Amazon’s Stylish Echo Pop Leads New Alexa Speaker Lineup

Amazon’s growing its Alexa-powered Echo smart device lineup with the new Echo Pop smart speaker, a budget set of Echo Buds and an upgraded Echo Show 5 smart display, the company announced Wednesday. 

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 today, 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.

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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.”

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.

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.

The Echo Pop, Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 5 Kids are expected to start shipping on May 31, and the Echo Buds on June 7.

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