In case you are living under the rock and don’t know who Alexa is, she’s Amazon’s famous digital assistant with 10, 000 skills to help you manage your life with just your voice. Alexa can answer your questions, read the news, report traffic and weather, read audiobooks, control smart home devices and a lot more. Sounds promising, huh?
It powers a bunch of different Amazon and third party devices. Last year, Alexa dominated the smart speaker space but this year, the popular virtual assistant can already be found in a lot of new and unexpected places such as cars, TVs, smartphones, light fixtures, thermostats, appliances and more.
But in today’s article, let’s get to know more about the different Alexa-powered smart speakers that are available in the market today.
Echo ($179.99)
In June 2015, the e-commerce giant debuted the Amazon Echo, a 9.25 inch (23.5 cm) tall cylinder speaker with a seven-piece microphone array. It is equipped with a far-field voice recognition that hears you from across the room, even while there’s music playing. If you are in the market for a smart speaker with superb audio quality, the Echo can fill the room with immersive, 360-degree omni-directional audio and is equipped with a separate woofer and tweeter for deep bass and crisp high notes.
Dot ($49.99)
In less than a year, Amazon released a hockey puck sized version of the Echo, named Echo Dot. Its sleek and compact design makes it a perfect addition to any part of the house and ideal for traveling. It comes with a built-in speaker but is designed to be connected to external speakers or headphones for better audio quality.
Tap ($129.99)
Enjoy great music and access Alexa wherever you are with the Amazon Tap. It looks exactly like its older sibling, the Echo, but smaller and lighter, making it easy to carry around, whether you’re pedaling to the park, walking on the beach or heading to a party. It comes with an optional sling that protects the speaker against bumps and drops that you can also clip to your bag when on the go.
Echo Look ($199.99)
After a short hiatus, Amazon introduced the first Echo device with built-in hands-free camera for taking selfies and recording videos. If you love taking selfies and photos of your outfits for your social media accounts, you don’t have to worry about dealing with timers, tripods or asking someone to take your pictures for you because the Echo Look can take full-length photos and short videos with just your voice. Just say, “Alexa, take a picture” or “Alexa, take a video.” Dubbed as your “personal photographer and stylist,” the Echo Look also comes with a Style Check, a new service that gives users expert fashion advice. However, the Echo Look is available exclusively by invitation only but you can request one here.
Echo Show ($29.99)
As for the latest Echo device, Amazon launched the first Alexa-powered device with a 7-inch LCD screen that is perfect to make hands-free video calls to friends and family who have an Echo Show or the Alexa App on their smartphones. You can pre-order yours now and get it on June 28th.
