Amazon launches all-new Echo Dot, animal-themed Kids Edition

Echo Dot Kids Edition comes with a one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription, giving families access to thousands of hours of kid-friendly Audible books, interactive games and educational skills, the company announced during an event.

Echo Dot Kids Edition will be available for pre-order in the US from Thursday for $59.99 and will ship later this year.

In addition to new devices, the Amazon Devices & Services team also created a new Alexa feature that complements kids' reading routines, and helps them build fluency and foster a love for reading, particularly those who are just starting to read on their own.

With the "Reading Sidekick," feature, Alexa will take turns reading from a supported book with the child and listen for quality of reading, offering encouragement when the child is reading well and support when the child struggles.

"Reading Sidekick" works with hundreds of children's books and will be available in preview for Amazon Kids+ families in the coming months.

The company also introduced all-new Echo Dot and Echo Dot with clock.

The new sleek devices will come in three different colours: Charcoal, Glacier White and Twilight Blue.

Echo Dot packs in a powerful 1.6-inch, front-firing speaker, producing crisp vocals and balanced bass for full sound.

Echo Dot will be available for pre-order for $49.99 and will ship later this year.

The Echo Dot with clock option will cost $59.99.

The new Echo is powered by Amazon's first-generation AZ1 Neural Edge processor.

With AZ1, powerful inference engines can run quickly on the edge—starting with an all-neural speech recognition model that will process speech faster, making Alexa even more responsive.

The new Echo devices are made of materials like 100 per cent post-consumer recycled fabric and 100 per cent recycled die-cast aluminum.

The new devices will be among the first products to receive the Climate Pledge Friendly badge on Amazon.com.

The company said it will also roll out new energy features this year, including Low Power Mode for all new wall-powered Echo and Fire TV devices, which will make them even more energy efficient.

"We'll also roll out over-the-air updates to bring Low Power Mode to additional devices already in the install base," the company said.

Alexa will even suggest features that will help save energy, for example turning off the lights and adjusting the thermostat after 10 pm.