Great price if wanting to make a start on Alexa and Home Automation as this model has the built in Zigbee Hub. Assuming Amazon are starting to clear the previous gen stock but still a decent unit and decent price for it.
- Echo Plus is a simple way to start your smart home. It has a built-in ZigBee smart home hub, which allows for simple and direct setup of compatible ZigBee lights, locks and more from brands including Philips Hue and others. No additional hub is required.
- Echo Plus connects to Alexa, a cloud-based voice service, to play music, make calls, set timers and alarms, ask questions, check traffic and weather, and more. Just ask.
- Just ask for a song, artist or genre from Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and more. With multi-room music, you can play music on Echo devices in different rooms. Echo can play Audible audiobooks, radio stations, news briefings and read kindle ebooks. Services may require subscriptions or other fees; Bluetooth not supported for multi-room music.
- Call or message anyone hands-free who also has an Echo device or the Alexa App. Also, quickly connect to other Echo devices in your home using just your voice.
- Dolby processing speakers deliver crisp vocals and extended bass to fill the room with immersive 360 degree audio.
*With seven microphones, beam-forming technology and noise cancellation, Echo Plus hears you from any direction-even while music is playing. - Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new features and skills. Just ask Alexa to control compatible smart devices, request an Uber, find a recipe, and more.
JB Hi-Fi has the 2nd gen with bonus philips lightbulb for $129, any reason to prefer the 1st gen?