Amazon announces a new Echo Studio
The Verge
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Story by Jay Peters • 22h
Amazon announces a new Echo Studio
Amazon revealed a new Echo Studio smart speaker at its fall 2025 hardware event on Tuesday. A new speaker wasn’t a total surprise, as Amazon’s event invite hinted strongly that there might be new Echo devices revealed at the show.
The Studio is the “most advanced and best-sounding Echo ever,” Amazon’s VP of Alexa and Echo, Daniel Rausch, said at Amazon’s launch event. It has three full-range drivers, a custom woofer, and is designed for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. Amazon has also moved the light ring around to the front. The speaker is also 40 percent smaller than the original model.
This new Studio is powered by Amazon’s AZ3 Pro chip*. The AZ3 line has improved conversation detection, and the Pro version adds support for “state-of-the-art language models and vision transformers.” And Amazon will let you connect up to five Studio or Echo Dot Max speakers with “compatible” Fire TV streaming sticks to create a surround sound system, a feature Amazon calls “Alexa Home Theater.”
Amazon says the new Echo Studio will cost $219.99. It is available for preorder today and will ship on October 29th. In the US, it will also come with early access to Alexa Plus, Amazon’s AI-powered upgrade to Alexa.
Amazon initially announced the Echo Studio in 2019. My former colleague Dan Seifert wrote in his review of the speaker that “the new Echo Studio is not only the best-sounding Echo speaker ever made, it is perhaps the best-sounding smart speaker I’ve tested, regardless of brand, manufacturer, or even price.” In 2022, Amazon improved the speaker’s sound and spatial audio processing technology with a software update and introduced a white model in addition to the already available black.
The introduction of this new Echo speaker follows Panos Panay taking over Amazon’s devices and services team in 2023 from Dave Limp. Panay previously served as Microsoft’s chief product officer.
This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.
*Copilot:
Amazon has not publicly disclosed the exact node size of the AZ3 Pro chip but based on its capabilities and Amazon’s historical silicon strategy, we can make a well-grounded estimate.
?? Likely Node Size: 7nm to 12nm, ArFi-based
Here’s why:
1. Functionality vs Cost Tradeoff
- AZ3 Pro powers Alexa+, vision transformers, and Omnisense ambient sensing—all requiring edge AI inference, not flagship compute.
- Amazon prioritizes low power, always-on responsiveness, and cost efficiency over bleeding-edge density.
2. Tooling and Foundry Clues
- Amazon’s prior AZ2 chip was likely built on a 12nm DUV (ArFi) node.
- AZ3 Pro adds transformer support and sensor fusion, suggesting a tighter node—possibly Samsung 8nm LPP or TSMC N7/N6, but not EUV-intensive.
- No signs of EUV-class packaging, die stacking, or high-density SRAM blocks typical of 5nm or below.
AZ3 Pro likely sits in the DUV ArFi sweet spot, balancing transistor density for transformer models with thermal headroom for passive cooling.
If you're modeling edge inference throughput per watt or mapping ambient AI silicon trends, AZ3 Pro is a case study in sub-10nm DUV optimization. Want to contrast its NPU architecture with Google’s Edge TPU or Apple’s ANE next?
PS
Home bit bonanza JUST started.
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