Personally, I think this is the most interesting product in the new releases because it addresses a hole in the Echo lineup. The Echo Studio is a powerful smart speaker designed to compete with products like the Google Home Max or third-party speakers like the Sonos Move. For just $200, the Echo Studio brings three 1-inch tweeters, two midrange speakers, and a 5.25-inch woofer, all of which combine to pump out Dolby Atmos audio. You can pair them together and it even has a built-in Zigbee hub to control smart home gadgets. It also has built-in adaptable audio tech that allows it to listen to its own sound performance and adjust on the fly to make itself sound better. It may not sound like a huge update, but adding a digital clock display to the $60 Dot is a great idea. The rest of its functionality hasn’t changed much, but now an LED display on the front of the devices tells you the time. Yeah, you can get the time from your phone, but there’s benefit in not having to open your phone and risk getting sidetracked into the evil carnival of the internet. With all the new additions to Alexa’s ever-growing family, it’s easy to forget about the original smart speaker. The Echo stays at $99, but it now employs a 3-inch woofer to close the gap in sound quality between it and the upmarket Echo Plus. The original Echo also got a new fabric design, which is attractive in a way that you’ll probably just forget it’s there after a couple of days anyway. Are there still spots in your house that don’t have Alexa? Well, not anymore. The Flex costs just $25 and plugs into a standard outlet. It has a built-in USB port so you can charge a smartphone from it or plug in USB-powered accessories like a night light. Its primary function, however, is to work like a regular Echo. It has a built-in microphone and a tiny speaker so you can talk to the walls with maximum efficacy. Don’t need or want glasses? What about an Alexa ring to wear on your finger? The Echo Loop has a pair of microphones and a hilariously tiny speaker built into it. Hold it up to your face to talk to Alexa. It’s water-resistant and a built-in haptic feedback system buzzes to tell you when someone is calling or you have a notification. It costs $129, which seems lofty for its niche use case, but not as bad in light of the engineering it takes to make components this tiny.
