Amazon has unveiled its latest Echo smart speaker with some interesting new features… but for now, it’s only for India.
The device is called the Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker Edition, and as you’ll have guessed, the key feature is portability. It has a built-in battery capable of playing music for up to 10 hours before it needs recharging.
Note: the pitch here isn’t ‘take it down the park’ like traditional battery-powered speakers: Echo’s Alexa assistant still needs a Wi-Fi connection to work. The pitch is more “unplug the device and carry it room to room while listening to music” – not such a big leap over taking an existing Echo from room to room and having to wait for it to power up and reconnect before the music restarts. Even so, the sight of Amazon launching a new Echo for India first is interesting: the new model retails for 4,999 rupees (around $70) for now as an introductory offer, although its official price is 5,999 rupees (around $84).
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