New Delhi: For many, Amazon’s Echo devices act as the hub for all their smart devices. It’s the one device that can control everything else, eliminating the need to open separate apps whenever you need to control a light, air conditioner, or geyser. Enter the Amazon Echo Flex.
All things considered, building a smart home can be expensive. Each light will cost you about ₹1,000, while universal remotes and smart plugs can cost about ₹1,500. Security cameras can be even more expensive. So, you would be forgiven for not wanting to spend on an Echo speaker after all that.
This is where the Flex comes in. It’s not a good speaker, it’s not loud enough to be a timer, doesn’t have a visible clock and so on. The Flex is meant to simply control every other Alexa-enabled device you have in your home.
The Flex, for all intents and purposes, is a smart plug that has Alexa built inside. It fits in a regular electrical socket, has a couple of buttons to mute the microphones or have Alexa listen to you. Of course, it’s always listening for the wake word anyway, so you never really need to touch it.
As you’re losing a plug point because of the Flex, it also has a USB port on its underside. You can use this to charge your phone, or connect some accessories that are yet to come to India.
The only real problem with the Flex is that it’s not very loud. So, you won’t be able to hear the device when Alexa announces something or makes a mistake. It’s not a big problem as long as your commands are being properly acted on, but it can be annoying when you’re giving commands from a different room.
Also, at ₹2,999 it’s slightly difficult to argue for the Flex. The Echo Dot (3rd gen) costs just ₹500 more and is slightly more versatile, while also acting as a passable portable speaker.
So, the Echo Flex is meant for those who want an Alexa device to only handle other smart devices and fade into the background while doing so.
Source: Livemint
