📷Amazon Adds a 13MP Camera to Echo Studio for $250

Your smart speaker just got a camera, and a price bump

Amazon just bolted a camera onto its Echo Studio and charged you $30 for it. The new Echo Studio With Home Camera costs $250, and the audio hardware is basically the same as the standard model. If you're deciding whether to buy, the camera is the whole story. Alexa can recognize objects in front of the lens, the speaker can use the camera to see where you are and adjust volume, and you can check on a room remotely. Pair it with a Fire TV and you get video calls. The catch? You now have a camera in your living room, so the privacy controls matter more than the speaker specs. The numbers: both models share one 3.75-inch high-excursion woofer, three full-range drivers, four-microphone arrays, and the AZ3 Pro processor with an AI accelerator for Alexa+. Both support Dolby Atmos and identical dimensions. A dedicated button cuts power to the microphones and cameras, and an LED shows when streaming. Worth watching: whether Alexa+ actually uses that accelerator for useful on-device vision, or whether the camera is mostly a remote-check gimmick.