Products

Amazon launches new Echo with Alexa+, entire hardware category renewed

Amazon's new speakers integrate ad hoc Ai processors. For now, the Alexa+ service remains available for the US market, but will 'soon' arrive in Italy

by correspondent Luca Salvioli

30 September 2025

Panos Panay, responsabile dei dispositivi di Amazon, parla di Alexa durante un evento Amazon che presenta nuovi prodotti a New York City, Stati Uniti, 30 settembre 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Amazon is relaunching practically its entire product category at a dedicated event in New York, presented by the big boss of hardware Panos Panay, the ex-Microsoft manager who arrived almost two years ago with this mission. "We want to make Ai really useful in people's lives," Panay explains, behind him the image of a home environment that will be the focus of the entire keynote.

Amazon is renewing its products with an increasing focus on artificial intelligence, where a quantum leap is expected with Alexa+, the platform launched by Amazon in early 2025 in the early access version. Now the version enhanced by generative artificial intelligence will be available already integrated in the new Echo and Fire TV devices. For now, the service remains in the early access phase and limited to the United States, but the decision to embed it directly in hardware is an important step in view of its international expansion, on which no precise dates have been announced at the moment, although Amazon managers have said that it will arrive in Europe 'soon'. Amazon's vision is very much focused on home automation.

I nuovi Amazon Echo

To simplify: in the home, we talk to Echo. Which in the Alexa+ perspective becomes more conversational, without the recurring need for the password ('Alexa'), with memory of the conversation, personalisation on the user's request (recognised by voice or camera) and so on. With a growing number of partners. And the ability to manage Blink and Ring cameras. And above all with a dialogue with the devices that takes place, of course, without the smartphone, a rather different paradigm from the one we are used to.

The most relevant news concerns Amazon's most popular devices: the entire Echo range is renewed with Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11.

They integrate two new custom-designed chips, AZ3 and AZ3 Pro, with an Ai accelerator designed to run artificial intelligence models. Echo Dot Max uses AZ3 to improve conversation detection. AZ3 powers the microphones, which take a quantum leap forward, supporting more natural and fluid interactions with Alexa, filtering out background noise and improving the ability to detect trigger speech by up to 50 per cent, Amazon says.

Echo Studio, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 integrate the more advanced AZ3 Pro chip, which expands AZ3's audio capabilities and adds support for new language models and visual transformers. In addition, AZ3 Pro compatible devices include Ominisense, a customised ambient artificial intelligence sensor platform that utilises the new Echo Show's 13-megapixel camera, audio, ultrasound, WiFi radar, accelerometer and WiFi CSI to enable more personalised and proactive Alexa experiences.

Echo Dot Max offers three times more bass than Echo Dot. The latter is in its fifth generation and this time integrates two speakers. The sound system is completely redesigned. Echo Studio, on the other hand, is 40 per cent smaller than the original model and takes a quantum leap in sound quality with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos.

By connecting up to five Echo Studio or Echo Dot Max devices with the Fire TV Stick you can create Alexa Home Theatre, once the speakers are connected Alexa automatically takes care of everything, tuning them according to the room creating a cinema effect.

Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, on the other hand, also integrate the display, with a new design where a tablet appears to be resting on the speaker.

Il nuovo Echo Show

The new Echos are available for pre-order, prices: Echo Dot Max (EUR 109.99) and Echo Studio (EUR 239.99) will be available from 29 October, while the new Echo Show 8 (EUR 199.99) and Echo Show 11 (EUR 239.99) will be available from 12 November.

On the TV front, the most interesting news is the arrival of the €54.99 Fire TV Stick 4K Select, with shipments expected from mid-October. Interesting because it is the first to carry the new VegaOS operating system, designed by Amazon for the TV. At the level of the actual TV, complete with screen, comes the Omni QLED series in 50-, 55- and 65-inch formats, with prices starting at €699.99. More affordable, the Fire TV - Series 4 comes in 43-, 50- and 55-inch models, with prices starting at €499.99. Finally, the Fire TV - Series 2 in 32-inch and 40-inch sizes, with prices starting at 279.99 euros.

The Blink and Ring range of indoor and outdoor home security cameras has also been revamped. And the new Kindle Scribe, very thin, with a colour model, which will not arrive in Italy for the time being.

Il nuovo Kindle Scribe con schermo a colori

Luca SalvioliCoordinatore Lab24
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Luogo: Milano
Argomenti: Tecnologia, Data journalism, Giornalismo digitale
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