Amazon's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Alexa-powered smart speaker Echo has received rave reviews from critics and consumers since its introduction in 2014 across the world. Being a pioneer in the niche segment, Amazon, though a bit late, was still the first to enter the Indian market in late 2017, before Google Home and Apple HomePod. I have been using Amazon Echo for a couple of months now, and here are my thoughts on the smart speaker. My review unit is a generic Amazon Echo Grey (Rs 9,999). It has a simple cylindrical exterior body with a ring of multi-color lights -- a nice touch -- on the top, which comes to life whenever the device is switched on or when we converse with Alexa. On the exterior, it is covered with a contoured fabric that exudes a natural-like feel when touched by hand.

Two years after its birth, the device that inspired dozens of copycat smart speakers and spawned thousands of integrations is getting a makeover. Amazon's "all-new" Echo is smaller, cheaper and promises better sound. But, with a pile of new competitors and even more in the pipeline, the second-generation Echo needs to prove it's still worth your money. But it also sounds worse than those devices, delivering somewhat flat audio that emphasizes the high end and vocals at the expense of bass. Still, the second-generation Echo is quick to decipher your commands and Alexa is smart as a whip. Unless you're married to Google Assistant or Siri, this is a decent option for those buying their first smart speaker.

Amazon's Echo voice-controlled smart speaker is finally available in the UK, but was the wait worth it? The Echo is one of the first devices with Amazon's voice assistant - a rival to Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana - which allows you to control music playback just by speaking to it and a whole lot more. Echo is three devices in one. It's a voice-controlled Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker capable of playing music from Amazon music, a Spotify premium account or a smartphone, tablet or computer connected via Bluetooth. It's also a smart voice assistant called Alexa that's capable of answering queries, setting timers, doing calculations, telling you the weather or what's in your calendar and other bits you might expect from Siri, Cortana or Google Assistant.

The Amazon Echo is a great product, especially if you can picture yourself using it in any of the scenarios from the video. Check the latest pricing here: (US) http://amzn.to/1lBImC8 I also highly recommend using wemo switches with the Echo for lamps and other things, like in my case my christmas tree - http://amzn.to/1TGfgMm In this review, I did not go over every single feature with the Echo, but instead, I wanted to show the main uses that I think the majority of people would find helpful and interesting. Using it with Hue lights was just awesome.