Amazon Echo and Echo Dot released in the UK

Echo and Dot available to order for £150 and £50 respectively.

Mark Walton – Oct 20, 2016 6:35 am | 14

Credit: Mark Walton

Amazon is bringing its wireless speaker/virtual assistant the Amazon Echo and its smaller, speaker-free cousin the Amazon Dot over to the UK on September 28, complete with region-specific services, features, and a new white finish. Both the Echo and Dot are available to pre-order now for £150 and £50 respectively. Amazon Prime members will receive a £50 discount if they pre-order the Echo within the next two days. Update: Today, October 20, the Dot starts shipping to UK customers priced at £50. Also, intriguingly, the £150 Echo has sold out, with more stock expected on October 26.

Amazon is also releasing the Echo and Dot in Germany, on October 26, but on a limited invite-only basis. The Echo costs €179, while the Dot costs €59. US folks haven’t been left out either, with the white version of the Echo and the Dot—at a lower $49 price no less—due for release soon. All regions will benefit from bulk buying discounts: buy five Dots and get one free, or, if you’re the mansion-owning type, buy 10 Dots and get two free.

For uninitiated, the Amazon Echo is both a wireless speaker and a virtual assistant called Alexa, which uses Amazon’s extensive cloud-based computing power to process voice commands. At its simplest, the Echo can be used to play music from services like Amazon Prime and Spotify by simply asking “Alexa” to play a specific track. Since its launch in the US in 2014, Alexa’s functionality has expanded dramatically, from the ability to control 13 things with your voice to over 3000 according to Amazon, allowing users to use the Echo to control everything from off-the-shelf smart light bulbs like Philips Hue through to homebrew DIY projects.

Rather than just bring the US version of the Echo over to the UK and Germany and call it a day, Amazon’s Cambridge R&D outfit has localised the device, incorporating country-specific idioms and services. For starters, Alexa now has a pleasing UK accent, and, if you do happen to ask her how to spell the word “colour,” she will do so with that all-important (and absolutely correct) “u” in place. Measures have been corrected for the UK too, so asking Alexa how many litres are in a pint will use the UK definition, rather than the smaller American abomination.

The Amazon Echo will comes in both white and black colours.

The Amazon Echo Dot in its new fetching white guise.

Services from the likes of Sky Sports, Uber, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, The Guardian, and Sky Scanner, are included in the UK version, while Germans can make use of the likes of Spiegel Online, Tor Alarm, and MyTaxi. In a demo, Amazon showed Alexa responding to a question about current headlines by playing a short audio clip from Sky News, while another question about train times used data from National Rail to have Alexa read out current delays to the service. In theory, Alexa will recognise sports idioms too, like recognising “Spurs” means Tottenham Hotspur.

Alexa will also dig into a database of Jamie Oliver recipes if you’re stuck for something to cook, or, if you’re feeling lazy, will let you order directly from delivery service Just Eat. Alexa will even recognise the setup to the parrot sketch from Monty Python and play it out with you—because if you’re British, you have to like Monty Python. The Echo gains a few new country-specific smart home services too, including British Gas’ Hive thermostat (as a Hive user myself, this is fantastic news given few other smart devices have integrated support), while German users can control Netamo and Tado.

More services are due in the future—including a partnership with BMW that will allow users to lock and unlock their cars remotely—but enterprising individuals can download a free SDK to create their own customised services for the Echo. Amazon showed a few YouTube clips of some user-created services, including an automated drinks mixer that appeared to pour a mean negroni on command.

If you like the idea of the Echo, but would rather use your own speakers, the £49 Dot is ideal. It has all the same beam-forming voice recognition tech as the Echo, but features a bluetooth connection and line-out jack that allows you to connect it the audio device of your choice. It will also extend the listening range of the Echo, which is particularly useful if you live in a large house.

As someone that’s been chasing the smart home dream for some time, I’m especially excited by the potential of the Amazon Echo. It might be an even better unifying solution than Logitech’s Harmony Elite remote, particularly as voice commands are much more natural and quicker than swiping through a touch screen. I’m going to work through the logistics and hopefully bring you a full run through of my setup working with the Echo soon.