Echo: the fourth generation Amazon device

For technology lovers, Amazon launched its latest product: new look and new sound for the fourth generation Amazon Echo device. 

The company stresses that “you don’t have to be an environmental scientist to make sustainable choices” and in fact 50% of the plastics used to create the device is recycled plastics and both the fabric and the aluminium are 100% recycled materials. Even 99% of Echo’s packaging is made from wood fibre-based materials “from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources”. 

This smart speaker is compatible with Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Spotify, Deezer and other platforms and obviously offers Bluetooth connection. A single sphere that includes high-quality sound, a temperature sensor that allows you to manage and regulate heating or air conditioner and a smart home hub that allows you to control the different devices compatible with Zigbee. The new AZ1 Neural Edge processor has allowed the optimization of speech recognition which is faster and more precise, now it will be much more immediate to ask Alexa to play the music, to call someone, to answer a question, to mark an event in the calendar and much more. Amazon has also thought about privacy, the Echo devices are in fact created with a specific button to disable the microphones and all the voice recordings can be listened to or deleted at any time. 

Let’s now talk about its features, the old cylinder has been put aside to make space for a spherical design of about 15 centimetres in diameter. On the surface there are buttons to turn up or down the volume, to activate Alexa and to disable the microphone. At the base you can see the classic multi-coloured ring: the red indicates the disabled microphone, the blue when Alexa is listening and the yellow when Wi-Fi is disconnected. The speakers are placed frontally and at the top, so it is not a full 360-degree audio experience as the rounded shape would suggest. 

The latest fourth generation Echo costs about 99.99 euros and is available in different colours: charcoal, glacier white and twilight blue. There is also the red colour of the “product red” limited edition, for each Amazon Echo RED sold, 10 euros will be donated to the Global Fund to support the fight against AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and Coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. Now that Christmas is approaching, it would certainly be a perfect gift for technology and music lovers.