Amazon unveils Echo Spot smart speaker
Echo Spot claims to be designed to fit in any part of the home and features a 2.5-inch screen, built-in speaker, and a front-facing camera.
Last year, Amazon had launched the series of Echo Smart speakers in India – Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus. Adding to the product portfolio list, the company has launched Echo Spot in India. Similar to other Echo products the Spot also connects to Alexa to play music, read the news, watching cricket highlights and several other smart options.
The company claims the Echo Spot is designed to fit in any part of the home and features a 2.5-inch screen, a built-in speaker, and a front-facing camera above the circular display. Weighing around 419g, the Echo supports Bluetooth and dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity.
The Echo Spot features Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa, which is compatible with Fire OS, Android and iOS devices. This new mini screen speaker can basically do all the things, which the other Echo devices offer.
Echo Spot’s front-facing camera is capable of doing things like Alexa-to-Alexa voice-controlled video calls or sending a message. For instance, a user can simply say, “Alexa, call dad,” or “Alexa, send a message to Vinay.” The company claims that video calls work between any of the two Echo Spot devices.
Echo Spot’s screen claims to enhance the user experience with Drop In – a feature, where a user can visit the living room to see what other members of their family are up to. The convenience of Drop In is available on all Echo devices in India including the Echo Spot, Echo Dot, Echo and Echo Plus.
Echo Spot features second generation far-field technology with four microphones, acoustic beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation so that it can hear users from across the room – even while music is playing. If the user tends to have more than one Echo, Alexa claims to respond intelligently from the Echo you are closest to with ESP (Echo Spatial Perception).
Echo Spot is also capable of generating short-form videos such as news briefings from news providers like NDTV, Aaj Tak, Times Now and India Today. Whenever required user can just ask Alexa and view videos, play movie trailers from streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Daily Motion and Vimeo.
Amazon also offers its Prime members to shop by using their voice with the Echo device. Further, the user can also see the product image, title, price and user ratings on the screen when shopping. A user can purchase products immediately or add items easily to his/her shopping list or shopping cart.
Amazon claims that thousands of skills from Alexa India store are now available for the Echo Spot. Many have been enhanced for users to utilise Echo Spot’s glanceable screen to watch cricket highlights on ESPNCricinfo, viewing cab options and booking details of user's Ola cab, discover restaurants with Zomato, viewing album art when listening to favourite music etc.
The Echo Spot also offers music playback through its built-in speaker. Users can also connect the Spot to home entertainment system through Bluetooth or a 3.5mm stereo cable to voice activate entire home entertainment system. Echo Spot can browse songs by asking Alexa and can also show or play songs by genre, artiste, decade, composer, film, language and more. It offers control over the music playback on Amazon Prime Music, Saavn and TuneIn. With the multi-room music feature, users can play their favourites throughout the home, with synchronised music across all your Echo devices.
As for the pricing, the Echo Spot is priced at Rs 12,999. However, as a limited period offer the Echo Spot can be bought for Rs 10,499.
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