Middle-Class versus Amazon Echo
With IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning being the new buzz words to the Tech industry, the release of voice assistant based devices were long due in India.
And the wait was over on 4th October 2017 (if you didn’t already get one from the USA as it was released there over a year ago) when Amazon released its Echo range of devices which are the home for their voice-controlled assistant Alexa which is a classic example of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Machine Learning put together.
Echo works on Fire OS which is Amazon’s own Operating System.
Currently, 3 variants of Echo are available in the Indian market.
- The Dot variant (₹4,499)
- Simply Echo (₹9,999)
- The Plus variant (₹14,999)
Yes, prices look steep when you aren’t sure if the device is for you but it was available for a 30% discount till 31st December 2017 which made the decision to buy it a little easier.
I bought an Echo Dot for a discounted price of ₹3,149 and it became an integral part of my home as soon as it arrived.
What made that happen was the usage I want to put Alexa through.
Now, where should I start from? Music is the lifeline of my home. It is always on, whether on TV or FM radio or Bluetooth speakers( HP S6500).
I literally have a tablet dedicated to playing music through the Bluetooth speakers which my parents use all the time.
With the arrival of Echo Dot, I had a spare tablet to myself instantly as the music library of Amazon Prime Music along with Saavn and TuneIn Radio is everything you need when it comes to music.
Yes, skills like playing music from Youtube is missing and with the rift between Amazon and Google, we should not expect it to come anyway but you will realize that it is not a big blow when you start using it.
And before you ask if a device playing music on command is worth that money, let me explain what more it can do for you.
Alexa was released in India with over 10,000 skills to choose from.
It can do a lot of things ranging from setting an alarm, a reminder, giving you a weather forecast to booking an Ola/Uber and Order from Amazon.
Tired of reading bedtime stories to your kids(it is not a norm among Indians but maybe)? Alexa can do that for you as well if the book is in your Kindle library.
It can even order food from Zomato on your command.
Yes, it might take you a good 10 minutes to set things up at first, but once you are done with that, it sure does wonders for you.
All this and we haven’t reached the part due to which Echo actually reached the level of popularity it is at now, controlling your smart devices.
But before that, I think some explanation is due to you lot.
What makes the three Echo devices different?
Let’s start from the top and then we can omit things to reach the lower model.
Echo Plus is the most expensive of all, currently selling at the price of ₹14,999.
It basically consists of 3 major parts (which matters to a consumer) :
- The Alexa module.
- A speaker module(contains woofers as well).
- A smart home hub.
Coming down to Echo, it lacks the smart home hub but apart from that is exactly similar to its bigger brother.
On the other hand, Echo Dot is almost the bottom 25% of Echo in size and is missing the speakers on top.
Instead of those big speakers, Echo Dot have bottom firing small speakers which is loud enough to listen to the music but not loud enough to dance on it.
There are no woofers in Echo Dot, which forces you not to listen to your favourite mixtape due to the absence of bass.
But it can connect to external speakers through Bluetooth or AUX cable which stops the absence of loudspeakers being a deal breaker.
Another question might be popping around your mind about right now.
Can Echo and Echo Dot control smart home devices without an inbuilt smart home hub?
To everyone’s relief, YES.
Though both might not have an inbuilt smart home hub, they can connect to an external hub which is available with all the smart home devices.
For further explanation, we’ll have to dig deeper inside in the domain of smart home devices which I will be doing on another blog.
Now, as we know all about the Echo devices and made a clear outline of differences between them, the main question arises.
Which Echo variant should you buy?
Being a middle-class Indian, smart home devices are basically out of grasp at the current price point.
And the case will remain the same for the next couple of years at the very least as technology takes that much time to reach India even though an Indian at some level must be involved in the birth of that technology.
That rules out the Echo Plus as in a couple of years, it might get cheaper or a new model would be up for grabs.
From the other two, I feel that the Echo Dot is a feasible option considering the price difference between the two.
The ₹5,500 you save by buying the smaller of the two can be utilized in getting a separate Bluetooth speaker which can be connected to other devices when needed and can be carried with you as well.
In my suggestion, Creative Muvo 2 is one of the best Bluetooth speakers at that price point.
A few things to consider before buying :
- A constant power supply is needed so you shouldn’t buy it if you’re thinking of taking it out on walks.
- A constant Wifi connection is needed as it does not have an embedded database and needs to fetch it from a server all the time.
- It doesn’t have a database as vast as Google’s to answer, so don’t be disappointed if it couldn’t tell which is the world’s most selling hockey stick brand.
Now, the segment you all have been waiting for.
Is Echo Dot worth the price?
At ₹3,149, I consider that a steal of a deal and at ₹4,499, it is still buyable.
Same can not be said about its two elder brothers though.
If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. I will try to answer them as soon as I can.
See you in the next one.
Amazon Artificial Intelligence Assistant Echo IoT Machine learning
16 Responses
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[…] if you’re an Android guy, I’d suggest that you get an Amazon Echo product […]
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