Amazon's new Echo Dot adds smart home hub, Echo Studio gets a camera

A more capable Echo Dot

According to Amazon, the new Echo Dot is its most capable yet. It remains a compact, spherical speaker wrapped in premium 3D knit, audio-transparent fabric, and comes in a range of colors. Amazon says a full-range driver built into the housing creates more back volume, delivering crisp vocals and 50% more bass than the last generation.

For the first time, the Echo Dot runs on AZ3, Amazon's custom-designed silicon. Amazon says this enables advanced on-device processing for faster, more natural conversations with Alexa+. A fourth microphone helps Alexa hear users as they move around the room, even in busy environments, so Voice ID can recognize who is speaking and personalize the experience, for example by playing your own playlist instead of your partner's.

The device also uses Omnisense, which Amazon describes as its custom sensor fusion platform. It lets the Echo Dot detect things like room temperature and presence, so Alexa can turn up the thermostat when a room is too cold or switch on the lights as someone walks in.

Smart home hub and Wi-Fi extender built in

Amazon has built a smart home hub directly into the Echo Dot for the first time. It supports Zigbee, Matter and Thread, and is meant to control thousands of compatible devices without a separate hub.

A built-in eero Wi-Fi extender adds up to 1,000 square feet of coverage to an existing eero network, which Amazon says helps eliminate dead zones.

A kids edition, the Amazon Kids Echo Dot, offers the same features and performance and includes one year of Kids+. That covers age-appropriate Audible audiobooks, ad-free music and radio stations, and kid-friendly podcasts. Features include Stories with Alexa, where children propose characters and plots that become narrated stories, and Sleep Studio, which plays wind-down content from Calm, Headspace and Moshi. Parents can set up a child profile so that responses are age appropriate.

Echo Studio with Home Camera

The all-new Echo Studio with Home Camera adds a built-in camera to what Amazon calls its best-sounding speaker. The audio setup is unchanged: a high-excursion woofer, three full-range drivers and Dolby Atmos. New Advanced Room Adaptation continuously tunes the sound to the room's acoustics, and Adaptive Volume keeps music or audiobooks at the same level as the listener moves around.

With the camera, Alexa gains visual intelligence. Live View in the Alexa app lets users check in on a room while away. Alexa can also see what is in front of the camera and help in real time. Amazon's examples include holding up a board game box and asking Alexa+ to explain the rules, or showing a cereal box so Alexa can recognize it and help reorder more flavors. Amazon says users will soon be able to pair the speaker with a compatible Fire TV device to bring video calls to the TV.

On privacy, Amazon says a dedicated button turns off the microphones and any included cameras. A built-in LED turns on when the Echo Studio with Home Camera streams images or video to the cloud. The standard Echo Studio remains available for people who prefer no camera.

Pricing and availability

The Echo Dot is available today in Graphite, Glacier White, Agave Green and Coral Pink for $99.99. The Amazon Kids Echo Dot comes in Octopus and Penguin designs, starting at $109.99. The Echo Studio with Home Camera costs $249.99 in Graphite, while the standard Echo Studio stays at $219.99. Optional stands for the Echo Dot and the Echo Studio with Home Camera are sold separately for $39.99 each.

Certain features require Alexa+, which Amazon says is included with a Prime membership. For buyers, the Echo Dot now doubles as a hub and Wi-Fi extender, while the Echo Studio line offers a choice between a camera model and the standard version.