Amazon has revamped its flagship hardware, updating design and adding new intelligence. Four new Echo devices have been updated with new Omnisense intelligence and the next-generation Alexa+, the latter also now in Ring cameras. The company also unveiled three thinner and lighter Kindle Scribe tablets, including the Colorsoft, the first with a color screen. The sleeker form factors prompted Bloomberg to suggest Amazon plans “to take on Apple in the AI era.” One plain-looking device that got a lot of attention was the $40 Fire TV Stick 4K Select that Amazon calls the fastest streaming dongle on the market.

The new product line, revealed at an invitation-only showcase in New York on the eve of the company’s fall Prime Big Deal Days sale (October 7-8), was presided over by Panos Panay, hired from Microsoft in 2023 to lead Amazon’s devices and services business.

Under Panay, Amazon “aims to build devices that people want to show off in their homes and use — at every price tag, with a focus on putting detail into every product,” Bloomberg reports. Ralf Groene, another Microsoft alum, came out of retirement this year to join Amazon as head of design. “The superpower of designing for cost is such a rare talent,” Panay tells Bloomberg.

Presented at the event: the next generation Echo devices, purpose-built for Alexa+ with premium audio, next-generation AI processing and Omnisense sensor fusion for more “proactive and personalized experiences.” “The all-new Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 are the most advanced Echo devices we’ve ever built,” notes Amazon.

The new Kindle lineup incorporates productivity features including AI-powered notebook search. Boasting an 11-inch screen, the Kindle Scribe is 40 percent faster at writing and page turns, is 0.21 inches thin and weighs less than a pound.

Amazon also unveiled new Fire TV devices, “including Fire TV 2-Series, 4-Series, Omni QLED TVs,” along with the streaming stick called the Fire TV 4K Select,” reports TechCrunch, writing that “these devices will also be the first to receive the Alexa+ upgrade, along with select TVs from Panasonic and Hisense.”

The new flagship Omni QLED Series is 60 percent brighter with nearly double the local dimming zones,” explains Amazon in the Fire TV lineup announcement. Omnisense lets these TVs “adjust to the brightness in the room and even turn on when you enter” and has separate volume control for dialogue, TechCrunch writes.

In the Echo Dot and Ring, Omnisense “help(s) Alexa understand what’s happening in the home, such as whether your front door is unlocked at night,” reports Wired, noting Alexa+ is “now rolling out in the U.S. ‘during an early access period’ and in waves over the coming months.”

Wired runs down each of the major new products, exploring details like the new AZ3 and AZ3 Pro AI chips that power Omnisense, and the Vega operating system that powers the Fire TV Stick 4K and Echo devices (but not the TVs, which continue with the Android-based Fire TV OS).