Once upon a time, the Amazon Echo Dot was the company's least expensive smart speaker, selling for $50 or less during Black Friday. Those days are long gone, but Amazon thinks it's added enough to the new Echo Dot to justify its new price of $99.
The sixth-generation Echo Dot, which comes four years after its predecessor, has a similar design, with an acoustic fabric covering the front of the speaker, and a hard plastic shell around the back. The Alexa bar — the small LED strip that lets you know when the AI is listening — is now just a small arc in the front, rather than a circle running around the bottom of the device. Maybe Amazon thought it looked a bit too much like the Google Home Speaker?
Despite the outward similarities, Amazon has beefed up the internals of the Echo Dot. It has a marginally larger full-range driver (1.75 inches vs. 1.73 inches) that the company says will deliver crisper vocals and 50% more bass than the previous generation. Its new A23 processor is also better suited for handling on-device Alexa+ requests, so that you'll get faster responses.
And, the addition of a fourth microphone means that Alexa+ should be able to more easily pick up your voice, even if the room is noisy.
While the previous Echo Dot had both presence and temperature sensors, the newest model has Amazon's Omnisense sensor, which is basically those two sensors in one, but also uses AI to help provide more proactive suggestions.
As before, the Echo Dot has an Eero Wi-Fi extender built in, and supports Zigbee, Matter, and Thread. However, it has a hub built into the speaker itself, so it should be easier to further extend your smart home network.
The Echo Dot goes on sale today (Oct. 28) for $99, and is available in Graphite, Glacier White, Agave Green, and Coral Pink. The Amazon Kids Echo Dot, which comes in Octopus and Penguin, starts at $109.99.
Amazon Echo Studio with Camera
Amazon is also adding a camera to its top-end smart speaker; this will most likely appeal to those who have a Fire TV device, and want to upgrade their speakers. You can already use the Echo Studios as output devices for your Fire TV (I hooked up four Echo Studios to create a full surround system), but the Echo Studio with Camera enables one more feature.
Now, if you say "Alexa, call my mom," it will initiate a video call using your Fire TV device and the camera in the Echo Studio. This way, you can both see your caller and be seen by them. During the demo, Amazon executive Panos Panay made a video call to his parents, who seemed both bemused and a little befuddled (it was pretty early in the day for them).
However, you can also use the camera in conjunction with Alexa+, and have it identify objects, something Amazon said could be helpful for those with vision impairments.
The Echo Studio with Home Camera costs $249 — $30 more than the regular Echo Studio — and available in Graphite. You can buy a stand for the Studio separately for $39.
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