo Show 10 offers a 2.1 channel audio, which is a huge jump from the mono audio setup in the previous generation Echo Show 10. With the 2.1 channel audio setup, the smart speaker will offer left and right channel audio separately. There are two 1-inch tweeters and a 3.0-inch woofer, which, according to Amazon, offers “premium, directional sound that automatically adapts to your space, making it great for music, videos, and more.”
The latest Echo Show 10 also comes with a 13-megapixel camera, which should offer better video call quality than its predecessor. The new Echo Show 10 is available in two colors, Charcoal, and Glacier White. It comes with a price tag of $249.99 and will be available “in time for holidays.”
New Fire TV Sticks
Along with five new smart speakers, Amazon has also launched two Fire TV products, the new Fire TV Stick and the Fire TV Stick Lite.
New Fire TV Stick
The new Fire TV Stick packs a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, which, according to Amazon, is 50% faster than the SoC in the previous generation Fire TV Stick. Thanks to the extra horsepower, the new Fire TV Stick can display Full HD content at 60FPS along with HDR. It also comes with dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi for faster and more reliable internet connection. In terms of audio, the new Fire TV Stick supports Dolby Atmos. The streaming device offers all these performance improvements while consuming 50% lesser power.
The new Fire TV Stick comes with a remote control that has a dedicated button for almost all frequently-used functions. The new Fire TV Stick costs $39.99 in the US. It can be pre-ordered starting today and its shipping will commence from next week.
Fire TV Stick Lite
The Fire TV Stick Lite is the newest addition to the Fire TV line up. While the details regarding the specifications of the Fire TV Stick Lite are scarce at the moment, we know that it comes with a more affordable remote that misses out on volume buttons.
The Fire TV Stick Lite costs $29.99. You can pre-order one today and it will start shipping from next week.
New Eero Mesh Wi-Fi Routers
Eero mesh W-Fi routers are one of the most affordable and also one of the best performing mesh Wi-Fi routers available in the market. Today, Amazon has launched two new Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers to take the game even further, the Eero 6 and Eero Pro 6.
Eero 6
The Eero 6 is a dual-band Wi-Fi router offering Wi-Fi 6 (also known as Wi-Fi ax) connectivity. According to Amazon, Eero 6 is “Designed for homes with internet connections up to 500 Mbps, a single eero 6 is a dual-band mesh Wi-Fi 6 router with two Ethernet ports and a built-in Zigbee smart home hub. A single eero 6 covers up to 1,500 square feet. An eero 6 two-pack covers up to 3,000 square feet and includes an eero 6 mesh router and the all-new eero 6 mesh wifi extender. An eero 6 three-pack, which provides up to 5,000 square feet of coverage, includes an eero 6 and two eero 6 mesh wifi extenders.”
The Eero 6 costs $129 for one-pack, $199 for two-pack, and $279 for three-pack. It is available for pre-order starting today and it will start shipping later this year.
Eero Pro 6
The Eero Pro 6, as the name suggests, is an advanced variant of the Eero 6. It offers tri-band connectivity as opposed to the dual-band connectivity in the Eero 6.
Amazon describes Eero Pro 6 as “Perfect for homes with Gigabit internet connections, a single eero Pro 6 is a tri-band, high-performance mesh Wi-Fi 6 router with two Ethernet ports and a built-in Zigbee smart home hub. A single eero Pro 6 covers up to 2,000 square feet. An eero Pro 6 two-pack includes two eero Pro 6 routers, covering up to 3,500 square feet. An eero Pro 6 three-pack includes three eero Pro 6 routers that connect wired or wirelessly to cover up to 6,000 square feet.”
The Eero Pro 6 is priced at $229 for one-pack, $399 for two-pack, and $599 for three-pack. Its pre-orders start today and it will be shipped later this year.
Ring Security Products
Amazon-owned Ring has launched four new products today, a new home security camera, dubbed, the Always Home Cam, and three new products related to car security and monitoring, Ring Car Alarm, Ring Car Cam, and Ring Car Connect.
Ring Always Home Cam
The Ring Always Home Cam is a whole new type of product. It is a drone equipped with a camera that can fly around in your house to check for security risks. It is a two-part product; there is a base for the drone to dock and charge, and the actual drone.
The Ring Always Home Cam costs $249. The detailed specifications and availability of Ring Always Home Cam are yet to be released.
Ring Car Alarm
Ring Car Alarm is an Alexa-powered device that plugs into your car’s OBD-II port. It can detect and alert the linked devices if someone tries to break into your car, if your car is being towed, or if another vehicle hits your car. It has a built-in alarm that can be triggered remotely to alert the people around the car about the activity. It uses Amazon’s Sidewalk network and it can be linked with multiple Alexa devices. The Ring Car Alarm costs $59.99. Its release date is currently unknown.
Ring Car Cam
The Ring Car Cam is the brand’s first dash camera. It can record videos of inside and outside of the car. Apart from acting as a standard dash camera, the Ring Car Cam detects and alerts you if there is a break-in, if your car is being towed, or if there has been an accident. It is powered by Alexa and uses Wi-Fi or LTE to communicate. The Ring Car Cam costs $199. The brand is yet to reveal its availability details.
Ring Car Connect
The Ring Car Connect is an adapter that plugs into the USB port of a car and uses its existing camera system to record video and live stream the footage to the owner’s device. It can also detect and alert the owner of security risks. The Ring Car Connect is currently compatible with four Tesla cars, Model 3, Model X, Model S, and Model Y. It uses LTE and Wi-Fi for communication. The Ring Car Connect costs $199. The availability details of Car Connect are yet to be revealed.
Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming Service
Amazon has launched a cloud gaming service, dubbed, Luna, at today’s event. Just like any other cloud gaming service, games in Luna will be processed in the service provider’s servers and then streamed to the user so that even graphics-heavy games can run on devices without a powerful GPU. According to Amazon, Luna will offer 4K 60FPS gaming (with select titles). The brand says that there are currently more than 100 game titles available on Luna including some popular titles like Resident Evil 7, Control, Panzer Dragoon, A Plague Tale: Innocence, The Surge 2, Yooka-Laylee, GRID, Abzu, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
The cloud gaming service from Amazon will be available on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, and Fire TV Stick. Luna costs $5.99 per month. Although keep in mind that this is an introductory price. Interested users in the US can request early access to the service starting today.
That is not all though. Amazon has launched a Luna Controller as well. It is an Alexa-powered game controller, which, according to Amazon will allow you to “to effortlessly control your game.” The Luna Controller has a multiple-antenna design that prioritizes un-interrupted Wi-Fi for lower latency gaming. Luna controller has been priced at $49.99. Its availability details are currently unknown.
Our Take
With all the products that were launched today, it looks like Amazon is betting big on Alexa-powered smart products and the brand is working hard to create a complete smart home ecosystem. These newly launched products from Amazon are definitely going to impact sales of Apple’s and Google’s smart home products and services.
