Amazon reveals battery-powered Echo smart speaker

Keypoints
  • Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker Edition is a new battery-powered Echo by Amazon
  • Price is about $70 USD
  • India market only
Review by Mike Carrall

In tech news today, Amazon once again is attracting headlines for (yet) another addition to its ever-expanding range of Alexa-enabled devices.

This time a new Echo device comes without a power cord. For the almost the first time (don’t forget the Tap that once was) you can take an Echo speaker on the go.

Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker Edition (4,900 rupees, $70 USD) features a 4800mAh battery good enough for 10 hours of music playback reports Engadget.

Like some of the new Echo speakers the Input has 360-degree sound, and sports a fabric/plastic design that we’ve come to expect from these increasingly ubiquitous smart home devices.

One catch, however.

The Echo Input is, at least for now, only available in India. Amazon told TechCrunch, that portability has been “one of the most requested features” in that market.

Time will tell if the portable Input makes its way Stateside anytime soon. It would seem that portability for travelers and people on vacation would seem like a desirable feature.

VIAEngadget
Mike Carrall is a tech executive by day in Silicon Valley who writes under a pseudonym. Mike's passions include extreme sports, testing audio gear, trying (not so successfully) to restore a vintage 70's McIntosh receiver and spending time with his seven year-old daughter.