Echo Spot smart speaker with a screen for video from Amazon has made its way to the Indian market. Its actual cost is Rs 12,999 but Amazon’s offering an introductory price of Rs 10,499. As usual, it’ll be available on Amazon and a few offline stores like Croma and Reliance Digital among others in the country.
Unlike the Echo Dot, Echo and the Echo Plus, Amazon is letting people know that with the Echo Spot they can make video calls (only with other Echo Spot users though) and even get to see movie trailers.
The smart speaker market has just started kicking into action in the country, which is why it was surprising to see Amazon roll out the Echo Spot so early. Amazon is the only brand (along with Google and Apple) to offer a screen-centric smart device in the market.
Echo Spot, like other Amazon devices, is heavily reliant on Alexa, its voice-assistant.
The size and viewing angle of the screen make it ideal for use on your desk or a nightstand so you can view your calendar, see the weather update, check the time, wake up to music alarms, turn your lights on and off, see shopping and to do lists, and more.Amazon India
The company claims that Echo Spot has been fitted with four microphones and offers noise-cancellation. If you’ve got two of these devices, then Alexa will respond from the one which is closer to you.
Quality-wise, the screen quality of the 2.5-inch 480x480 pixels on the Echo Spot is decent, if you're within three feet of the device. There’s a 3.5-mm audio jack at the back, which lets you connect the Spot to other external speakers.
The screen essentially adds a different dimension to how Alexa’s voice capability is used. For instance, you can browse through the music playlist from Amazon Prime Music, instead of relying on Alexa to filter it down for you.
Same goes for browsing through food recipes. However, you can’t use YouTube (a Google product after all) on this Amazon device either. Interestingly, Amazon has decided against bringing the bigger Echo Show for now, and for what it costs ($229 in the US), we’re okay with that.
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