Amazon Echo Studio (2025) review: A smaller but more powerful smart speaker
Amazon Echo Studio (2025) review: A smaller but more powerful smart speaker
By John.Higgins | Published: 2025-10-29 14:00:00 | Source: The Verge
The majority of Amazon’s smart speakers lean more toward “smart” than “speaker,” with the exception of the Echo Studio. This device, which arrived in November 2019, was an imposing speaker with raw sound quality that offered Alexa functionality along with impressive sound for a $200 device. But that was nearly six years ago — an eternity in tech product years — and the studio was due for a redesign.
the Model 2025 from Eco Studiowhich costs $219.99, is one of four new Echo devices — along with the Echo Dot Max, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 — designed for Alexa Plus. Instead of the cylindrical design of its predecessor, it’s an Orbiter, a larger version of the new Dot Max with a flat side and a slanted front. may It’s like a big space station in a galaxy far, far away.
The flat circle is surrounded by the blue Alexa light and contains the volume up and down buttons surrounding the microphone mute button. When muted, the button glows red, but the full Alexa LED ring no longer lights up like the old Studio ring did, so it’s less visually intrusive.
The 3.5mm jack is gone from this version of the Studio, so the only way to listen to anything is through streaming from Amazon Music (Unlimited subscription required for Atmos), Spotify, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or SiriusXM. The Echo Studio has an acoustically transparent 3D knit fabric and is only available in Stealth Gray and Glacier White. If your heart is drawn to the stunning amethyst color, your only option is Dot Max.
$220
Goodness
- Room-filling and well-balanced sound
- Attractive design and smaller than the original studio
- Designed for Alexa Plus integration
- Five can be used together in home theater
The bad
- The bass doesn’t go as deep as competitors
- There is no 3.5 mm input
Internally, the new Echo devices use new custom processors. The new chips, especially the Pro version, are designed to work better with Amazon Plus than those found in previous devices. Alexa was quicker to respond to my queries, heard me better from across the room, and my conversations flowed more easily than before, from upcoming heat warnings to groan-inducing jokes and questions about movies. (My colleague Jennifer Pattison Toohey previously covered the new Alexa Plus smart home functionality and its AI.)
While the Studio is the larger version of Dot Max, it’s still 40 percent smaller than the original Studio, which is a welcome change. It is only 6 inches wide, making it easy to place on a shelf, bedroom dresser, or kitchen counter without looking and feeling oppressive. But lower volume also means fewer and smaller speakers. The original Studio had five drivers: a downward-facing 5.25-inch woofer, three 2-inch midrange drivers, and a 1-inch tweeter. The 2025 version uses a 3.75-inch high-resolution tweeter (higher deflection means the driver can move further for greater bass) and three 1.5-inch full-range drivers for a total of four speakers. Not only is the new studio smaller and has fewer speakers, it also has a 50-watt subwoofer, down from the first version’s 330 watts.
Don’t assume that smaller size means compromised sound. Although the new studio isn’t quite as loud as the original, it still delivers great sound for its size, and is an improvement in some ways. For comparative listening, I placed the original Studio, the 2025 Studio, and the second-generation HomePod on a dresser. To make sure one didn’t gain a placement advantage over the other (particularly for bass response, which is affected by the proximity of walls), I rotated the lineup, keeping them about a half-foot apart at all times. I used the same mix of the same tracks from Amazon Music Unlimited (for Studios) and Apple Music (for HomePod), and all tracks matched the level through the speakers as best as possible. The original studio is a little louder than the new studio, so I was constantly lowering the volume slider to match the other two speakers. It also only moves in 10 percent increments, while the 2025 Studio (and HomePod) have more precise volume control.
Don’t assume that smaller size means compromised sound.
The 2025 Echo Studio is the best-sounding speaker of the three. Where the original Studio’s bass response was a little wider and, frankly, a bit jumpy and unfocused, the new Studio’s bass sounds tighter and more precise. The bass notes of Billie Eilish’s “Bury a Friend” have a better release that gives the sound a little more punch. The HomePod can reproduce deeper frequencies better, but it’s not as punchy and balanced in the mix as the studio. The HomePod is also tuned more high, so the sound is more powerful. The high-end frequencies in the studio have a slightly harsh edge at higher volume levels, but I didn’t find the sound to be annoying, and it was even quite bright when loud.
What impressed me most about the sound of the 2025 Studio was how it handled the midrange. Elton John is fully present and front and center during the verses of “Rocket Man” and soars across the room as the song hits the chorus, backed by the background OhQ. And on Soundgarden’s “Spoonman,” where the midrange gets busy, Chris Cornell’s voice still cuts through the distorted guitars.
One of the advantages of the 2025 Echo Studio over the Dot Max is its support for spatial audio. When listening to the Dolby Atmos mix, the soundscape is similar to its predecessor. You can hear mixed elements, like a dentist etching punctuation marks in “Bury a Friend,” moving across the room. But it has the same problem as any speaker trying to reproduce spatial sound. To get the full effect, you’d have to sit directly in front of it, and even then that’s a shadow of what a multi-speaker spatial audio system can achieve. Smart speakers are designed like a studio while you’re moving around the room, not while you’re sitting down for an important listening session.
When paired with a compatible Fire TV device — Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd generation), Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd generation), and Fire TV Cube (3rd generation) — you’ll be able to use up to five Echo Studio smart speakers in your surround sound setup. That’s about $1,100 for a full five-speaker system, unless Amazon releases a bundle. It is comparable in price to new TCL Z100 Flex Connect Speakers or Hisense Saturn HTbut those don’t have the same integration with a smart home. Alexa Home Theater support isn’t available yet, so I wasn’t able to test the capability, but the single speaker’s Atmos performance could bode well. We will update when it is available.
The 2025 Echo Studio is a more attractive and fully capable smart speaker that sounds a little better than the original Studio. With a more powerful processor for Alexa Plus, the ability to link to your Fire TV system, and a lower price than the HomePod, the Echo Studio is a great successor to the Amazon family.
Photography by John Higgins/The Verge
(Tags for translation)Amazon
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