Amazon Echo is a hands-free smart speaker that users control with their voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to instantly play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather and more. All they have to do is to ask the AI-driven Alexa.
There have been various Echo gadget reviews that have been circulating all over the internet. Some say it is an extraordinary and intriguing device; while some say it is stunning, smooth and becoming more responsive.
Recently, Amazon Echo has finally gone on sale in the UK, over a year after being released in the US.
Here are some of the reviews and verdicts for this new innovation based on reports by Telegraph and Mirror, respectively:
Design
It's all matte black exterior and 9.25 x 3.27-inch cylindrical shape gives it the kind of camouflage you'd expect from an appliance. It is statuesque in appearance.
The design is fairly minimalist, with a choice of black and white colors.
Setup
The box contains the Echo itself and a power cable, as well as a tiny instruction manual.
Setting up the Echo is fairly easy. After plugging it in and pressing the activation button, the voice assistant Alexa will be powered and will guide users through the installation process on your smartphone.
Alexa
Alexa is really what Amazon Echo is all about. The voice assistant controls every aspect of the device.
Alexa's speech recognition is very good. She's also pretty good at Math problems, making shopping lists, answering questions and finding definitions of words (using Microsoft's Bing search engine) and more.
Sound
The Echo is a 1.0 channel speaker, which means it is a single speaker with one tweeter and one woofer.
Echo can fill the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio.
Price and availability
Amazon Echo went on sale in the UK on 28 September, at a price of £149.99.
It is available at Argos , Currys , John Lewis , PC World , and Tesco, as well as from Amazon itself.
Verdict
According to Sophie Curtis of Mirror, Amazon Echo is really the first mainstream smart speaker to hit the market, and as such it is far from perfect.
The Echo leaves a lot to be desired as purely a Bluetooth speaker. With its engrossing AI, however, Amazon's grand experiment in artificial intelligence is one of the most interesting gadgets, based on the findings and reviews of TechRadar.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
