When Amazon announced Alexa+, I was rather impressed with the demonstrations and immediately wanted a new flagship speaker to go with it. Seven months later, Amazon unveiled its new line of Alexa+ Echo speakers – the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio – and I was over the moon.
The new line of Echo smart speakers is Amazon’s most powerful yet, and not just because of its Alexa+ smarts. Its remodeled sound system packs 360-degree spatial audio with a bass boost (3x compared to the Echo Dot 5th Gen) and introduces support for Dolby Atmos, which was one of my biggest hopes for the next era of Echo speakers.
So far, I really like what I see with the Echo Dot Max – even its resemblance to the Death Star is rather quirky. Despite this, there are three additional features I initially hoped for but didn’t make the cut – which I believe could make the Echo Dot Max an unstoppable force in Amazon’s smart speaker lineup.
1. Ambient lighting to set the mood
When Alexa+ was announced, I hoped that the next Echo speaker would also serve as a lamp, offering ambient settings with adjustable brightness, warmth, and color. Alas, this is missing from the Echo Dot Max.
I’m always seeing content on social media of apartments kitted out with the best smart lights, which can really help bring a room together (like the Sonos IKEA Symfonisk lamp), so there’s definitely demand there for Amazon to capitalize on. It would also be great to have custom time settings to make waking up in the morning feel less jarring.
Though it would’ve been amazing to see this come to the Echo Dot Max, it does leave room for Amazon to add ambient lighting to future devices.
2. A small smart screen/ mini display
Yes, Amazon has the new and improved Echo Show smart displays for this, but the company could easily bring a small smart screen to its smaller Echo devices – it’s done it before.
Amazon introduced a mini display to the Echo Spot, though it’s more of a smart alarm rather than a smart speaker. But not only does it display the time of day, weather, and temperature, it also packs a music visualizer displaying the song that you’re currently listening to.
3. Colors! Colors! Colors!
Another one of my biggest wishes for the new era of Echo speakers was a more adventurous color range. Neutral colors that adapt to all kinds of interior styles are a great way to ensure that there’s an option for every consumer, but some of us are a little more maximalist and quirky.
While I appreciate Amazon’s previous attempts at experimenting with color (see the Echo Pop) and its loyalty to branding, I think it’s about time it offers something different on the color front, especially with its new Alexa+ smart speakers – it should definitely take note of the new Google Home Speaker.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
