It contains 100% post-consumer recycled fabric, 100% recycled die-cast aluminium and 50% post-consumer recycled plastic. Amazon said it was working on expanding the languages and regions but did not provide a timescale for rollout in the UK.Īlexa is a capable voice assistant and is due to receive some significant interaction and intelligence upgrades over the next year, along with new privacy modes – such as the ability to delete records of every interaction immediately after it has been processed. However, the chip is only active in the US and Canada for US English, so I could not test the improvements based in the UK. Google’s latest Nest devices have a similar chip.
What this means in theory is that requests should be processed much faster and provide greater privacy as only requests requiring data actually leave the device. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianĪlong with improved sound, the Echo now has Amazon’s new AZ1 Neural Edge processor, which allows some of Alexa’s functions to be recognised and activated without having to rely on Amazon’s servers to interpret. Setup, settings, alarms, timers, information requests and the equaliser can all be handled from the Alexa app on Android or iOS. It isn’t so far off the Sonos One, which costs twice the price. Overall, the Echo is the best-sounding smart speaker under £100, marking a significant upgrade over previous Echos and beating the recently released Apple HomePod Mini and Google Nest Audio. Those who aren’t overly keen on bass will have to tweak things in the Alexa app, where you can adjust the levels independently. It can’t quite produce the deepest of bass notes, sounding a bit muted in parts of Lindsey Stirling’s Crystallize. The Echo is just as at home blasting out electronica as it with Britpop, and even manages to sound nice and expansive for grand orchestra scores. Eric Clapton’s guitar strums are warm and detailed in the live version of Layla, while Darkside’s Paper Trails sounds sumptuous. The baseline in Dr Dre’s Next Episode is punchy and precise while Snoop Dogg’s raspy lyrics come through nice and clear. It handles most music genres with aplomb with excellent separation of tones, instruments and vocals. It produces room-filling sound that can get very loud indeed, but is just as good when played at 25% volume. It uses the mics to fine-tune the audio to your room too, similar to high-end speakers. The new Echo produces far more powerful and deeper bass that you can feel as well as hear, but still manages well-balanced mids and highs. The larger, rounder body and new speakers have had a large impact on the audio quality.
The new Echo is directional with the sound firing forward out of the mesh at the front, rather than 360-degrees as with the previous versions.
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