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After just a year on the market, Amazon’s most powerful Echo has gotten a makeover.
Last month, Amazon unveiled the redesigned Echo Plus, a $150 smart speaker that also works as a smart-home hub. It has a whole new look and feel, and some updated insides, too.
The device is one of Amazon’s most expensive Echo products, and it’s only a year old. The first-generation model — which Amazon unveiled alongside the redesigned Echo last year — has since been replaced in Amazon’s product lineup by the new and improved Echo Plus.
So whether you’re considering an Echo Plus for the first time, or are considering replacing the one you already have, here’s how the new Echo Plus compares to the previous version.
The new Echo Plus has a soft, fabric cover on the outside, while the old version was made from a hard plastic.
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The new Echo Plus adopts the softer look of Amazon’s more current Echo devices with a new fabric cover on the outside. It comes in three colors: charcoal, heather gray, and sandstone.
The 2017 Echo Plus had the hard plastic casing of Amazon’s older Echo devices and came in slightly different colors: black and white, as well as gray, which is no longer available to buy through Amazon.
The new Echo Plus is also shorter and fatter than last year’s model.
The 2017 Amazon Echo Plus lineup on the left. The 2018 version is more similar in shape and size to the regular Echo, which you can see on the right.Matt Weinberger/Business Insider
Amazon redesigned the new Echo Plus to make it look more similar to the standard-sized Echo. Here are the dimensions:
2017 Echo Plus — 9.3 inches tall, 3.3 inches wide
2018 Echo Plus — 5.8 inches tall, 3.9 inches wide
This year’s Echo Plus has more manual controls on the top of the device than last year’s version.
Last year’s Echo Plus didn’t have physical volume control buttons on top — instead, it used a volume ring that you could twist left or right to turn the volume up or down.
With the new Echo Plus, Amazon moved the volume buttons to the top of the device, much like the standard Echo and Echo Dot.
The second-generation Echo Plus has better sound than the first-generation model.
This year, the Echo Plus got an upgrade sound-wise, too.
The new speaker has a 3-inch subwoofer and a 0.8-inch tweeter — last year’s model had a 2.5-inch woofer, and the same 0.8-inch tweeter. The larger woofer means this year’s speaker should supply stronger bass, and will also have lower distortion than last year’s model.
Another nice feature: You can use your voice to adjust the device’s equalizer settings so that you can fine-tune the bass and treble to your hearing and your surroundings.
