Amazon Echo – your AI powered personal assistant

As present day consumers, we demand the most aesthetically pleasing and best quality products that money can buy. Admittedly, we would like these products to exceed our expectations and provide us with an experience that we will never forget. The Amazon Echo, a product that entered the market in 2014, does just that.

The Amazon Echo, priced from ₹4,500 to ₹7,500, is a smart speaker that responds to voice commands using “Alexa,” which is an artificially intelligent personal assistant that assists the user in numerous ways. The Amazon Echo is available in several models that are trained to not only answer our questions, but also assist us in accessing the web, streaming music, and get this, command smart home devices too!

Amazon Echo can help you control the setting of their home appliances by simply instructing Alexa on what to do. Moreover, according to digitaltrends.com, the Amazon Echo is proving to aid students educationally through its beneficial features such as, but not limited to, learning a new language, practicing quizzes, spell-checks, and vocabulary. In addition to this, Alexa has also immensely benefited adults with their workout routines and learning different healthy recipes. Since Alexa allows you to connect to its Bluetooth system, us consumers are taking complete advantage of the product.

Once the speaker hears the word “Alexa,” the ring around the top of its head will light up in blue, indicating that Alexa is actively listening to your questions and awaiting your commands. If you would like to physically activate Alexa, you can use a different approach by simply tapping the button which contains a dot on it, located on the head of the product.

If you are listening to music and would like to disable your microphone due to immense commotion or disturbance around you, you can click the mute button on the Echo while Alexa continues playing the song. This way, the possibility of an interruption by Alexa is eliminated. In order to adjust its volume, you can simply rotate the top of the Amazon Echo based on their volume preference.

Additionally, the Amazon Echo, like all products, contains some cons that consumers should be aware of prior purchasing it. Firstly, as Alexa is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), it can ‘listen’ to your private conversations, hence proving to be an invasion of privacy. This may come as an advantage as well as in the past, there has been an instance where an individual was having severe medical difficulties, and Alexa, who was ‘not supposed to listen to the background sounds’, called a hospital in anticipation of getting the victim medical aid. He was rushed to the hospital and is currently in a healthy condition, thanks to Alexa. Another major aspect that people may find inefficient with the product is that it requires to be plugged-in to an outlet at all times in order to function. Just ensure you switch off the device when not it use; apart from this, there aren’t any major cons of the product.

Furthermore, the Amazon Echo is now available in around 42 countries worldwide. This is a huge transition as when the product was first introduced in the market, it was only supported in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Japan, and Germany. The Amazon Echo is also available in three different colours; black, white, and grey, nevertheless, should you prefer a different colour, you can customise your own device online and have it shipped to your residence.

I believe that purchasing this product is a “no-brainer,” as a result of the numerous benefits that it provides to its consumers of any age group. If I were you, I would be on my way right now to collect my Amazon Echo.

* Please note, this is in independent personal review by the contributor.

Contributor: Zahaan Sabuwala

About our Writing Program Student
Zahaan Sabuwala (15) is a Xth Grader studying at Oberoi International School in Mumbai. He’s fond of playing the guitar and is a national-level lawn tennis player. During his spare time, he loves spending time with pets!

References:

6 ways Alexa can help kids with their homework

Amazon Echo (2nd Gen) – Powered by Dolby – White

What can the Amazon Echo do?’: Everything you need to know about Amazon’s smart speakers

Researchers create Amazon Alexa skill to help older adults stay active