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This month Amazon is releasing an entirely new lineup of Echo smart devices, including the colorful and compact Echo Pop. Available for pre-order now and priced at $39.99, the Pop will officially drop on May 31. Thanks to its lower price tag compared to the 2022 Echo Dot 5th Gen, I expect the colorful new Echo Pop to become the new Alexa speaker of choice for Amazon shoppers. You should also expect it to be a popular gift recommendation throughout 2023.
The Echo Pop was designed with music lovers in mind, and Amazon says it will deliver a stronger and fuller sound than the Dot speakers of the past, thanks to a new custom-designed 1.95-inch front-facing driver. The new Echo Pop will have a slightly weaker bass compared to the larger, spherical Echo speakers (the most recent generation of Alexa speakers before the Echo Pop), but the Pop is both more compact and more affordable. Plus, if you want deep bass and high fidelity in a smart speaker, that’s not really what Echo devices are designed for anyway.
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But, does it pop?
Thanks to a couple of cute new color options, we say yes. The compact Echo Pop smart speaker comes in a purple pastel called Lavender Bloom and a mossy Midnight Teal, in addition to the standard black and silver options.
The new Echo Pop is tilted on the front-facing vertical axis and has a small light bar for a crown. It’s the perfect combination of the designs seen in previous generations of Echo Dot speakers, and it’s what you’d get by combining the spherical and hockey puck shapes we’ve seen in the past.
In a press release announcing the release of the new Echo products, Amazon reported that use of Alexa increased by 35 percent in 2022. Despite this, the company made significant layoffs to its Alexa team earlier this year, although the company still seems committed to making new Alexa-capable devices. Besides the Echo Pop, the new lineup also includes updates to the Echo Show 5, Amazon’s entry-level smart display.
The 3rd Gen Echo Show 5 is also available for pre-order ahead of a May 31 release, and it’s priced at $89.99. Like the Echo Pop, the new Echo Show 5 also functions as a smart speaker and helps you control smart home devices. In addition, it features a screen for watching TV, making video calls, or checking in on your doorbell camera.
Amazon has also packed in some new upgrades, so if your existing Echo Show is ready for a replacement, there are some good reasons to try out the new device. The Echo Show 5 offers 20 percent faster performance compared to previous Echo Show devices and doubles the bass power, according to an Amazon press release. That being said, if you’re happy with your existing Echo Show, there isn’t a super compelling reason to make the switch just yet.
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