You might have heard of the Echo Input

before. It was a device that looked like a fat

drinks coaster, which could be hooked up

to any speaker to add Alexa skills to it. That

makes this new Input Portable Smart

Speaker Edition almost a remake... except

for a few crucial differences.

With a 360° speaker built in, it looks a bit

like the offspring of a regular Echo and a

Dot, with the addition of an indicator on the

front to show how far off needing a charge

it is. That’s because this is Amazon’s first

battery-powered Echo since the poorly

received (and now discontinued) Tap,

so you can take Alexa wherever you

go, with enough juice to play music for

10 hours solid before it needs plugging

into the mains.

The fortunes of the Tap might explain why

the Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker

Edition is initially only going on sale in India,

where portability is top of the most-wanted

list for Echo features; but for 6000 rupees

(about £65) you can imagine they’ll fly off

the shelves, which will make an eventual

appearance on Amazon UK that little bit

more likely. Fingers crossed, eh?

As hot as... Vindaloo nasal spray

£tbc / amazon.in

THANKS FOR

YOUR INPUT

Amazon Echo Input

Portable Smart

Speaker Edition

HOT

FOUR

I do want
control of you
The Sound X uses Huawei’s
Xiaoyi voice assistant, but
that’s no use if you don’t speak
Chinese. It’ll also work with
the HiLink smart home
system and support
hi-res audio.

Bellow

doubt

The Echo Tap required, yes,

a tap before Alexa would

listen, which undermined

the whole voice-control

concept. The new Input

lets you summon her

with your voice.