Amazon continues to bulk up its Echo range of devices in India, and the latest one is the Echo Input Portable, which gets a built-in battery for powerless support.
This according to Amazon is an India-first product, and has been designed after taking feedback from its consumers in the country.
This feedback, as claimed by the company is based on the need for a Echo device, that can be used on the move inside homes. Amazon says the Echo Input Portable comes with 360-degree audio and allows customers to access Alexa from anywhere in the room using the same far-field voice recognition as other Echo devices.
The device gets a price tag of Rs 4,999 and will be available from 18 December onwards.
This is the first Echo device from Amazon to get a built-in battery, making sure you don’t have to keep the speaker plugged in to a power chord all the time. For this, you get a 4,800mAh battery, that is claimed to 10 hours of music playback from a single charge.
Having said that, it’s interesting that people find it convenient to carry around the Echo, which somehow prompted Amazon to come up with a device that supports their use case. It also lets you control smart home devices that are supported via Alexa, the voice assistant running onboard the Echo Input Portable.
In terms of user security, the device is built with multiple layers of privacy controls, including a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphones. Users can also view, hear, and delete your voice recordings at Alexa Privacy Settings or in the Alexa app.
Google and Amazon are fighting head-to-head in the smart speaker segment in India, and this device shows that localising its features to suit the consumers is the right way to go.
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