Alexa’s new smart speaker home just got a bold redesign

Amazon line of smart speakers is switching up its look; the new Amazon Echo will be spherical. The price will be $100 (£90), which is what the company’s previous, third-generation Amazon Echo went for. The new Echo speaker will be available Oct. 22, and its fabric-covered body will come in three different colors: charcoal, glacier white and twilight blue. It’s open for preorder now.

See it at Amazon

For specifics about its design as regards sound quality, Amazon says, “Its 3.0-inch woofer, dual-firing tweeters, and Dolby processing delivers stereo sound with clear highs, dynamic-mids, and deep bass that automatically adapts to any room.”

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While the woofer appears to be the same as the previous Echo’s, Amazon has packed a second .8-inch tweeter into the speaker, which should fill out its mid- and high-range sound. In addition, Amazon says the speaker will adapt to the acoustics of any room it’s put in, which I’m excited to test out.

The tech giant’s lineup of smart speakers includes its budget-friendly Echo Dot, which is also getting the spherical treatment, as well as the high-end Echo Studio announced at last year’s hardware event and released for the holidays. Though a wall-plug speaker called the Echo Flex and a Dot with Clock (which is also getting spherical) were announced at last year’s event and released soon after, Amazon seemed more concerned with new generations of speakers than all new products this year.

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Amazon/Screenshot by Juan Garzon/CNET

With its built-in Zigbee receiver for connecting with smart home devices, the new spherical Echo speaker will replace both 2019’s Amazon Echo and 2018’s Amazon Echo Plus.

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