Amazon’s new Alexa-powered Echo devices, the Echo Pop smart speaker and the upgraded Echo Show 5 smart display are available from today. I went hands-on with the Pop for some initial thoughts, so read on for more.
Amazon’s new Echo Pop is a $40 Alexa smart speaker featuring a semispherical design, similar to the Harman Kardon Onyx. The speaker is designed for smaller rooms and comes in a range of colors, including lavender and teal. Like the other Alexa speakers announced last week, the Pop features Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor for a claimed 20% speed increase, while it can also extend a home mesh network with Eero capability built in.
Read More: Amazon Echo’s Hidden Features
Amazon’s SVP Rohit Prasad told CNET that the number of purchases made on Alexa devices had increased by 40% in the past year, and that “the greater percentage of that was on devices with a screen.”
Amazon bumped up the sound quality for its latest Echo smart display.
To that end, Amazon introduced an upgraded $90 Echo Show 5 with a redesigned speaker system for better clarity and bass. The Alexa-powered smart display also has an improved microphone array onboard, and comes in pale blue, charcoal black and white. The $100 Echo Show 5 Kids variation has the same tweaks and also offers a new space-themed design.
Lastly, the $50 Echo Buds true-wireless earbuds are a stripped-down version of the existing $120 Echo Buds, without active noise canceling. They do have the same 20-hour battery life, however. The design is more AirPod-like, with long stems, than the Echo Buds, and Amazon says the fit is more comfortable than before. The Echo Buds will be available on June 7.
Amazon leads both Google and Apple with sales of its smart devices, which also includes the Echo Dot. The company faces increasing competition from Google, though, which just introduced its own hybrid smart display, the Pixel Tablet.
Hands-on with the Echo Pop
The $99 HomePod mini and the $40 Echo Pop are similarly-sized
I tested the Echo Pop in the CNET AV Lab, and found that it offered similar levels of performance to what I’ve heard previously from the Nest Mini, though not the HomePod mini. The first thing I noticed about the Echo Pop is how small it is at only 3.9 inches high. For a visual guide, imagine the Echo Dot or the Google Nest mini tilted on their sides. The front of the speaker features a 2-inch woofer and, as I expected from such a small speaker, it’s best when used as a digital assistant. Dialogue from Alexa is clear and non-congested-sounding, and I found it also made podcasts enjoyable to listen to.
Music, on the other hand, was a mixed bag, and the speaker was thoroughly outclassed by the similarly-sized but more-expensive Apple HomePod mini. The Pop struggled to reproduce bass of any kind, and it sounded small with my test track Yulunga (Spirit Dance) by Dead Can Dance. The Apple was better able to reproduce the deep bass notes of the song as well as make the hall Lisa Gerrard is singing in come alive.
In the meantime I will continue testing, including against the competitive Google devices. Look out for a full review of the Echo Pop on CNET.com in the coming days.
Read More: 4 Risky Spots to Put Your Echo
